1) OK, so here's the deal with 15 Union Square West (above). It's hard to tell from the rendering, but the shaded glass around the original structure?the 1870 Tiffany & Co. building?is wrapped around the cast iron arches that were revealed when the white brick facade was stripped away. Says the marketing broker: "We tried to encase the cast iron in glass as if it was a piece of art." [Big Deal/Josh Barbanel]
2) An interesting survey of what's up in Far Rockaway reveals that the rebounding Queens neighborhood?once the getaway of choice for the A-list in a pre-Hamptons era?is now suffering from overdevelopment and the subprime mortgage crisis. In fact, 50 out of the 180 homes for sale in the area are being sold by banks. Ouch. [Living In/C.J. Hughes]
3) There is a dearth of super-expensive apartments up for sale in Manhattan's trophy buildings, so the competition is heating up. The first two resales in 15 Central Park West are already in contract, including one sealed-bid auction after the owners were "besieged with offers" for their $12.5 million apartment. And an apartment in the Pierre was sold to a European buyer for $7,000-$8,000 per square foot. [Big Deal/Josh Barbanel]
4) This time around, professional shill Suzanne Slesin visits Modern 23 and One Jackson Square. This bit on the undulating 1JAX will either whet your appetite or make you cringe: "'The architect's vision was of ribbons in the wind,' said Chris Leavitt, a vice president for sales at the Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, which is handling the building. He added that amenities more common uptown, like valet parking, were signs of a brave new world in the West Village." [Window Shopping/Suzanne Slesin]
5) Non-shocker: the construction of the Second Avenue subway is totally screwing with local businesses. [The City/Jennifer Bleyer]
6) In 1999, a group of rappers popularized the term "bling bling" in a song of the same name, an aspirational bit of braggadocio in which the performers could celebrate their mostly imagined (at the time) wealth as a way of escaping their poverty-stricken New Orleans slum. In 2008, that same term is used by a grande dame of the Upper West Side to describe her penchant for bubble-gum pink and zebra-striped upholstery. And so, the jouney is complete. [Habitats/Fred A. Bernstein]
7) This week's hunters are looking for a sub-$500k co-op in the Upper West Side/Manhattan Valley/Bloomingdale region. Bloomingdale? Yep, Bloomingdale. It was news to us, too. [The Hunt/Joyce Cohen]
Loading comments...