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December 6, 2010
The Eyesore of the Month
Kuntsler.com
Architectural Abortions from the USA and Around the World
(And Sometimes Other Miscellany Infecting the Landscape)
December 2010
Unsustainability foe James Howard Kunstler is apparently becoming a big fan of the Bruce Ratner oeuvre.
Presenting the new Frank Gehry-designed extravaganza, No. 8 Spruce Street (a.k.a. The Beekman) in lower Manhattan, 76 stories and more than a million square feet of luxury apartments – with a school and a hospital on the lower floors. "It's stupid how good it is!" the architect crowed to The New York Observer. Well, I agree with the first part of that sentence. He probably thinks it's a "green" building, too. What it actually is is a declension of floor plates that produce a whopping fee through sheer repetition, and yet another instantly obsolete tall building that will never be renovated, to clutter up the already skyscraper-plagued island at the center of New York City. The dents running up the building's exterior are a cute touch accomplished with Mr. Gehry's proprietary computer-aided-design (CAD) program. Gosh, does that make the building look special! What the building actually conveys most vividly is the despotic narcissism of celebtriy architecture.
My guess is that the developer, Bruce Ratner, will fall short of selling enough units in this monstrosity to avoid foreclosure. It's the economy, stupid!
Photo: Jonas Maciunas, Hartford, CT
Posted by eric at December 6, 2010 9:53 AM