A new dark glass monolith is set to rise in midtown in the next couple of years, directly across from MoMA at the former site of the NYPL's Donnell Library. Starwood Capital's CEO Barry Sternlicht is still trying to line up financing, but he'd like to open the crystal-branded Baccarat Hotel by 2014 according to The Wall Street Journal. The $403 million project will pair 115 hotel rooms with 65 luxury residences. Rooms charging $800 a night will cater to "high-end couples and business travelers who may be shopping on Fifth Avenue." There will also be 29,000 square feet of space to house a new library to replace the one that the condo-hotel tower supplanted, and the NYPL wants to open that space by 2015. Enrique Norten and Skidmore Owings and Merrill have both been linked to the project. Sternlicht told the Journal that he wants to marry Louis XV with the modern era.
· Starwood's Crystal Vision [WSJ]
· Donnell Library coverage [Curbed]
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