Urban Glass House: Half Full?

A trendy Manhattan neighborhood rejected a groundbreaking design and gets the leftovers instead.

1 minute read

November 30, 2005, 5:00 AM PST

By Chris Steins @planetizen


"Philip Johnson is gone, but not forgotten. A slick sales campaign by real estate marketing firm The Sunshine Group tells us that the Urban Glass House, a vestige of the final projects designed by the late, renowned architect, is rising as we speak in a fast-changing urban industrial outpost at the western edge of SoHo and just north of Tribeca...

...Interwoven into the mixed-up tale of Johnson’s legacy is the story of this morphing neighborhood. Vendome’s initial vision opened the doors for a suite of high rise residential projects that ultimately beat him at his own race to set the tone for the neighborhood’s future, and actually set the stage for the rezoning three years ago of the 19th-century industrial district for residential use."

Thanks to Peter Slatin

Tuesday, November 29, 2005 in The Slatin Report

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