Two-Dozen List, Tropolism Editor's Edition 2008

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Two Dozen List, Tropolism Editor's Edition, 2008. Subject to change. Click Continue Reading for Full Annotated Edition.

1. 40 Mercer: Jean Nouvel
2. 40 Bond Herzog & DeMeuron
3. 100 11th Avenue: Jean Nouvel
4. 524 West 19th Street, Metal Shutter Houses: Shigeru Ban
5. 515-517 West 23rd Street, HL23: Neil Denari
6. 366 West 15th Street, The Porter House at : SHoP (aka That Stripey-Light Building)
7. 165 Charles St: Richard Meier (aka Meier3)
8. Perry Street South and North Towers: Richard Meier (aka Meier1 and Meier 2)
9. 109 Norfolk Street, Switch Building: nArchitects
10. 385 West 12th Street: FLAnk
11. 290 Mulberry Street: SHoP
12. 184 Kent Avenue: Arquitectonica (aka The Illinois Institute of Technology)
13. One Kenmare Square: Richard Gluckman (aka Gluckman Wave)
14. 48 Bond: Deborah Burke
15. 15 Central Park West: Robert A.M. Stern
16. One York: Enrique Norton
17. 497 Greenwich Street: Winka Dubbeldam (aka Winka Wave)
18. 33 Vestry Street, V33: Winka Dubbeldam
19. 330 Spring Street, Urban Glass House: Phillip Johnson
20. West 11th Street, Julian Schnabel Palazzo Chupi
21. 166 Perry Street: Asymptote
22. Lower East Side, Blue: Bernard Tschumi (aka TschumiBlu)
23. Astor Place, Sculpture for Living: Charles Gwathmey
24. Highline 519: Lindy Roy

1. 40 Mercer: Jean Nouvel
The building's curtain wall out-details Meier3 in beauty and complexity. The complexity in this case is in the service of giving the glass the correct scale for a Soho loft building, bringing the curtain wall life with color and prismatic glass, and lending a rhythm that is entirely consistent with cast iron building facades. The building is at once of our age, yet is perfectly knitted into the fabric of one of the most unique parts of New York City. For those looking to champion modern design in an historic district, this is the best example we can find.

2. 40 Bond Herzog & DeMeuron
This building is not universally loved. It has fierce critics in real estate brokers, potential tenants, and architectural critics. The apartments are not generic enough to appeal to everyone; they are expensive; the graffiti gates are weird; and Herzog & DeMeuron can do better. I agree with each of these criticisms. However the slumped glass facade is a brilliant, experimental solution perfectly suited to SoHo. The apartments are unique, and spacious, like livable art galleries, complete with a touch of inflexibility. Even if you consider this a miss in the H&DeM oeuvre, we would be lucky if all the buildings on this list had this level of attention.

3. 100 11th Avenue: Jean Nouvel
This building cements Jean Nouvel’s place at the top of this list. Continuing the exploration of spectacular curtainwalls as the crux of tower design in NYC, this building exploits the particular opportunity of its site in the way that 40 Mercer nailed the particulars of its site. In this case, the waterfront panorama is given a syncopated, variegated frame of tilting glass panels. The building will be a glittering landmark from inside the apartments, from the southern approach on the West Side Highway, and from New Jersey. Would be higher on the list if it was built.

4. 524 West 19th Street, Metal Shutter Houses: Shigeru Ban
Spot on the list is conditional given that it has not been built yet. Your throw pillows need to be weatherized for this one. The roll-up nature of the facade leaves a lot of room for things like birds, insects, weather, and the like to just come on in. Which is what makes it great. It takes the spectacular (if domestically safe) move of 40 Mercer’s sliding curtain wall and pushes it into very unsafe territory. Urban tower: meet nature. All of it.

5. 515-517 West 23rd Street, HL23: Neil Denari
This project falls at this place because it seems to combine the best features of the projects on this list: curtain wall experimentation, interesting form, great relationship to the street, and a new way of opening up the city. Denari takes full advantage of the uniqueness of the site by cantilevering over the High Line, creating not only a striking profile but an ingenious way of visually linking the street level to the High Line level.

6. 366 West 15th Street, The Porter House at : SHoP (aka That Stripey-Light Building)
The building is an icon for the Meatpacking District, stripey-lights hovering above us while we party in Milk Studios. That iconship would extend deeper into the West Village if the dumb Gansevoort Hotel wasn't in the way. The building is a bit subversive, in that it appears to be an object sitting on top of an existing building. So it helps us define our criteria: it's a freestanding object (conceptually, you understand), it's architect-branded, and it aspired to be really, really transformative. In this case, success!

7. 165 Charles St aka Meier3: Richard Meier
Richard Meier’s third little tower on the West Side Highway, completed in 2006, made rights moves in all the places that the first two towers were wrong. He put his foot down with the (new) developer and the cost, detailing, and materials are all case studies of how to do a great high-end luxury architect branded building in New York. It’s not the loudest building on this list. But the all-glassness (shared with the first two towers) has a level of refinement that aspires to a Miesien level of perfection: the transparencies and reflections threaten to disrupt domestic living.

8. Perry Street South and North Towers: Richard Meier (aka Meier1 and Meier 2)
The North Tower at Perry Street: I like the smaller one better, so it's higher on the list. Its floorplate appears to be even more useless. Useless the way the Farnsworth House is useless. If you can deal, Meier can deal. Deal? The South Tower at Perry Street: more useful floorplate. If you're going to drop $5m for a pad, a little element of architect-induced uselessness (the century's new bling, yo) is very apropos. But not too much.

9. 109 Norfolk Street, Switch Building: nArchitects
This project was one of the first to begin construction, and we’re still not sure if it is completed yet. It sits here because the project appears to be limited to an interesting facade. That's farther than most of us get.

10. 385 West 12th Street: FLAnk
Although we aren’t sure who they are, really, they seem to have a lot of buildings going up, (and apartment sales happening) so we’ll leave it to you to determine how celebutante they are. Their proposal for 385 West 12th Street is bold nonetheless: copper panels that are intended to patina the way copper does. Right in the heart of the West Village.

11. 290 Mulberry Street SHoP
This one is subject to temporary status on this list, because of the uncertainty surrounding just what the undulation is. It looks like it's made out of prefabricated brick panels. If it is, it will probably move up on this list. SHoP continues their exploration of perfectly reasonable developer materials doing really amazing new shapes by rethinking the rules a little bit.

12. 184 Kent Avenue: Arquitectonica (aka The Illinois Institute of Technology)
We’re not sure what gave them the inspiration to shed the garish South Beachitecture they used at the completely lame pomo Westin Hotel in Times Square, but we are happy they have begun to look at other forms of inspiration. In this case, they went straight to the heart of the lion: Mies' IIT, on top of a factory roof in Brooklyn. We think the results are lovely, and reminiscent of SHoP's Porter House, except with roof park.

13. One Kenmare Square: Richard Gluckman (aka Gluckman Wave)
This one could be higher on the list, but the wave is just a hair generic, and not sun/site specific (or did the fact checker miss a rendering?).

14. 48 Bond: Deborah Burke
This one is kinda snoozy at the street, but it has a well-detailed curtain wall, and contributes to 40 Bond’s greatness. It’s more like a background version of 100 11th Avenue. I’m certain I’m going to get an angry call any minute now for calling Deborah Burke a “background architect”.

15. 15 Central Park West: Robert A.M. Stern
I'm going to get flamed for including this one. First, because this building is a tad over-large to be on this list. Still it is Mr. Stern at his finest form, to coin a phrase: New York old money luxe created anew, if by "anew" we mean "built recently" and not "new looking". When the game is to make a good apartment building, he makes it really, really cozy good. Use familar cozy materials, use layouts that were totally amazing in 1926, take a stand for proportions and rooms that make all New York apartment dwellers drool, and make the developer figure out who to market it to pay for the increased cost of the building. Of course, after taking the gorgeous fantasy trip through 15 CPW's apartments, motor court, classic dining rooms, and grand lobby, we are left asking: why can't it be done without using the historical cues? It’s all rather dowdy. Still it deserves a place here because the overall strategy was a huge moneymaker, and the whole building is well-detailed. And olden-looking.

16. One York: Enrique Norton
This one isn’t complete, and may drop precipitously once it’s finished. But it looked okay when I saw it coming out of the Holland Tunnel recently.

17. 497 Greenwich Street: Winka Dubbeldam (aka Winka Wave)
Walked by this one every day during its construction. Panels of curved glass appeared to crack several times and had to be replaced during construction. Mies had the same problems with his curtain wall, too. The curved glass was simply gorgeous. Then they clipped on these annoying aluminum trim elements and covered it all up. Still the architect experimented with the curtain wall, so I put it a little above the average mark.

18. 33 Vestry Street, V33: Winka Dubbeldam
All around a tad boring, the way the everything-is-luxury times we live in makes generic luxury stuff boring. And the elevator next to the master suite on the 5th Floor? Ouch. There is way too much architect self-love going on with the dozen pithy quotes on the marketing website. Mixed effort.

19. 330 Spring Street, Urban Glass House: Phillip Johnson
I've probably mentioned somewhere that I worked on the interiors of this when it was in the hands of Rogers Marvel Architects, and we had something of a detente with Johnson's office. I did better Johnson plans than his office was churning out, and I used his own Glass House as a reference image, to boot. Annabelle Selldorf did the interiors, which made the most of what the shell could give her. But the building is low on the list because I am familiar with the developer's commitment to good architecture, the apartments are humdrum, and the weirdness of having a living architect for the inside and a dead architect for the outside.

20. West 11th Street, Julian Schnabel Palazzo Chupi
While not an architect, and not a modern building, this building deserves mention for being a bracing change of pace from both C-grade development and the tireless onslaught of Modernism, Glass Effects. However, it borders on a set piece, hobbled together in the way all set pieces are. Another example of this is the Cloisters: it’s a crazy expensive replica of something overseas. But Schnabel never blinks, and takes his architectural statement all the way to its logical end: the bank, and the priceless ire of the GVHPS.

21. 166 Perry Street: Asymptote
Exterior: kind of reflectivish and nice, but it’s no 100 11th Avenue. Interior, apartments: whatev. Interior, lobby: This Is Not The Carlos Miele Store. And guys, do not ever, ever, ever write your own copy ever, ever, ever again.

22. Lower East Side, Blue: Bernard Tschumi (aka TschumiBlu)
Alas not every building on this list is great. Some are junk. But at least they are all by celebrities! A generic apartment with so many windows there's no place to hang any art. And an annoying slanted wall. And cheap multi-blue glass curtain wall reminiscent of Arquitectonica’s lame pomo Westin Hotel in Times Square. We do not share the NY Time’s critic’s fascination with the clunky shape.

23. Astor Place, Sculpture for Living: Charles Gwathmey
Or, whatever my former editor liked to call it. I've written so much about this, a simple search should give you a rough picture of what I really, really think.

24. Highline 519: Lindy Roy
Kidnap this building, please. Watch for falling clip-on grilles, which if removed would render it...even less interesting. Now that it’s complete, we’re wondering why it ever, ever happened in the first place. Those grilles will look extra silly with Denari’s structural gymnastics happening next door.

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