Six years can bring more than a 300% return (or clear 200% of your initial investment in pure profit)! The NY Times reports that Tishman-Speyer sold 666 Fifth Avenue to the Kushner family for $1.8 billion. And reporter Charles Bagli points out Tishman-Speyer bought the property for $518 million. Many people that this will be the most expensive single building in the city, breaking Tishman-Speyer's then-record $1.72 billion purchase of the MetLife Building. Factoids: The per-square foot cost of the MetLife building is $604 while the per-square foot cost of 666 Fifth is $1,200. Hey, a Fifth Avenue address can command that. more ›

After last week's post about the Parks Commission trying to figure out what to do with the 1964 World's Expo Towers, a reader sent us some photographs of the towers and the old Tent of Tomorrow (above and below), taken by sneaking onto the grounds - anything for a photograph. Gothamist finds something really cool in how decrepit the towers and tent look, because they look like this strange thing from 40 years ago, but this past Saturday, the NY Times revealed that architect Philip Johnson who designed the towers "once said that he cringed every time he passed the crumbling pavilion on the way to the airport." The Times says architecture firm, Caples Jefferson, is working on the addition for the Queens Theatre in the Park that will supposedly recall the "va-voom architecture" of the Johnson structures and has conducted "obsessive" studies to make sure the old buildings don't topple. more ›

And a few months ago, the U.S.P.S. announced new stamps with the works of Isamu Noguchi. The wonderful Noguchi Museum in Queens, which has just reopened, also has a sculpture that Noguchi did of Bucky Fuller. These stamps are so elegant, Gothamist is motivated to to get started on our holiday cards. more ›

"The art of stone in a Japanese garden is that of placement. Its ideal does not deviate from that of nature... But I am also a sculptor of the West. I place my mark and do not hide." - Isamu Noguchi more ›

The New York Times implies that Daniel Liebeskind's personality will need to drive the project to achieve the emotional connection initially proposed. This recognizes that there has not been a forceful personality in the city's ultimate plan since loved-and-hated but undeniably powerful Robert Moses, whose vision shaped the city for better and worse in the 5-s and 60s. Robert Caro's book about Moses, Power Broker. Among his infamous decisions, shepherding Lincoln Center, legacy of traffic congestion, battling Japanese sculptor Isamu Noguchi over a playground in Central Park, and further driving the wedge between the minority working class and middle class. The question, then, is how will Daniel Liebeskind gain power - a continuation of his public relations effort to get him the WTC assignment that radiates into reaching every man and woman in the city? more ›