The Villager unearths the first image we've seen of French architect Christian de Portzamparc's design for a "stacked box" residential building on the West 12th Street site of Dianne Von Furstenberg's former townhouses. (The scheme: keep the townhouses facing West 12th, then build a six-story prism of glass boxes behind.) The bigger story here is that the developer, Coalco NY, has asked to be exempted from far West Village zoning regulations to make up for the cost of hiring a celebrity architect for the project. (Satire gets harder around here every day, kids.)
That aside, the Portzamparc design is just one of several West Village development projects under fire from area preservationists. We've covered the Superior Ink site controversy; the latest word is that developers The Related Companies have offered a 12-story design for the site, which preservationists still deem too tall. Resolution on both the Superior Ink and Portzamparc projects may come later this week at a City Planning meeting.
· Two Sites Still in Question, but Rezoning is Moving Fast [The Villager]
· Developer Seeks to Ease Restrictions in Far West Village [NYSun]
· Gwathmey Gets Served on Superior Ink Plans [Curbed]
· Fighting to Save the Far West Village [GVSHP]
UPDATE: A Curbed reader emails, "Not to be a punk about it or anything, but I noticed an error in your item about Portzamparc's proposed residential building in the West Village. You called the scheme a 'six-story prism of glass boxes behind.' A prism is a regular, extruded geometric figure. I think the correct term would be 'steaming pile.'" (The Guttersniper ain't impressed either.)
UPDATE II: TripleMint appraised Portzamparc's 400 Park Avenue South tower awhile back.