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Urban Glass House, Soho, New York / Philip Johnson and Alan Ritchie

Is a modernist residence the latest luxury accessory of the rich and famous? Judging from the brisk sales of units at The Urban Glass House, a new, luxury condominium project located in Soho New York designed by Philip Johnson and Alan Ritchie, one would think so. The 11 storey 40-unit project, which is ready for occupancy in 2007, is 80% presold. And the penthouse unit set a record for the neighbourhood. No small feat given that real estate market has cooled and that the units here are pricey, ranging from 1.6 to 12.5 million dollars.

Part of the project’s success is that it has been cleverly marketed as the urban version of an iconic building, Johnson’s Glass House in New Caanan, Connecticut, which the architect completed in 1949 and occupied until his death in 2005. Ritchie says in scale and context, the Urban Glass House echoes the Seagram building. But the details are drawn from the Glass House. The building’s palette is limited and restrained, with steel and glass as primary materials. Inside, Annabelle Seldorf has designed rich, warm yet spare interiors. White oak floors are laid in a chevron pattern like the brick floors in the original Glass House, and large expanses of glass are used throughout.

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110-Building Site in N.Y. Sold to Speyer for $5.4 Billion

Jerry Speyer, a real estate investor who controls some of the city’s most prominent icons, like Rockefeller Center and the Chrysler Building, signed a deal to buy 110 apartment buildings along the East River in Manhattan for $5.4 billion, MetLife announced today.

Mr. Speyer, the chairman of Tishman Speyer Properties, is buying a trophy of a different kind in Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, two adjoining complexes on First Avenue between 14th and 23rd Streets. Built by Metropolitan Life in 1947 for returning veterans, Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village have served as an affordable redoubt for generations of police officers, teachers, nurses and the like. The unremarkable brick buildings are set among trees and fountains on 80 acres of some of the most valuable land in the country.
Via: New York Times

Wall Street Woos Film Producers, Skirting Studios

Since the birth of Hollywood, movie studio chiefs have been makers and breakers of careers, arbiters of taste and gatekeepers who decide which movies are made.

But as Hollywood power shifts more to Wall Street investors, financiers are starting to bypass studio bosses by dealing directly with successful producers.

Now, instead of deals being cut over lunch at Spago or the Grill, movies are increasingly being greenlighted in conference calls to New York.

The reason is a simple desire for more control. Wall Street financiers want a greater say over what movies they finance and who makes them; producers want more artistic independence and a larger share of the profits.

The studios themselves are nudging the trend along, too, since they are making fewer movies.
Via: New York Times

Google Video Strikes Music Video Distribution Deals

Google's purchase of YouTube isn't the only thing making the news for the Internet giant this week, as they also have entered into an agreement with two major music labels to release music videos through the Google Video service. In fact, the blog Toby's Space mentions the irony of these deals being struck for Google Video just as YouTube was purchased by Google, pointing out that Google Video is "a destination that has been utterly dwarfed by now-sister site YouTube."

The plan is to provide dual platforms for audience members, one offering the content on-demand in a pay-per-view format, with each video costing $1.99, set by the iTunes price (which seems like a rip-off when compared to getting an hour television show for the same price), while the other is available for free but accompanied by advertisements that the viewer must watch to view the video.

The partnership is with Sony BMG and Warner Music Group, with the videos debuting later this month. Both Google and the record labels will share in the profits, and the long-term plan is to make this content available through other Web sites as well, sites that features Google AdSense advertisements. The Sony videos had been available for download since January through the Google Video Store.

In addition, according to their recent statement, the company wants to create copyright-safe places for user-generated content, such as a space that would allow them to create videos using footage from the Google music video repository that can be repurposed and then posted to Google Video. In other words, the company is looking to create ways to do what YouTube does without facing the barrage of lawsuits that have been threatened in the past few months.
Via: http://www.convergenceculture.org/weblog/2006/10/google_video_strikes_music_vid.html

Viacom Eyes Long Island City For Its Studios and Offices

Hollywood, it seems, may soon make greater inroads into Long Island City. Viacom's Sumner Redstone in the near future could announce that he is relocating a major portion of his company's Manhattan offices, studios, and support staff to Long Island City, where Silvercup Studios and Kaufman Astoria Studios are based. The global entertainment company has been evaluating relocation options, among them Long Island City, for its prominent television and motion picture brands, including MTV Networks.

College Debt Load Gives Generation Y Grim Outlook

Millions of young adults across the country let out a collective sigh of relief when the Fed affirmed that it would hold the target rate at 5.25% for at least another month. For these recent college graduates, the steady up-tick in interest rates during the previous 17 months has provided an extra sobering dose of the postcollegiate ‘real world.' Every quarter-point rise means the prospect of paying off their student loans has become evermore daunting.

via: http://www.nysun.com/article/40307

Consequences of a Construction Boom

Soaring construction costs are putting the squeeze on the city's private developers, real estate experts say, threatening New York's housing boom, and lessening the impact of billions of government dollars invested in public infrastructure projects around the region. The Bloomberg administration is authorizing a study, conducted by an external consultant, to identify ways to ease the problem of rising construction costs.

Questions Surround the Decision By a Dean To Leave Columbia

The big question at Columbia University this week is whether the tensions between President Lee Bollinger and the dean of the School of International and Public Affairs, Lisa Anderson, led Ms. Anderson to step down. The press office at the university confirmed yesterday that the dean, who has come under criticism for siding with anti-Israel factions on campus and for taking a junket to Saudi Arabia paid for by the regime in Riyadh, is leaving the post she has held for 10 years.

Israel Lobby' Caused War in Iraq, September 11 Attacks, Professor Says

A tenured professor at the University of Chicago last night blamed the "Israel Lobby" in America for both the Iraq war and the attacks of September 11, 2001. Speaking to a crowd of hundreds at the Cooper Union, he was met mostly with support from two other professors, Tony Judt of New York University and Rashid Khalidi of Columbia. "The Israel lobby was one of the principal driving forces behind the Iraq War, and in its absence we probably would not have had a war."