NEW YORK | 220 Central Park So.| 952 FT | 70 FLOORS

[hunser]

Vornado Secures $600M Loan For Central Park South Project

By Kaitlin
Law360, New York (February 03, 2014, 11:23 AM ET) --

Vornado Realty Trust has secured $600 million in financing for the development site on 57th Street in Manhattan that it acquired in October after a long-running feud with rival Extell Development Co., Vornado announced Monday.

The real estate investment trust completed the $600 million loan secured by the 220 Central Park South assemblage with interest at Libor plus 2.75 percent, according to Monday's statement. The loan matures in January 2016, and comes with three one-year extension options.

A spokesperson for Vornado declined to provide further comment....

[FMIII]

Originally Posted by hunser

Vornado Secures $600M Loan For Central Park South Project
By Kaitlin
Law360, New York (February 03, 2014, 11:23 AM ET) --

It is a fantastic news !

Do you know how long it will take before they start to build it?

[ILNY]

[FMIII]

Originally Posted by ILNY

Well I guess we will have to wait a little bit

[NYguy]

Not a long wait. There will be more activity here, same as the other sites.

[FMIII]

Originally Posted by NYguy

Not a long wait. There will be more activity here, same as the other sites.

I have been using this site for more than six years (joined a little bit later) but I have never seen so many projects in NYC at the same time. There are so many things going on that it becomes hard to follow what is what and where is where. At this path there is a serious risk of headaches.

Well, I guess this is what happens when you get more than expected.

[hunser]

Originally Posted by FMIII

I have been using this site for more than six years (joined a little bit later) but I have never seen so many projects in NYC at the same time. There are so many things going on that it becomes hard to follow what is what and where is where. At this path there is a serious risk of headaches.

Well, I guess this is what happens when you get more than expected.

Yes, we are witnessing the biggest skyscraper boom in the history of New York. Even bigger than the 1920s/30s. The transformation is unstoppable, so you better hop on the skyscraper train or you'll be missing out on lot of things.

[DCReid]

Originally Posted by FMIII

That is NY as its best. Stern does know how to take inspiration from the past to build tomorrow's icons. This architect deserves a medal!

Well it certainly looks beautiful... by itself. Unfortunately, it will sharing close proximity with the ungainly Norstrom tower.

[FMIII]

Originally Posted by DCReid

Well it certainly looks beautiful... by itself. Unfortunately, it will sharing close proximity with the ungainly Norstrom tower.

Well, I know what you mean and I know that only 0,01% of this forum members (including me) actually like the Nordstrom tower proposal as it is.

Therefore, I think (from the renders) that they will compliment each other very well. A beautiful traditional tower overlooking the park with a futuristic monolith in the background. Isn't it what the view from Central Park is all about.

[M. Incandenza]

Originally Posted by FMIII

Well, I know what you mean and I know that only 0,01% of this forum members (including me) actually like the Nordstrom tower proposal as it is.

Therefore, I think (from the renders) that they will compliment each other very well. A beautiful traditional tower overlooking the park with a futuristic monolith in the background. Isn't it what the view from Central Park is all about.

But it's not even futuristic. Torre Verre is futuristic. But the Nordstrom is just slapdash incoherent modernism.

[FMIII]

Originally Posted by M. Incandenza

But it's not even futuristic. Torre Verre is futuristic. But the Nordstrom is just slapdash incoherent modernism.

Not futuristic?


Source Adrian Smith+Gordon Grill architecture

[FMIII]

There are two good examples of traditional skyscrapers designed by Lagrange and built recently in Chicago

The Elysium
Source: The Chicago Tribune



Park Tower
Photograph © Wayne Lorentz/Artefaqs Corporation



Those examples show at which point this Stern's project is unique. Unlike Lagrange (whose work I love), he hasn't "contented himself" to replicate a glorious past. No, he just took inspiration from it to create, with today's materials, something really new.
That is a big difference and it gives more reasons, at least for people like me who enjoy that kind of architecture, to love this project even more.

[Blaze23]

Originally Posted by FMIII

Not futuristic?


Source Adrian Smith+Gordon Grill architecture

Hmmm no! Any glassy building from a certain angle can be made to look futuristic but when you look at this building's massing overall, it looks like a giant glass box awkwardly hanging over what it actually a nice looking base. And those renderings of the skyline with it are just horrendous cause that ugly thing is just so damn big. I really hope it's being redesigned.

[FMIII]

Originally Posted by Blaze23

Hmmm no! Any glassy building from a certain angle can be made to look futuristic but when you look at this building's massing overall, it looks like a giant glass box awkwardly hanging over what it actually a nice looking base. And those renderings of the skyline with it are just horrendous cause that ugly thing is just so damn big. I really hope it's being redesigned.

Ok, I got the message. Everybody hates the Nordstrom tower proposal as it is. While for me it avoids the only default (left in my mind) of 432 Park which is its out of proportion windows.

For once that I thought being in line with the mainstream thinking. I got it wrong all the way. But that won't change my point of view and I still think Nordstrom tower will provides a breathtaking contrast with 220 CPS.

[scalziand]

Originally Posted by FMIII

There are two good examples of traditional skyscrapers designed by Lagrange and built recently in Chicago

The Elysium

Park Tower

FYI, the Chicago forumers hate the Elysium and Park Towers.

[Busy Bee]

Writing from Chicago, those Lagrange buildings are the epitome of disneyesque faux trash. Ridiculous proportions, lack of detailing, painted concrete above forty feet, enough "flash" to fool some tasteless rich folks. Lagrange buildings make no commitment from the beginning of making an appropriate homage design, it's simply a tower with grotesquely inauthentic materials and "details" tacked on. That said, I find the most recent Lincoln Park tower(s) to be the least offensive.

[FMIII]

Originally Posted by scalziand

FYI, the Chicago forumers hate the Elysium and Park Towers.

I know. And they are not the only one. Some Architecture's critics don't like them either. Especially the Elysium because of its "failed" top and "cheap" materials. "A blight in the sky" wrote one of them. However, it seems people who are not fond of skyscrapers are much more indulgent towards them. I guess it's because that kind of towers are more related to their surroundings at street level than boxy towers.

As for me, I think that those towers bring more diversity to the skyline. But first and foremost, they also provide, if clumsily, a much needed sens of majesty unfortunately lost by many contemporary skyscrapers.

[BVictor1]

Originally Posted by scalziand

FYI, the Chicago forumers hate the Elysium and Park Towers.

We wouldn't mind as much if they weren't clad in plain, beige and flat pre-cast concrete.

And the Elysian is now a Waldorf-Astoria.

[FMIII]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

Writing from Chicago, those Lagrange buildings are the epitome of disneyesque faux trash. Ridiculous proportions, lack of detailing, painted concrete above forty feet, enough "flash" to fool some tasteless rich folks. Lagrange buildings make no commitment from the beginning of making an appropriate homage design, it's simply a tower with grotesquely inauthentic materials and "details" tacked on. That said, I find the most recent Lincoln Park tower(s) to be the least offensive.

What the Elysyum shows us is that if you don't have a huge amount of money to spend on details and materials, it is almost impossible to replicate traditional architecture without being "disneyesque faux trash".
That is why the option chosen by Stern to emulate the past, while being more original, is much less risky in a way. However, if his budget is too tight, it might also become problematic. We will see.

[Guiltyspark]

The Elysium is god-awful.