01- Horizen Tower.
21 floor, 178-room hotel tower proposal. Glass pool overlooking 23rd street.
The 20-story tower on 23rd street designed by Carlos Zapata, is coming back to life. Initially planned as a hotel by Horizon Global, Abnau Enterprises acquired the lot 39-41 West 23rd for $18.5 million and plans to build the Zapata design as condominiums with ground floor retail.
The design respects the existing streetwall with a contextually scaled base, topped with an angled glass-clad tower reminiscent of Zapata’s Cooper Square Hotel.
02- Zapata’s Cooper Square Hotel, 2008.
Design was of the essence given the building’s location — Cooper Union and the New Museum occupy blocks on either side — and the more creative clientele the hotel hopes to attract. Shouldn’t be a problem, judging by Russell’s assessment: Architect Carlos Zapata has a “rare touch,” having created “sculptural drama with finesse” in a “billowing” building that makes “plenty of attention-seeking gestures” with its “distinct” and “thorough” design. Hot. [Bloomberg]
03- International Gem Tower
55 West 46th St – by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
BETWEEN 46TH AND 47TH STREETS, just off Sixth Avenue, there stands a big pile of dirt that will soon be Extell’s latest—pardon the pun—crown jewel: a mega-residential development in the diamond district, the aptly named Extell Diamond Tower.
Gary Barnett, the president of Extell, has been dutifully buying buildings for the site for more than a year and now has purchased one more at 41 West 46th Street for $5 million. The nondescript five-story building is only 7,000 square feet, and it used to be the home of an Indian restaurant (farewell, Rangole!).
04- 150 Greenwich Street – WTC Tower #4
Fumihiko Maki.
The shimmer of this is beautiful in the afternoon – like it’s clad in stainless steel.
The more glass goes up the less 80s it looks. Maki does ultra-modernism right. I think the contrast between the clear lobby glass and the reflective office glass will look great. Could end up decent after all.
