Just like our tipster yesterday indicated, Rem Koolhaas's 23 East 22nd Street is taking a big step out into the public spotlight today, and while the listings haven't hit the web just yet, the Times unveils a brand new rendering (top left) along with some juicy details. Our problem with the first rendering, revealed in the Financial Times three weeks ago (top right), was that it robbed us of the view of how the starchitect's 24-story condo building would interact with its 60-story brother building, One Madison Park. The new rendering, a shot from 23rd Street/Madison Square Park, gives us a better look at how the building will sidestep the glassy tower to get those prized park views. And, oh, those prices!
UPDATE: More renderings, from the Times print edition and Koolhaas' Office for Metropolitan Architecture, added above.
Mr. Koolhaas gloried in the challenge, designing the 18 units (from the $7 million studio to the $50 million penthouse) in a form that steps out from behind, in a peek-a-boo shape that recalls his 1978 book, “Delirious New York,” in which skyscrapers do a tango. Engineering the stepped cantilever called for compressing the floors in the midsection and expanding those above and below. Ceiling heights in floors 11 to 20 are only about 11 feet high, while a sixth-floor duplex has 21-foot ceilings and some penthouses have ceilings that soar to 30 feet. (The firm’s New York partner in charge, Shohei Shigematsu, said the middle floors spread horizontally across more square feet, making the volumes about the same.) The screening room seating is visible through the façade on 22nd Street, a cascading-stair tableau vivant that disappears when a curtain drops.Economic hardships be damned! We're liking what we're seeing, even if so much of the focus seems to be on the screening room, an amenity no one ever uses. But the Creative Artists Agency is a partner on the project, so we assume it will be used for shmancy press screenings and such.
· A Residential Tower by Rem Koolhaas Steps Out [NYT]
· 23 East 22nd Street [Official Site]
· Curbed's 23 East 22nd Street coverage [Curbed]
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