West Village residents may need to get ready for an onslaught of British paparazzi: Rumor has it that Heather Mills, ex-wife of Beatle Paul McCartney, is buying an apartment at 173 Perry Street. The Richard Meier-designed building, which has had a number of famous buyers, including Calvin Klein and Nicole Kidman, is right on the West Side Highway, and the $5 million apartment faces the Hudson River. It has two bedrooms, two bathrooms and two......

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy is selling his 11,000 square-foot condo at 176 Perry St. for $40 million. It's the highest asking price ever for a downtown residence. Joy bought the triplex, located in one of three Richard Meier buildings in the West Village, five years ago. He paid $17.57 million for it, but never moved in. He also has a home in Aspen. We know it's not......

Yesterday's Landmarks Preservation Commission hearing over 980 Madison Ave. was a relatively staid affair. On the second floor of the Surrogate's Court building on Chambers Street, Lord Norman Foster told the 150-plus audience that 980 Madison Ave. was about one thing: regeneration. But Foster, wearing a bubblegum pink tie, took it one step further, characterizing the Upper East Side as a neighborhood with "a tradition of radicalism." He compared 980 Madison Ave.'s role, architecturally,......

Whoa! If you love to see giant buildings getting torn apart by wrecking balls, you should make your way up to the corner of 41st and 1st. A huge bite has been taken out of the old Con Ed Waterside Steam Plant. The smokestacks are still there-- but not for long! At this rate, the whole complex will be demolished in a couple of months. Back in October, the RealDeal reported that two towers......

Kate Wood, executive director, LANDMARK WEST!...

Take your stunning New York City nighttime pictures before midnight, as buildings will have to turn off the lights outside the 40th floor for the birds. Birds are flying south for the winter, and NYC Audobon officials says that hundreds of birds get injured or die because skyscraper's lights can confuse them. The NY Post points out that the Empire State Building's lights have caused numerous injuries over the years and now turns its lights......

Well, it's apparently many things, but for Gothamist, it's an opportunity to plunder the NY Times of 100 archive articles each month! For $49.95 a year, the potential to have 100 archived articles for free (they retail for $3.95) is the best money-making scheme we've heard of in a long time. Just think: Get your $395 worth of old articles for free and then sell them on the street! Even if you're selling them for......

Sundays in August are apparently Real Estate days at the New York Times. Not that we're complaining, since today actually has two pretty good stories (and neither in the real Real Estate section!). First up is a front page look at the slew of development that is about to commence on the far east side of Manhattan. The possible U.N. office tower over Robert Moses park has been heavily covered in the news (and is......

News that the Frank Gehry designed Disney Concert Hall was causing problematic glares for Los Angelenos, prompting Gehry's firm to say they were prepared to sandblast it, makes Gothamist wonder about our NYC architecture. The Disney Concert Hall glares glares have affected not only drivers but also condo owners who have views of the rather dazzling building. Now, Gehry's design for the Brooklyn Nets Arena in Brooklyn would incorporate some titanium, and the last thing......

Since there's nothing as bracingly refreshing as being reminded that we live in the greatest yet craziest city in the world: Studio apartments are now costing over $1 million in some parts of Manhattan. The New York Times devoted a Sunday Real Estate feature to the phenomenon, which is being led by the Richard Meier-designed condo apartments at 165 Charles Street (studios at $1.2-1.325 million, for around 700 square feet, with a 13 square foot......

The United Nations has chosen Pritzker Prize-winning Fumihiko Maki to design another building, which will be on First Avenue between 41st and 42nd Streets. According to the Times, "glassy, white and sheer but elegant" design is projected to cost $330 million and to be finished by 2008. Since the older Secretariat building (picture, left) needs to be renovated, Maki's building will house the General Assembly, the Secretariat and their staffs until the Secretariat is......

Gothamist headed down the Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Chinese-inspired restaurant, 66. The sleek Richard Meier-designed space was full of Wall Street types, beautiful people, and some people from L.A. The main dining area is separated from the kitchen by a beautiful aquarium (right), but there's a communal table that seems to have space at any time for walk-ins, which is what we were. The menu is split up into appetizers, dim sum, entrees, and noodles/rice -......

Greg Allen...

The "dream teams" of noted architects working together for prestigious projects is the subject of a Times architecture article. Though Daniel Libeskind, dream team of one, won the World Trade Center competition, apparently teamwork is the new black of the architecture world, as evinced by all the other teams who entered. The Times brings up a 2001 quote from design world "star," Rem Koolhaas: "If I pride myself on one thing, it is a talent......