De Rotterdam

DE ROTTERDAM is a building being built in the the Kop van Zuid area of Rotterdam in an effort to regenerate the area. Its is being designed by Rem Koolhaas and is scheduled for completion by the end of 2011. The project is made up of three towers that will be multifunctional with plans for corporate offices, residential apartments, a hotel, restaurants, cinema and retail shopping. The project is similar to a number of buildings that I encountered in Japan and seeks to be a bustling vertical city. While I must admit that the architecture doesn't do much for me, its got some odd angles sure but its essentially the classic glass box skyscraper. However I am a big fan of mixed use projects and this definitely fits the bill, plus its got a pretty neat video proposal video. Enjoy!


OMA fact sheet

Tapestries in Glass

While I have not intention of making this blog simply about real estate I do want to make another apartment post. As I mentioned in the 200 Eleventh Ave post a number of new buildings are springing up in the area around the highline and the new residences by Jean Nouvel are part of the regeneration of this area. The marketing write up for the new residence hails it as, “a vision machine,” while I wouldn’t go so far as to call it that it is a very unique building in that it has over 1,700 different and distinct pieces of glass that make up the façade of the building. The building’s web site explains it as such;

“The buildings gently curving curtain wall of different sized panes of colorless glass – each set in a unique angle and torque – will sheath one of the most meticulously customized, high performance residential addresses in the nation. This dazzling window pattern will frame splendid views from within the tower while producing an exterior texture that serves as a poetic analog for the vibrancy, density and changeability of New York City.” source

The building is designed with a number of staggered terraces and uses large single pane punched through windows to highlight certain areas. Nouvel has designed a six story vertical garden within the core of the building with built in planter boxes designed to allow plants to fill the interior space.

For more information on the building see the site here.

200 Eleventh Ave

Anyone who has spent time in Asia has no doubt encountered the car elevator, due to the lack of available space many buildings have car parks that operate like giant sandwich vending machines, or in some cases send the cars up to higher levels to be parked. The Hyundai department store in the town I lived in operated one of these. The building had a rotating circle outside the entrance to the parking elevator that would allow the valets to turn the car around after getting it on and off its shelf.

Well the idea has officially come to North America, for the super wealthy at least. 200 Eleventh Ave NYC is a new 19 story tower designed by architect Annabelle Selldorf with stainless-steel facades that rise above a cast gunmetal-glazed Terra-cotta base.

To use the 'Sky Garage' tenants pull in through the street level gate and then into the car sized elevator. Using an electronic coding system the elevator then takes the tenant and their car up to the appropriate floor so that they can pull into their own garage. No longer will Mr Jones have to cart all his groceries up in the elevator or get the concierge to help him, he can simply unload his groceries straight from the trunk into his own apartment.

The building includes 16 units in multiple configurations including; simplexes, terraces, duplexes, and a couple different penthouse configurations. As illustrated by the photos the units are as swanky as an apartment with in apt garages should be, and they come with the price tag to boot. A cool $14million will give your car a garage that other cars will be jealous of.
Interestingly this development has shot up in the area adjoining the High Line, along with a number of other developments.