A respected architect and designer whose work is in the permanent collection of MoMA died yesterday, two weeks after he was beaten during a mugging. South African-born architect Gerald Abramovitz, 82, was best known for his minimalist cantilever desk lamp, which he made for Best & Lloyd, and which is featured in MoMA. "He was a very dynamic, creative, charming person. He had the exuberance of an 18-year-old, and he was still designing," his friend Gene Koretz told the WSJ. more ›

After firing famed architect Frank Gehry in an effort to cut costs, the developer of the controversial Atlantic Yards project is in talks with the man who designed the Freedom Tower. Architect David Childs told the Brooklyn Paper that Atlantic Yards builder Bruce Ratner asked him to give plans for the proposed basketball arena a "once over," and also discussed hiring him to construct one of the 16 skyscrapers that Ratner wants to build on the site. more ›

A judge ruled yesterday that embattled Brooklyn architect Robert Scarano Jr. can no longer file construction plans after he was caught "deliberately overbuilding" and making multiple false statements "so deceptive that they call to mind out-and-out fraud." The prolific builder—beloved by developers and reviled by community groups for manipulating zoning rules to construct taller and bulkier structures—will no longer be able submit documents to the Department of Buildings, "threatening, at least temporarily, his ability to work as an architect in the city," according to the Times. more ›

A woman in Cobble Hill called the cops last week when she saw a man trying to open the window of her Congress Street home. When police arrived and questioned the 32-year-old man sitting outside her home with a camera, he told them he was an architect. But when cops asked to see his "blueprints," they instead found snapshots of the woman in her underwear. The man was arrested for unlawful surveillance, criminal trespassing, and stalking. more ›

The color of the Guggenheim's facade has been discussed over and over again, but did you know that Frank Lloyd Wright designed it to be red? More specifically, "Exterior: Red-marble and long-slim pottery red bricks." more ›

An elderly German architect; his 35-year-old Greek roommate; and a 6-foot-5-inch, 350-pound Dean & DeLuca security guard were indicted yesterday on charges of kidnapping and robbing the agent for a Manhattan property owner. Prosecutors say that some time last year the brawny Kakhaber Gogoladze, a Georgian national in the U.S. illegally, approached the unidentified property agent and told him to get in a car. He was driven to the apartment shared by 70-year-old Ekkehart Schwarz and Vasileios Giamagas, who were $267,000 behind on the rent for a lounge space at 68 West Third Street (pictured), where they'd failed to open a nightclub. more ›

Yesterday, Daily News noted that former Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion Jr.—now the White House's director of urban policy—approved a big city project designed by an architect who had just finished a renovation project on Carrion's own home back in 2007. After initially not telling the News how much he paid for the project or responding to the paper's request for cancelled checks, now the News gets a response: "Carrion admitted he hadn't paid architect Hugo Subotovsky to design a porch and balcony for his City Island home." Carrion adds that the final bill will end up being $3,627.50 for Subotovsky's 51.5 hours of work (just $71/hour) and claimed no bill was paid because he's waiting for the "final survey" to be "filed and approved...as is [the architect's] practice for projects of this kind." Hmm, that's interesting—one would think an architect would get on that immediately to, you know, get paid. more ›

Architect Richard Meier told NY magazine, when asked about the real estate market in the next year or so, "I think there will be a lot of empty apartments." Meier's NYC designs include the Perry Street towers and a big building at Brooklyn's Grand Army Plaza, which he says is 60% sold, but "the next 40% will go slowly." Luckily, he pointed out, "I'm just the architect." Meier previously told the Observer, back in September (the day Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy), "I don't know how to deal with it or what it means. Certainly, it's going to have a serious effect on my work." more ›

Last week the NY Times' House & Garden section took a look at the mysteries planted by an architect in a ritzy Fifth Avenue apartment. This week, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety report that Paramount has purchased the rights to the article for a feature to be produced by J.J. Abrams. Writers Maya Forbes and Wally Wolodarsky have already been hired to adapt the piece into a film. more ›

Architect Robert Woo is hospitalized but in stable condition today after the construction trailer he was working in was crushed by a load of falling steel that a crane dropped. The crane was elevating the steel at the site of the new Goldman Sachs building at the World Trade Center. The accident occurred yesterday morning when a nylon sling snapped and seven tons of steel fell 25 stories. Woo was the only person injured in the incident at 200 Vesey St. He was pulled from the wrecked trailer dazed and bleeding from his mouth. more ›