Pritzker Prize-winning architect Jean Nouvel cleared a hurdle today in his effort to build a skyscraper taller than the Chrysler Building next to the Museum of Modern Art, as the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission today voted 7-0 to allow the tower to go forward, according to agency spokeswoman Lisi De Bourbon. Neighboring residents have strongly resisted the idea of a giant new hotel and residential tower going up mid-block on 53rd Street.  read more »

Poor lil' stem cells. They just couldn't hold up to all the pressure of being on display at MoMA's Design and the Elastic Mind exhibition. Victimless Leather, a small jacket made up of embryonic stem cells taken from mice, has hit the bucket. The artists, Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr, told the Art Newspaper that the work which was fed nutrients by tube, expanded too quickly and clogged its own incubation system just five weeks after the show opened. Mr.  read more »

A judge ruled that the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Foundation can continue to fight for ownership of two Picasso paintings. Julius Schoeps, a University of Potsdam professor, has claimed that his family should own the paintings since "Boy Leading a Horse" and "Le Moulin de la Galette" were sold during the Nazi reign in Germany by his relative, a German Jewish banker.  read more »

Like an unknown bar band playing on a weeknight, Pritzker Prize-winning architect Jean Nouvel seemed to leave little impression on much of his audience yesterday, speaking at a public hearing to win an approval for his planned 75-story tower by the Museum of Modern Art.

The room at the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission was packed with residents from around the planned mid-block tower on West 53rd Street who, by and large, were vehemently opposed to the scale of it. And while it is the commissioners who ultimately vote on the approval, the community concerns could count heavily some months down the road when another approval comes before the City Council.

“I wish to enrich this neighborhood, to open the sky to the street and also to create a kind of a signal,” Mr. Nouvel said. “You can look at the skyline of the city, and you can say, ‘The MoMA is here.’”  read more »

Jean Nouvel, the newly minted winner of architecture’s Pritzker Prize, will likely face some criticism of his planned 75-story apartment tower (rendering right) next to the Museum of Modern Art tomorrow afternoon, as the development proposal goes before the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission for a hearing.

Surrounding residents have criticized the tower for its out-of-scale height, and the local community board recommended against the development last month. Though in a twist uncommon to not-in-my-backyard battles, architectural enthusiasts, troubled by the community board vote, have tried to rally support for the tower, at least in cyberspace (we’ll see if they show up to the hearing tomorrow).

The Times did a profile of Mr. Nouvel yesterday and quoted his business partner as saying the French architect was focusing his energy on the MoMA tower.  read more »

Some West Side Manhattanites might not be too thrilled to hear that French architect Jean Nouvel has won the Pritzker Prize, architecture's highest honor. The award is to be announced today, according to The New York Times.

Mr. Nouvel, 62, has two buildings in New York City: 40 Mercer, a luxury condo building completed last year in Soho; and a proposed 75-story condo and hotel tower slated for 53 West 53rd Street, next-door to the Museum of Modern Art. On March 13, Community Board 5 voted 21-1 to deny the transfer of air rights from two landmarked buildings to the site for the tower.  read more »

There’s been a bit of movement on the MoMA tower front since I wrote about it in this week’s paper.

Last night, Manhattan’s full Community Board 5 voted overwhelmingly (21-1, according to the board’s office) to deny the transfer of air rights from two landmarked buildings to the site for Jean Nouvel’s planned 75-story midtown hotel/residential/Museum of Modern Art skyscraper (the community board’s vote is only advisory).  read more »

Do not attempt to see Design and the Elastic Mind exhibit on a Friday night. It may be your custom to take advantage of MoMA’s pay-what-you-can policy (thrifty!), or to celebrate the week’s end with a dose of high culture (classy!). But don’t do it. You’ll spend a slow, sweaty hour bumping up against every yokel with two nickels who has spent the last thirty minutes proclaiming the exhaustion of her feet. Pony up the money during the week. It's worth it to let your inner scientist take all the space-time she needs.<  read more »

Have you ever seen those house houses sitting atop a flatbed truck on the highway, looking all shiny and new (but also weirdly sad because they're not a "home" yet and there is a "wide load" sign attached to their back sides)?  read more »

Curators at the Museum of Modern Art had spent years searching for a set of vitrines by influential postwar German artist Joseph Beuys, and now they finally have them. The Museum of Modern Art’s committee on painting and sculpture approved a seminal set of vitrines by Beuys and two works by the 30-year-old Scottish painter Lucy McKenzie.  read more »