Punk Like
Not long after 9-11 we were asked by a young developer called Alf Naman to consider a design for a site in the Upper East Side in New York. Alf was a cool guy who had been a successful broker and who was now investing in high end residential. He had two projects under way when we got to know him. One project with was Neil Denari and the other by Jean Nouvel. Both are now nearing completion. We were looking at a third site he had.
Unfortunately the cruch happened and the project did not proceed however the experience was memorable. Interegating the New York planning codes was genuinely interesting for example; i.e. relative to our own in the U.K. In NY they are far more prescriptive but somehow it seems to support and liberate good work. The whole air rights issue makes the planning issues much more three dimensional in NY compared to here with development determined on volume rather than area and height.
Our site was between a Gehry building and Nouvel ... no pressure and 200 hundred yards down the road was a Meier apartment building. Anyway we wanted to bring some British punk to the party and some serious darkside. The proposal was to be depressing yet colourful ... ambiguous yet iconic. Less ship shape and optomistic like Meier rather under the water.
