mon 25/11/2024

theartsdesk in New York: Spruce Flats by Gehry | reviews, news & interviews

theartsdesk in New York: Spruce Flats by Gehry

theartsdesk in New York: Spruce Flats by Gehry

Real estate on the boldest, most beautiful, artistic scale - but no walk-in closet

Affordable housing by Gehry: 'The best skyscrapers wear skins that express that fact with the strength and subtlety of great art'

“Do you realise we’re talking about a rental apartment building? It’s unheard of,” says a friend. We’re standing on a street corner discussing the new Frank Gehry building in lower Manhattan. Most new apartment buildings here are concrete and glass, flat and dull, every apartment the same white box, not worth a conversation (I’ve lived in two). Gehry’s building is different. New-York-by-Gehry, as it’s grandiosely monikered, is at 8 Spruce Street near the Brooklyn Bridge, bordering the financial district. When you come out of the subway at City Hall, it shimmers above you. It’s big: 76 stories high, 870 feet tall. It contains 903 rental units and is the tallest residential tower in the western hemisphere.

“Do you realise we’re talking about a rental apartment building? It’s unheard of,” says a friend. We’re standing on a street corner discussing the new Frank Gehry building in lower Manhattan. Most new apartment buildings here are concrete and glass, flat and dull, every apartment the same white box, not worth a conversation (I’ve lived in two). Gehry’s building is different. New-York-by-Gehry, as it’s grandiosely monikered, is at 8 Spruce Street near the Brooklyn Bridge, bordering the financial district. When you come out of the subway at City Hall, it shimmers above you. It’s big: 76 stories high, 870 feet tall. It contains 903 rental units and is the tallest residential tower in the western hemisphere.

The first renters have just started to move in. I spot one, an incongruously ordinary-looking chap with a shopping bag, looking slightly dwarfed

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Comments

V. fascinating, but how about a few more pics? i'm still not that clear what they look like. a gallery would've been nice.

Great article - I really enjoyed the cooly skeptical tone and full info...good stuff.

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