Comments on: 53 West 53rd Street by Jean Nouvel

By: fw

fw — Sat, 24 May 2008 02:37:43 +0000

awesome - it’s simply gorgeous! it’s about time that nyc stake it’s claim in beautiful modern skyscrapers - again. i think it’ll be as iconic as the chrysler building. modernism in america has finally arrived again - our design consciousness has finally awaken after a long, long slumber. thank you moma!

By: MarcoPolo

MarcoPolo — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:10:05 +0000

“Perverse and Phallic?” Oh, come on!! It’s not like there’s a mushroom tip at the top of the building. I bet the Empire State Building must make you cringe….

This is a beautiful work of art, inside and out. Considering the first few floors may be an extension to MoMa’s galleries, it should exude a certain artistic flair.

This is the 21st Century…. let’s move past the mundane boxes of the past and dive into the pool of creativity. I applaud Nouvel and Hines for this masterpiece!!!

By: lackofethics

lackofethics — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:18:54 +0000

As we have already seen our former public official, Elliot Spitzer capitulate himself to the buying of high-class prostitutes, when will architects free themselves from selling out their architectural services — and have the ethics of the ‘Architecture of Love’ which Alberto Perez0-Gomez talks of? When will students as well as practictioners of architec-ture read but also take to heart the issues of ethics, spoken of in Karsten Harrie’s The Ethical Function of Architecture? When will our institutions be purified from developer-greed-syndrome, digital-HIV, and also iconic prostitution? We are really slumming it now — yes, with no ethical function and no ethical points of view, either in the ecclesiastical realm, the political realms, the economic realms, the sociological realms, or the aesthetic realms. Are American values, slumming it these days?

By: concernforlackofethics

concernforlackofethics — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:33:27 +0000

I am extremely shocked that the clergy of an institution which proclaims the ‘gospel of grace,’ to sell its soul to such a travesty as this architectural proposal. What in the name of grace, the gospel, the Trinity, or a ministry to the downtrodden, can the church team up with greedy developers and put up an extremely perverse and phallic structure? St. Thomas, which is already so wealthy, is thinking in totally market terms, in which it is virtually selling its soul. As a member of the congregation, I am ex-tremely disappointed with how it is selling its soul — like Judas, for 30 pieces of silver, and Peter, who denied Christ — for lack of trust in the living and resurrected Christ? When will the church be aligned with the economics of Jesus, and truly house the poor — instead of always catering to the rich? The economics of the project are questionable — is that the only way to get ‘free maintenance for a church?’ Also, the architecture — is perverse and phallic. There are no ethics involved in this project, and it should behoove Christ’s teachings regarding ’selling’ one’s possessions to give to the poor vs. selling one’s air-rights to cater to the rich

By: mnyc

mnyc — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 04:10:10 +0000

i would like to see one of you whiners on here create something like this. i bet you are sitting in your knock off eames chair getting fat.

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:34:54 +0000

Stunning slender taper, admirable for if nothing else the natural light it allows to reach the surounding street. What about green spaces though? Nothing can be forward looling without vegitation in the same copious quantities as achieved for light & air.

By: Julien Frenchboy

Julien Frenchboy — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 21:12:18 +0000

is this tower splendid, the panorama is superb, which are the prices of the apartments? does somebody know?

By: jeremy

jeremy — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 19:56:16 +0000

just wonderful.
keep going mister Nouvel. i love it ………………………………………
master piece.

By: Oat Vaiyaboon

Oat Vaiyaboon — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 01:40:39 +0000

Wow…now that’s design. That’s architecture!….wonderful to see someone taking a spet to design something unique.

By: Cornelia East

Cornelia East — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 00:33:27 +0000

The building will be located in a Preservation Subdistrict where if it wasn’t for a mammouth acquisition of air rights Hines is attempting to get permission to buy from the University Club and the St Thomas Church this building would never exist. They have also not received approval for the variances requested because the zoning as is, does not support this project. The as of right might be 40 stories. It may be a nice building, but not midblock on a street where over half the buildings are low rise and mostly landmarks. The scale is insane. Put it near the West or East Side drives. The traffic on a through street, West 53 Street doesn’t move now during the day. Imagine what will happen with the addition of a 75 story building? Who is going to redo the infrastructure and the water mains that already bread? But Hines won’t care. Their profits, if they can go this high, could be enormous. They are ruining a lovely mostly residential neighborhood as are their partners in crime, MoMA.