Gothamist: 56 Leonard Delivers Luxury, Vertigo

Ktetkowski

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 10:36:09 -0500

Looks like a win/lose situation for the birds. They'll have plenty of nooks to nest in, and the building will be covered in bird shit. And then it could also kill a lot of birds if they don't use the right kind of glass.

ides_of_march

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:21:32 -0500

Great place to live, if you're a goldfish.

Future Taliban

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 04:38:43 -0500

Ingenious. Keep the terrorists away by making it look like someone ALREADY crashed a plane into it.

Spiritof76

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 03:06:05 -0500

You're overreacting. Those aren't rooftops. They're balconies. Like you've never seen balconies in NYC? They're all over the place and they're not especially pigeon magnets or mosquito ponds. Give the architects some credit that they might actually know something about drainage. As for masonry, that's too expensive nowadays. Union stonemasons aren't cheap and stone costs a lot more than glass. Like I wrote, I'm not especially fond of the design, which reminds me of old ramshackle buildings in places like India or old Hong Kong, but a little bit of variety adds spice to NYC, as long as it's not outright lunacy like Gehry's designs. I bet the structural engineers in Gehry's firm curse his name every night. so what are the chances of one of these pieces of shit standing up to that earthquake we're supposedly due for? Pretty good, actually. NYC building codes do have earthquake specs nowadays. Modern high-rises have strong but flexible frames that can absorb S-waves. The glass would shatter, but the building would keep standing. Those nice, old low-rise brownstones and walk-ups people like would be much more liable to collapse on top of you because there's nothing holding those walls together except some weak mortar. Just ask the people at the seismology department up at Columbia.

jibbly

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 01:00:30 -0500

Oh the pigeons will love this building. Pigeon poop everywhere. Pigeons cooing all over the place at all hours of the night. Any irregularities on the surface of the roof tops and voila, instant mosquito breeding grounds in the puddles! All these glass-walled residential buildings remind me of the disposable culture we live in. Whatever happened to the gravity that proper brick and stone and masonry brought to architecture and the skyline?

cucarachita

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 23:24:34 -0500

Who exactly will have money to buy those places? Personally, I think it's neat, but I wouldn't want to live in it.

angry_pickle

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 22:57:38 -0500

A disaster waiting to happen.

Kingpin

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:08:03 -0500

Architecture is dead. In it's place are people with a box of crayons and no idea whatsoever about how to design a proper building. This thing is absolutely hideous. It's time to stop these disgusting crimes comitted under the guise of "pushing the envelope".

blablanyc

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 20:28:48 -0500

Yeah. I'm going to be staring at this thing from my office window. Thanks.

Wza

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 19:56:03 -0500

Shantytown 2050

Rfive

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 19:47:22 -0500

No one can afford it, but its a dope building. Most of the new NY architecture is for pussies, but this one is taking some chances like Tschumi Building on the LES. I'm sure most of the haters are out of towners...

MrCow

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 19:36:51 -0500

remember when the "empire state building" was nicknamed the "empty state building".....

slappy

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 19:36:01 -0500

Looks like a trailer park after a hurricane.

slappy

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 19:33:26 -0500

Uhh... no. NYC deserves better design than that. Maybe if they built it on the moon, it might be interesting.

NannyState

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 18:35:36 -0500

They always wait until the economic crash before rolling out the cool stuff. That said, Tribeca? Build it in the L.E.S. instead. That way if there's an earthquake, it could fall over on its side and voila! A new Tenement row!

Barbj8

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 18:03:02 -0500

It's an interesting design, but it looks the open spaces give it a very sparse and cold feel. After a hard day's work, who wants to come home and feel like they're living in a fishbowl?

Felix Hoenikker

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:46:12 -0500

Hideous.

Spiritof76

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:36:21 -0500

It's not my cup of tea, but still a lot better than any Gehry garbage.

kapusta

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:20:13 -0500

the "elected officials" are not the government. their just chumps and stooges for the real government: Banks and Insurance Companies who fund the Developers who serve the real citizens: The Rich. Rich People need and deserve $650 million luxury buildings. to quote Three Penny Opera: "one must live well to know what living is". the rest of us guilty until proven guilty criminal scum can go to hell in a boat.

smokedgouda

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 16:39:59 -0500

Timing: awful, Design: thumbs up.

smitty

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 16:31:07 -0500

Wayside School!

TKaisen

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 16:30:07 -0500

That is.... disgusting.

whitecastlerock

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 16:29:42 -0500

3.5 Million to 33 MIllion to live in this shit? The country is in the toilet but this needs to be built? How out of touch are developers? I hope it stands unoccupied with bird shit all over it

edEx

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 16:00:56 -0500

just in time for a devastating recession!

mrguy

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:52:43 -0500

looks like a terrible place to live for when you're trying to get that good jerk.

99centmenu

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:46:13 -0500

so what are the chances of one of these pieces of shit standing up to that earthquake we're supposedly due for?

ny2102

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:43:47 -0500

I like the mini Chicago bean.

spiritross

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:37:49 -0500

Yeah what is this weird architecture obsession with every new building looking like jenga or lego blocks doesn't anyone have any taste anymore?

Ph

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:32:26 -0500

JENGA~!

slyseekr

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:29:27 -0500

I can see what they were trying to achieve: stacking blocks on top of each other (like the New Museum?) to a point where eventually it would all like one cohesive unit. Except they failed and the end product ends up looking like an eyesore. Quite grotesque and such a shame since the firm designed the Bird's Nest in Beijing. Something tells me that Tribeca would welcome the design with open arms. And, so will the Paparazzi who will rent out the roofs of neighboring buildings so they can stalk celebrity residents!

SPenguin

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:24:07 -0500

Looks like Jenga to me.

matty

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:22:40 -0500

It's really pushing the frontiers of bad taste to all new heights!

JacqueMehoff

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:20:01 -0500

that's a lot of glass. do you think some office roughhousing could break it? like what happened on st. patrick's day between co-workers at the GM building. from the NYT, A software salesman who plunged to his death from the 13th floor of his Fifth Avenue office Wednesday night was pushed by a colleague during a rowdy evening of horseplay and crashed through a plate glass window, according to the police and the software company's chief executive.

suepart

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:19:35 -0500

someone lost at tetris building.

DanielJ

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:14:35 -0500

Ahh 56 Leonard. Home of the soon-to-be-famous Silver Turd!

sinisterteashop

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:11:57 -0500

Good thing it's not already built. It looks like a $650 million diving board for financial suicides.