NEW YORK | 432 Park Avenue (Drake Hotel dev.) | (1,396) FT / 432 M | 89 FLOORS

[babybackribs2314]

Originally Posted by RobertWalpole

Wait unti you guys hear the next morsel about the height.

SPILL THOSE BEANS!!!!

[aquablue]

Isn't anybody excited to see a Vinoly design? This is the guy who has the audacity to design the weird Fenchurch Street in London with the roof gardens right next to St. Pauls cathedral!! On the other hand, he also designed the boring Kimmel center in Philly

Let's hope though that this isn't a stack of boxes like the Domino plant!

[aquablue]

God, I'm looking foward to this Vinoly design. I hope it is something futuristic! Alas, this is NYC we're talking about, so I'd expect a set-back box.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by RobertWalpole

Wait unti you guys hear the next morsel about the height.

I've heard rumors, but all I can say is for everyone to be patient. We're still waiting for a final design.

A venture of CIM Group and Harry Macklowe has hired architect Rafael Viñoly to design a slender, soaring tower on Park Avenue...

A CIM spokesman confirmed that Mr. Viñoly had been hired. He also said that the developers haven't yet chosen a final design.

But it is very encouraging that they are showing models.


http://www.observer.com/2011/real-es...ake-hotel-site

Holy Viñoly! Macklowe Hires Architect for Drake Hotel Site

By Laura Kusisto
May 2, 2011

A few weeks ago, The Observer took a stroll around the Drake Hotel site and noticed an orange crane poised in the northwest corner. That was just the first in a series of signs that the developers are moving ahead on one of North America's most valuable development sites.

Insiders told The Observer a few weeks ago that Mr. Macklowe and his money-partner, the CIM Group, planned a 70-story residential development, with a three story retail component on the ground-floor, and possibly a hotel in between. The Wall Street Journal confirms those plans today and says the developers have hired architect Rafael Viñoly to design the tower.

The Uruguayan-born architect has designed a number of competent institutional buildings, including the Brooklyn Children's Museum, Bronx Housing Court and the odd police precinct. He also designed the Jazz at Lincoln Center building.

Mr. Viñoly is arguably a disappointing choice to design a soaring tower at the inflection point of one of the city's best retail, office and residential areas. But it's worth remembering that for all of the hubub about Mr. Macklowe's glass cube on Fifth or the Club Med of office towers, 510 Madison, neither were designed by world-renowned architects.

A couple of weeks ago, we wrote that Mr. Macklowe plans to make a comeback, with the 440 Park Avenue site as his stage. Apparently pretty thrilled to be back in the game, he's showing the model to guests in his office in the GM Building, according to The Journal. Ah, to be a fly on that wall.

[Obey]

Exciting.

[RobertWalpole]

The attached article from the May 4, 2011 NY Observer shows an old design from 2008. What is telling, however, is that it called for floors with a mere 5,000 sf. CIM wants to maximize the views for very high end apartments. Therefore, a 750,000 sf tower with 5,000 sf floor plates could end up being taller than the Empire State Building!

http://www.observer.com/2011/real-es...ybe-still-does

[aquablue]

Vilony is not a nice architect. He has some real ugly designs like that tower in London and that Seoul tower that looks like a joke.

[ArabianNights1]

not nice, architect, how come, they choose him

[SkyscrapersOfNewYork]

not a bad architect though Foster, Rodgers or Novel would have been nicer.

[WillPostPix]

nouvel, you mean? would have loved to have that going. he is probably far, far too busy just trying manage all of his projects at once within the malestrom of controversy related to tower verre.

[NYguy]

Sublevel a little smaller on the old version as well:

http://www.observer.com/2011/real-es...ybe-still-does

[RobertWalpole]

Something great will rise here!

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by RobertWalpole

Something great will rise here!

All eyes are on site...


This area of Midtown has 3 very similar type deveopments taking shape where for years there wasn't much going on (we got Bloomberg, but TWC is a little further away).
So it would be exciting even if only one of these developments got off the ground. But with Carnegie 57 already rising, rumblings at the Tower Verre site,
and plans rapidly taking shape here, we could be looking at all three developments being built sooner rather than later.

A look at the area now...




And where the new towers would squeeze in...

[RobertWalpole]

250 E57th, 225 W57th and 220 CPS also will be visible in that photo!

[aquablue]

Well, it appears to me that Vinoly can be a very audacious architect in terms of skyscraper design when one examines his past projects. I expect something unusual here that will stand out from the mass of modernist boxes in the vicinity. The guy is known for novelty, like those roof gardens on Fenchurch street, or the sci-fi look of that Seoul tower.

Also if Tower Verre does go up, i'm sure they want to match that supreme design in some way, perhaps even top it. Let's hope it's not just a simple box with no innovation. I'd be surprised if it were, give his inclination to design crazy looking scrapers.

If these 3 projects go up that you show above, midtown is going to be transformed and it needs something like this IMO to give it a modernization.

[C.Lan]

Not related to 440 Park, but to Macklowe:

Macklowe Set to Buy Park Avenue Building


By ELIOT BROWN

Harry Macklowe, the developer who was forced to give up much of his real-estate empire amid the economic downturn, has reached a deal to buy an Upper East Side rental building for about $250 million, according to people familiar with the matter.

The planned acquisition of the 19-story property at 737 Park Ave. is the latest chapter in the attempted rebound by Mr. Macklowe, who is buying the building with a financial partner. The partner's identity couldn't be determined. Other financing also will be needed to close the deal.

In the past year, Mr. Macklowe has reached a deal to buy a nearby rental building on Lexington Avenue and 72nd Street, and he purchased an in-default mortgage on a development site on First Avenue and 52nd Street with the intent of seizing the property through foreclosure, people familiar with the matter said.

He is also managing the development of a hotel and condo tower planned for the site of the former Drake Hotel on Park Avenue and 56th Street.

Mr. Macklowe put down a deposit to buy the 70-year-old building at 737 Park Avenue from descendants of New York developer Louis Katz, the people familiar with the matter said. The intent is to convert the building, which sits on the corner of 71st Street and Park Avenue, into condominiums.

The family retained Jones Lang LaSalle to sell the building and began marketing it in late winter. Mr. Macklowe was advised by Howard Michaels of the Carlton Group.

[Dac150]

Some promising developments, however there is still a lot of runway before this one gets off the ground. It’s funny to see Harry making his way back into the scene after such an embarrassing blow a few years back.

[RobertWalpole]

I believe that the 1,000 foot tower statement shortchanges this project!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...FTThirdStories

Will Park Avenue's Drake Hotel Site Get Its Own Glass Cube?
It looks like Harry Macklowe's comeback at the Drake Hotel site on Park Avenue might come in the form of a big glass cube similar to that perched atop the Apple Store nearby on Fifth Avenue. The Wall Street Journal reports that the CIM group, which bought Macklowe's debt after he defaulted on his loans in 1997 for $518 million, is planning to build 10,000 square feet of commercial space along with the Rafael Vinoly-designed residential or possible hotel tower at the Drake site. Macklowe's still involved with the project, and he recently showed off a plan involving a 1,000 foot tower at the site. If all the obstacles are overcome—they still don't own all the property on the site, financing is still an issue, and there are already plenty of hotels opening—we're looking forward to a five-story glass cube with a skyscraper jutting out behind it, according to the plan. The Macklowe train keeps chugging along.
· Park Avenue Project Takes Shine to Glass [WSJ]

[aquablue]

Why?

Glass cube sounds nice, hopefully the tower isn't a cube though.

[Dale]

I guess I hadn't realized this one was so iffy.