This week has been a debutante season of sorts, as two extremely high-profile new developments have made their official debut. On Tuesday night, at their new offices located in what remains of the West 27th Street clubland hell, FLAnk held an early-evening cocktail reception in honor of 385 West 12th Street, the copper-clad 12-unit beauty that may or may not destroy the West Village. The model on display helped give us a feel for the ground-floor private yards, which seem slightly less grim than those at 40 Bond. The tasty treats were whipped up by Anne Burrell, with bonus points to FLAnk for actually wrangling a Burrell appearance on the party floor.
The next morning, at Tom Colicchio's Craftsteak, a slightly more hipster crowd gathered to see the glory that is HL23. While the attendees wolfed down a very tasty breakfast spread, developer Alf Naman, architect Neil Denari and interior designer Thomas Juul-Hansen led us through a guided slideshow on why HL23 is as much a work of art as it is a very expensive condo building. To bolster that claim, a curator from the Museum of the City of New York was on hand to inform the crowd that there will be an exhibit on HL23 opening at the museum this summer. Yes, the Museum of the City of New York will be mounting what is basically an infomercial for a private condo building. If it's really about the "art of buildings," why not Palazzo Chupi, then? Or The Collected Works of Robert Scarano? Friends of the High Line boss Robert Hammond also spoke, casually letting slip that the opening of Phase 1 of the High Line may get pushed back to spring 2009, though he later explained to us that the plan is still to be open "by the end of the year." Click through the gallery to
· Development Du Jour: 385 West 12th Street [Curbed]
· HL23 Renderings, Now With More Shiny Metal Orbs [Curbed]
· 385 West 12th Street [Official Site]
· HL23 [Official Site]
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