Philippe Starck

Stephen Alesch and Robin Standefer, co-principals in the architecture and design firm Roman and Williams, have very definite opinions about the minimalist aesthetic that has prevailed in Manhattan for almost two decades.

“Take the Gehry building on the West Side,” said Mr. Alesch the other day, sitting at a table made from a reclaimed factory door in the firm’s offices on Lafayette Street, referring to the nine-story glass structure, home to Barry Diller’s InterActiveCorp, that seems to jut above the highway like a disembodied jumble of windows.  read more »

CVS Pharmacy is leasing a basement retail condominium in the Philippe Starck-designed condo on 23rd Street between First and Second avenues. Omnispective Management, the leaser, bought the condo for $22.2 million. Eastern Consolidatd represented both the buyer and the seller in the off-market transaction, and told The Observer of the deal.  read more »

Ettore Sottsass, the celebrated Italian designer, died at his home in Milan today. He was 90 years old.

Mr. Sottsass is primarily credited with founding the Memphis Group—an influential collective of Italian-based designers, who were primarily concerned with furniture and product—in 1980. Before disbanding in 1988, the work of Memphis scholars was largely characterized as the “New International Style.” According to a Guardian article from 2001, the group was also the primary influence behind the subsequent work of Philippe Starck and Ian Schrager.

A retrospective of Mr. Sottsass’ work opened last September in Trieste, Italy. Entitled “I Want to Know Why,” the exhibition features some 130 of the late designer’s work. Of the show, he is quoted as saying: “I would like the visitors to leave crying, that is with emotion.”

Eccentric designer Philippe Starck apparently doesn't think much of the Royalton Hotel's new look.

“I think if you are lucky enough to own an icon, you shouldn’t kill the icon," Mr. Starck said of the hotel lobby's recent redesign, during an interview with the New York Times.

Mr. Starck, of course, created the Royalton lobby's prior look for hotelier Ian Schrager in 1988, featuring "chair legs shaped like ram’s horns" and "a Champagne bar that conjured up the inside of a genie’s bottle," as the Times put it.

In its heyday, the Starck-designed lobby and restaurant 44 offered a fashionable hangout for media people and celebrities, and some credit the Starck-Schrager partnership at the Royalton with pioneering the whole boutique-hotel craze.

Restaurateur John McDonald, who spearheaded the recent lobby redesign alongside architects Roman & Williams, previously explained his rationale for the total lobby overhaul in an interview with The Observer.  read more »

Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens had the exterminator come over to his lower Manhattan apartment one recent morning; as he left the exterminator to do his dirty work killing bed bugs, Mr. Stephens passed a sign put up by his landlord touting the "luxury rentals" in the building.

That got him thinking:

...[T]hanks partly to Manhattan's circumscribed geography, partly to the stock market's record highs and partly to the verbal effusions of billionaire mayor Mike Bloomberg, who in 2003 described his city as a "high-end product" -- Gucci on a metropolitan scale -- there's very little in New York today that isn't a "luxury," in name if not in fact. In turn, this has created linguistic challenges (or opportunities) for real- estate developers trying to distinguish their offerings from the rest of the pack. Call it subprime language in an era of subprime mortgages.

Mr. Stephens goes on to cite examples of this verbal Olympics, particularly the marketing behind the new East 23rd Street condo designed Philippe Starck ("whoever that is"). The marketer behind that condo? Michael Shvo, whom Mr. Stephens should really have to lunch some day if he wants to understand how apartments went from apartments to luxury apartments.

“This is not a building opening—it’s just a party,” said luxury-property propagandist Michael Shvo.

He was standing along a black carpet runway with black velvet ropes and a big white backdrop bearing logos for the new Gramercy, a 21-story high-end apartment tower on East 23rd Street outfitted by eccentric French designer Philippe Starck.  read more »

• Ian Schrager's old friend Philippe Starck is designing a 207-unit condo on the un-hip stretch of East 23rd Street between First and Second Avenue. And the place will be called Gramercy--even though Starck's condo isn't quite so close to the famous park. [Real Deal]
• Thanks to the picture-perfect Brooklyn brownstones, the "burgeoning dining and nightlife scene," and the handsome celebrity couples, Boerum Hill is officially ritzy. Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope are totally jealous. [N.Y. Mag]
• Who's going to Morandi, the Waverly Inn's hot new neighborhood rival? Jay McInerney, Lorne Michaels, the artist John Alexander, Joe Bastianich, maybe Michael Kors, and "old-time, grayhaired, neighborhood lefty feminist Birkenstock babes." [House + Garden]
• After more than two sad decades in storage, Central Park's grandest ceiling returns. And the Bethesda Terrace Arcade [above] only cost a mere $7 million to renovate. [Gothamist] - Max Abelson
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AIG Takes Risk in Big Downtown Lease "If 2006 was a year that confirmed downtown's renewed relevance, then what a way to finish. In one of the largest deals of last year, the insurance giant AIG has signed a 250,000-square-foot lease at Financial Square at 32 Old Slip." Go to Commercial Breaks by John Koblin. East Village Cafe Pairs Books with Booze "Like countless locales around the city, the new Rapture Cafe & Books at 200 Avenue A had thrown a New Year's Eve party, complete with champers and other alcohol--despite the fact that Rapture doesn't have a liquor license. Yet." Go to Counter Espionage by Chris Shott. Shvo Goes Downtown in Latest Condo Buy "Star real-estate broker Michael Shvo already has quite a portfolio of apartments in Manhattan--and not just to sell. Though he already owns several, he's just bought himself a new apartment at 15 Broad Street, a new condo with the chic moniker 'Downtown by Philippe Starck.' (What's with the building names that sound like book-report titles?)" Go to Manhattan Transfers by Max Abelson. Developers Vie for Javits Hotel Subsidies "Some of the biggest real estate names, locally and nationally, are drawing up plans for a 70-story hotel across the street from the Javits Center in the West Side's emerging Hudson Yards district, contemplating such revenue enhancers as luxury condos and retail boutiques to make the building work for them. They're also trying to figure out how much public subsidy they can get away with asking for." Go to story by Matthew Schuerman. Take a Look Back at Manhattan Real Estate in '07 "The Manhattan real-estate market can be as predictable as the changing of the years. Historical trends grip the various markets--hotel, housing, office, investment sales--and hold tight year in and year out, with little variation. So we're going to go way out on a limb, this first week of January, and fast-forward 12 months to gaze back at the 2007 Manhattan real-estate market." Go to The Lab by Tom Acitelli. Sign up for The Observer's weekly real estate news email blast.

• First comes Tiffany & Co. on Wall Street, up next is Philippe Starck's Hermès ("a purveyor of leather goods"), and before you know it we'll all be enjoying downtown's "renaissance." (The New York Times)
• Maybe the good times have already spread citywide? This past year retail vacancies dropped to .4% in the Penn Plaza/Garment District, to 1.5% in Chelsea, and to a (projected) 5.5% in Harlem. This means, of course, that the price of city retail space will jump to nearly $110 per foot. (Crain's)
• Yet, luckily, the good vibes haven't spread to the Hamptons: indeed, poor little monoliths like Bridgehampton's "Three Ponds" are finding themselves unsold. The culprit here might be the "noise and congestion from the Mercedes-Benz polo matches"--or is it the $75m asking price? (New York Magazine)
• Things aren't going so well at The Times, but at least the company's shimmering real estate investment looks like it's paying off. The value of Renzo Piano's new tower is "so hot," in fact, that "About.com staffers will be staying in their less expensive downtown location." (NY Post)
• Straight from Oxford Circus, the British fashion giant Topshop will be opening a New York flagship as soon as next spring. This mecca of "disposable chic" is looking for 60 to 90,000 square feet, preferably somewhere "popular." It'll cost them--though fortunately the store usually rakes in $2,000 per square foot. (The New York Times)
• Back in reality, hundreds of New Yorkers gathered at a Monday hearing to protest the Rent Guidelines Board's proposal for a 3 to 8.5% price increase for rent-stabilized apartments. Tomorrow, head to Cooper Union's Great Hall for Manhattan's very own get-together, and call (212) 385-2934 by 1 today if you wish to speak. (NY Daily News)
- Max Abelson
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