Results tagged “chryslerbuilding”

An Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund has acquired the Chrysler Building from a fund managed by Prudential Financial Inc. for an untold sum. It was learned last month that the Abu Dhabi group was considering buying a majority stake in the 1930 skyscraper for $800 million; Bloomberg news is now reporting that the deal is done. Middle Eastern investors have spent $1.8 billion this year buying commercial property in the U.S., more than other international buyers. “We're sending our money their way to purchase oil, and that money is coming back and buying our assets,” said Dan Fasulo, market analysis director at Real Capital.

The NY Post is reporting that the Abu Dhabi Investment Council "is negotiating an $800 million deal for a 75 percent stake" of the Chrsyler Building. Which would mean the entire Art Deco skyscraper, designed by William Van Alen (who was never paid!), is valued at over $1 billion.

New York’s Best of New York lifestyle catalog is out, and among the rightful winners, like Best Old School Lobby: The Chrysler Building and Best Dive Bar: Mars Bar, there are some curious ‘bests’ to ponder.

Queens Council Member Peter Vallone Jr. has introduced a bill that would have Evel Knievel rolling in his grave. If it becomes law, stunt men are going to have a tough time working on their craft in New York, as it would outlaw climbing and jumping off any structure taller than 25 feet; daredevils could get fined and spend up to a year in jail. Alain Robert is not going to be happy about this (video).

The Chrysler Building. The Seagram Building. The Apple Store Soho? The Center for Architecture's executive director Rick Bell made a list of 10 great buildings to see in New York City (presumably for tourists) and spoke to the AP about it. The list spans two boroughs, a classic skyscraper, a beloved transportation hub, and retail stores, and some landmarks are deliberately left off (like the Empire State Building which everyone knows about):
• Conde Nast Building, for its "environmentally correct" design by Fox & Fowle.
• Brooklyn Museum, for the modern entry pavilion and plaza, designed by James Polshek, against its Beaux Arts facade; the AP writes the addition makes makes the museum "inviting and accessible, a suitable centerpiece for Brooklyn's burgeoning hipster art scene."
• Prada New York in Soho, designed by Rem Koolhaas, for the way it "displays the merchandise, it doesn't sell it."

Gothamist finally got to try Sakae Sushi, the new kaiten – or conveyor belt sushi restaurant – the other night. We were quite pleased to find the Singapore-based chain’s first New York City location actually open; when we stopped by last week it was temporarily closed. Given that it’s Fashion Week it was vaguely appropriate to see the plates parading down the runway in the sleek, hypermodern space. Some might dis the pastel-colored plastic plates – beige, blue, green, pink and red – as unfashionable, but there’s a reason behind the candy-colored madness: tabulating the bill. Just like in an old-school dim sum house, the waitress counts up the number of dishes at the meal’s end.

When it comes to sushi our tastes skew authentic. Mackerel. Amberjack. Occasionally a tuna and natto hand roll, not Christmas or Dragon rolls. Nevertheless, Gothamist remains a sucker for a gimmick. So when Sakae Sushi, a Singapore-based kaiten – or conveyor belt sushi restaurant – recently opened its first New York City location we couldn’t wait to tear open our disposable chopsticks and begin grabbing tasty morsels as they paraded down the runway. Midtown Lunch’s sneak peek and a perusal of Sakae’s 30-page menu, with everything from typical nigiri-zushi to oddities like corn salad sushi, as well as ramen and yakitori added to the intrigue.

Padre Figlio: In Italian, the name means father and son, so it’s no surprise that this new Italian steakhouse is run by Mario and Antonio Cerra, the father and son team behind Da Antonio. After ten years, they’ve sold that establishment and are joining forces again to focus on high-end Italian meats, such as rib eye and a porterhouse of Piemontese beef for two.

The Sklar Brothers spent years living in New York, working their way through the alternative comedy scene, becoming in demand performers, and eventually getting their own MTV show, Apt 2F, and later a Comedy Central Special. Then, once they had moved to LA and gotten comfortable, they were sent back into New York to film their show Cheap Seats for ESPN Classics. It seems like the Sklars just can't stay away from the city because...

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a double shooting/possible homicide on Greene St. in Brooklyn, a shooting at Wyckoff Ave. and Starr St. in Brooklyn, and another shooting at East 51st St. and Church Ave. in Brooklyn. An appreciation of Jewish Delis in New York City. To avoid the widespread use of pesticides on its acres of grounds, real estate firm Tishman Speyer released 720,000 ladybugs around Stuy-Town and Peter Cooper Village. The ladybugs will...

More updates below, but here's a summary so far (8:20PM): A steam explosion occurred on East 41st and Lexington Avenue (41st between Lex and Third) just before 6PM - right during the evening rush hour. The NYPD does not think it was a terrorist attack. It appears that there is a hole about 25' in diameter with a red tow truck in the center. One person has died (possibly from cardiac arrest) and there are at least 15 people injured. It is a six-alarm situation for the FDNY, which includes 24 engines and 13 ladders.

Yesterday, it was announced Tishman-Speyer, the real estate firm that bought Stuyvesant Town for $5.4 billion, along with Lehman Brothers would buy real estate investment trust Archstone Smith in a $22.2 billion deal; the Observer calls it the "largest public-to-private acquisition ever among apartment REIT’s." Archstone Smith has over over 85,000 rentals nationally and almost 3,800 in NYC, which would given Tishman-Speyer over 15,000 apartments for its portfolio.

10. Vietnam Veterans Memorial - Maya Lin with Cooper-Lecky PartnershipNew Yorkology has a list of the NYC structures in the top 150, and looking at what both the public and architects (they made some pre-selects), the rankings are all over the place. Sure, the Brooklyn Bridge is #20 and the Woolworth Building is #44. But the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue ranks #53, higher than the Flatiron Building (#72). Heck, even the new Hearst Tower ranks ahead of the Flatiron!

+ Delays are plaguing Philip Johnson’s Urban Glass House.

If you're in need of a fairly inexpensive holiday gift - or are a sucker for any cute NYC tchotchke - then look no than the MUJI New York City in a Bag at the Museum of Modern Art Store.

As irresistible to adults as it is to children, MUJI's New York in a Bag comes with nine wooden city structures and six wooden cars. Included are New York City icons such as the Chrysler Building, the Statue of Liberty, the Guggenheim Museum, and MoMA's original 1939 building . The wood is from sustainable forests.

There is a competition to name the new seven wonders of the world, and the Statue of Liberty is the only NYC mention out of the 21 finalists. Run by New 7 Wonders and with experts like Cesar Pelli and Zaha Hadid on its panel, the finalists are quite a bunch: Stonehenge, the Pyramids of Giza, the Sydney Opera House, Easter Island statues, the Kremlin, the Eiffel Tower, and the Colosseum are just some. Which makes us wonder if the Statue of Liberty will make it to the final seven.

- From Mean Girls

If every building in New York City was to somehow be wiped off the face of the earth, and I had the power to pick only one to remain standing, I would choose Tom’s Diner in a heartbeat. Though I think of the Chrysler Building like a part of my own body, I would have to let it go. I get chills every time I catch a glimpse of Yankee Stadium, but I would bid it a premature farewell. Tom’s Diner, on Washington Avenue and Sterling Place in Prospect Heights, has taken hold of my soul like no other place in New York.

- A suspended Bronx police officer was arrested again for allegedly raping a woman who he'd offered a lift.

Pity the poor editors at Conde Nast, as well as the high-powered lawyers at Skadden Arps. The east-facing views from their offices at 4 Times Square are quickly being blocked by a new Bank of America building going up down the block. Only the last six stories of the building will be spared. While we're trying to sympathize, it's hard not to feel a little schadenfreude when reading quotes like this one in the New York Times:

there's an exit to Murray Street past Chambers!"). But we found a recent discussion about car clutches interesting:

Question: I have a 1988 Honda Civic with a five-speed manual transmission. The mileage on the car is 75,000 -- all short trips in New York City. A mechanic told me that I need to replace the clutch. I have my doubts, so how can I tell if I do need a new clutch? - William

Continue reading "Clutch Time for City Cars"

Someone linked to this picture above on Gothamist Contribute-- it seems to depict a really big tidal wave hitting New York City. However, we can't be quite sure-- if you look at the big version, it sort of looks like the Chrysler Building is in the background at the upper left-- but we don't recgonize any of the other buildings. To further complexify things, the original page is in Russian-- can anyone read the title and tell us if this is supposed to be NYC or not?

Curbed has some nice pictures from the opening of the new park down on Water Street overlooking the FDR. The name of the neon structure is the "Beacon of Progress"-- but will probably be better known as "What the hell is that?" by all the tourists walking on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade at night. Trolopism has a nice shot of the view out towards Brooklyn-- looks like the park is going to be a nice quiet place to take in the sunset. Bonus link: a set of renderings that show the original plan for the park-- apparently there was some cost-cutting and a few of the niceties were eliminated during the building phase.

We might have mentioned this before, but in case you missed it, here goes. Today, rain or shine (or, uh, rain), is the beginning of Open House New York, the one weekend of the year when hundreds of generally inaccessible places around New York get opened up to the public. It's really pretty awesome and worth your taking advantage of.

any lights on in any of the buildings), it's not a big worry.

The Skyscraper Museum asked one hundred architects, brokers, builders, critics, developers, engineers, historians, lawyers, officials, owners, planners and scholars what their ten favorite NYC skyscrapers were from a list of buildings (which did not include the World Trade Center). The NY Times looks at the results, which are a great shorthand of the must-sees in the city. The top ten are Chrysler Building (with the most votes), Seagram, Flatiron, Woolworth, Empire State, Lever House, RCA, McGraw-Hill, U.N. Secretariat, and CBS. Reporter David Dunlap notes the Chrysler Building's "ebullient eccentricity" as being the best at "expressing New York's cloud-piercing ambitions" and calls the runner-up, the Seagram Building, the Chrysler's "anthithesis" as the Seagram is "cool, tranquil, rectangular and restrained."

When Gothamist saw this photograph by Scott Jones for the NY Times, we immediately wondered if we could have Dr. Charles Weiss as our dentist ("Will our health plan cover it?"). We imagine that many other New Yorkers (and non) probably thought the same time, flooding various dental plans' hotlines and websites. Imagine: Dazzling skyline while your teeth get dazzled. The NY Times Home section is all about the Chrysler Building to honor its 75th birthday, which has given us enough to daydream about for the rest of the Memorial Day Weekend; all the articles give us a sense of how beloved the building is in many ways, and the audio slideshow with Alexandros Washburn's talking about his experience of working there is awesome (from the subway to the stairs to the lobby, and so on).

In honor of the Chrysler Building's 75th birthday this spring, the NY Times ran this awesome Op-Art piece by James Stevenson that explained some of the building's beginnings. Stevenson did this an illustration of Brooklyn-born, Pratt-educated Chrysler Building architect William Van Alen wearing a Chrysler Building costume, noting that he looked "uncomfortable and forlorn," "more Pagliacci than skyscraper," and Gothamist decided to hunt down the actual photograph. And, in fact, Van Alen, who was never paid by William Chrysler for the design and who ended up dying without another major commission, does look out of sorts. But it is the most awesome costume we've ever seen. And it's weird to think that the Chrsyler Building was derided by critics when completed, since it's probably a favorite of many New Yorkers.

Since last week, Brian Berg has been building a replica New York City skyline at ABC's Good Morning America set using 178,000 playing cards, no glue and no tape. Gothamist went to check out the installation last night in Times Square (yeah, we're not happy about going to Times Square). Thankfully, no Naked Cowboy in sight. While it's difficult to make out the buildings from the street, we could see that there was a replica Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, and he was working on Yankee Stadium, which he started yesterday.