Proposed office building for 125th Street and Park Avenue in Harlem, which fits in with its surroundings perfectly. Very smart city planning. According to USA Today, Bill Clinton may be to blame.Here's the latest from uptown:
The heart of Harlem is being reshaped - some say gutted - in a blitz of big-money real-estate deals, starting with nearly a dozen small shops getting squeezed out to make way for retail and office development.
HARLEM SHUFFLE
While developers tout plans for hotels, condominiums, office space and national retailers, local businesses are getting left behind, store owners complained. The pressure of rising rents is being felt particularly along the entire length of the main commercial artery of 125th Street, where nearly a dozen projects, both proposed and under way, have sprung up.
However, there's still room for Harlem crap, Queens style!
This beauty is at 3 East 129th Street. They tried to disguise it with a fancy brickwork pattern, but all the style elements are there.Rendering from Business Week
Graphic from NY Post
6 comments:
One should remember
a brief point in Harlem's long history.
Harlem was originally developed
to attract the white middle class.
A recession ensued and its developers
were stuck with a lot of unsold property
way uptown.
Solution....move in the "Negroes" and make money.
Now....well over 100 years later....
the property in Harlem has become far too valuable for the African Americans who have put down roots there and have long made it their home.
Answer....move them out....gentrify Harlem
by bringing in the yuppies.
When it comes to the long term
warehousing of real estate....
the industry can indeed be very patient and creative.
Thus....the new diaspora begins!
The building on top is one very ugly pile of mega crap.
Well yes and no on the tall building.
I am no fan of fancy setbacks, leaning towers and oddly colored patterns on high rises.
Old style monumental works, 60s style glass towers are ok.
Architects that go over the top hired by new money without taste I can do without.
They all remind me of a Donald Trump whining on the radio about becomeing a millionare.
ugh!
See, even Manhattan is not exempt from Fedders. There are also a few around Chinatown and Lower Manhattan. Unreal.
The building does blend in nicely with the sky which would be slightly encouraging if this wasn't a painting by an architect set on selling the crappy building to us by distorting how it will fit in to its surroundings.
Every time we move in a certain group, we always regret it.
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