From the Hearst Tower, to the World Trade Center Site, to whatever the hell he's going to propose for a hotel on Lexington Avenue, it's increasingly clear that this is Sir Norman Foster's city; the rest of us are just worthless punters.
Witness Foster's latest starchitecture, a 30-story building set to rise out of the Parke-Bernet Gallery building at 980 Madison (between East 77th and 78th). Rumored since the spring, the building comes out to play today in NYT architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff's assessment of the project (above). He loves the design ("you cannot help but marvel at the project’s sophistication as a work of architecture"—second person, no less!), but worries height issues will force a reckoning. To which we say: it's the freaking Upper East Side. Do they even have community activists up there?
· Injecting a Bold Shot of the New on Upper East Side [NYTimes]
· New Tower by Sir Norman Coming to Madison Ave. [CityRealty]