Category Archives: architecture

The World Trade Center: Even More Downsizing Ahead

Posted on September 10, 2008 by Felix

Mike Bloomberg comes out swinging in today’s WSJ, and although his main target is the bureaucracy at the Port Authority and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, he doesn’t seem to mind if his blows land on Santiago Calatrava too: Today, … Continue reading →

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How Many Architects Does it Take to Build a Bank?

Posted on August 26, 2008 by Felix

DealBook asked a pointed question yesterday, riffing off a WSJ article: How many investment banks does it take to run an initial public offering? Apparently it’s not only the mega-IPOs, like Visa, which are suffering from too-many-cooks syndrome: even tiny … Continue reading →

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Dan Loeb’s Terrace

Posted on August 15, 2008 by Felix

The main reason to read Paul Goldberger’s article on 15 Central Park West in the new Vanity Fair is for the photos. Here are the developers, posed under the arches on the balcony of the top-floor penthouse — which I … Continue reading →

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WTC: Even More Delayed Than You Feared

Posted on June 30, 2008 by Felix

Alex Frangos has the depressing news: the much-delayed fiasco that is the WTC reconstruction is going to be even more delayed than most of us had feared. The challenges center on the Port Authority’s planned transit hub and the memorial, … Continue reading →

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Valuing Modernist Architecture

Posted on June 6, 2008 by Felix

Dan Gross has a most peculiar column about collectible architecture, something I’ve been writing about quite a bit: Can historic Modernist homes be treasured, shown, and monetized like Warhols and Gauguins? A recent visit to one of America’s best-known and … Continue reading →

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The Perils of Construction in the US

Posted on June 5, 2008 by Felix

Did Goldman Sachs know this when it started construction on its new headquarters? According to Department of Labor statistics, more than three construction workers died per day in 2006, the latest available figures. So far, thankfully, no one has been … Continue reading →

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Annals of Port Authority Incompetence, Goldman Sachs Edition

Posted on May 13, 2008 by Felix

Is there one single aspect of the World Trade Center rebuilding project that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey hasn’t managed to utterly bollocks up? The latest news: New York State, 50% shareholder in PANYNJ, looks like … Continue reading →

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Neutra Houses for Sale

Posted on April 14, 2008 by Felix

Arts blogger extraordinaire Tyler Green has a piece in the May issue of Portfolio on Richard Neutra’s Kaufmann House, which is being sold by Christie’s with an estimate of $15 million to $25 million; I blogged the house myself, back … Continue reading →

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JP Morgan-Bear Stearns: Good News for Architecture

Posted on March 17, 2008 by Felix

In the April issue of Portfolio, Paul Smalera contrasts two new bank headquarters: those of Goldman Sachs, downtown, and Bank of America, in midtown. It’s no contest, really: Bank of America wins hands down. The best news on the bank-headquarters … Continue reading →

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Lloyds TSB: Not an Insurer

Posted on February 22, 2008 by Felix

Let me be the second (after Carrick Mollenkamp) to congratulate Eric Daniels of Lloyds TSB on sidestepping the credit crunch and reporting 2007 profits up 17%. I am a bit confused however why Mr Mollenkamp chose to illustrate his blog … Continue reading →

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In Praise of New NYC Skyscrapers

Posted on January 9, 2008 by Felix

Back in November, the NYT’s Nicolai Ouroussoff gave a rave review to Jean Nouvel’s proposed new midtown skyscraper, destined for a narrow lot next to the Museum of Modern Art. It "promises to be the most exhilarating addition to the … Continue reading →

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Why Does Goldman Sachs Need 10 Acres of Trading Floor?

Posted on December 7, 2007 by Felix

Gari N Corp has a question: Why do investment banks need such big trading floors? Are we talking about one big floor for everyone, or multiple huge floors? I mean, is it just about creating a collegiate atmosphere? Compliance (avoiding … Continue reading →

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How Trading Floor Availability Creates Financial Districts

Posted on December 7, 2007 by Felix

John Gapper says that "something about financial centres seems to make them split into different districts" – citing West Kowloon in Hong Kong and Canary Wharf in London as financial districts which have sprung up as alternatives to the historic … Continue reading →

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Art and Architecture at Auction

Posted on November 2, 2007 by Felix

I’ve been guest-blogging over at Figure Painting today: I have an entry up defending auction houses, and another about auctioning houses. Amazingly, I managed to avoid talking about mechanism design in either of them.

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Bank of America: Not Glamorous

Posted on October 18, 2007 by Felix

Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis seems to have finally woken up to the fact that he is not, and never will be, an investment banker: Lewis said during a conference call that the company plans to scale back its … Continue reading →

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The Attraction of 15 Central Park West

Posted on August 21, 2007 by Felix

It’s the most successful residential development in New York history. So just
what is it that makes 15 CPW so different, so appealing?
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A Plea to Jamie Dimon for Great Architecture

Posted on June 27, 2007 by Felix

It’s quite sad that for all Wall Street’s wealth, no New York bank has in living memory managed to build an architecturally distinguished building.
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The JPM Ground Zero Tower: Beer Belly, or Modern Herm?

Posted on June 22, 2007 by Felix

The skyscraper JP
Morgan is proposing to build at Ground Zero is hideous.
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