New Yorkers: Weigh in on the Swiftly Sprouting ASTOR PLACE "Luxury" High Rise

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Just walked by it again about five minutes ago. It's gettin' huger and huger.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 5 October 2004 21:44 (nineteen years ago) link

yep. It's frickin huge!!

doesn't really fit well at all. i walk past it almost every day to get to class.

― lemin (lemin), Tuesday, 5 October 2004 22:18 (nineteen years ago) link

one month passes...

http://www.artnet.com/magazine/news/ntm3/Images/ntm9-1-6.jpg

It still looks nothing like this.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 12 November 2004 03:13 (nineteen years ago) link

It's now beginning to be clad with mirror-windows and oh man. Oh man. I had no idea it was going to look that shitty.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 12 November 2004 03:23 (nineteen years ago) link

This thread is making me think about playing katamari damacy

― TOMBOT, Friday, 12 November 2004 03:25 (nineteen years ago) link

It's like your average suburban 70's-80's office building except that it's got a top hat it goes concave a little. Whoop-de-shit.

And speaking solely in terms of craftsmanship, it looks awfully shoddy upclose -- the window frames seem awkwardly aligned. Bet it'll be prone to drafts in the winter.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 12 November 2004 03:28 (nineteen years ago) link

So what happened to the Cube?

― Markelby (Mark C), Friday, 12 November 2004 14:51 (nineteen years ago) link

Alex, if you're going to be stupid enough to pay $$ to live in that neighborhood, anyway, you might as well live in luxury.

What that place might have included that your place probably doesn't:
• soundproof apartments
• elevators
• door man
• gym
• laundry room
• door man
• return on investment

― Superrationalizer, Friday, 12 November 2004 16:11 (nineteen years ago) link

Don't forget the door man!

― Door man, Friday, 12 November 2004 16:13 (nineteen years ago) link

hey, is this the one that had the article about it in New York magazine?

― teeny (teeny), Friday, 12 November 2004 17:07 (nineteen years ago) link

I don't live in New York, but from the descriptions the cube isn't being touched. Is that right, or are they redoing that little island?

― You've Got to Pick Up Every Stitch (tracerhand), Friday, 12 November 2004 17:08 (nineteen years ago) link

http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/arts/architecture/10183/index.html

― teeny (teeny), Friday, 12 November 2004 17:18 (nineteen years ago) link

The cube will remain (it's still featured in their design plan, I believe).

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 12 November 2004 17:25 (nineteen years ago) link

The cube will remain but it will now carry advertising and there will be a small fee to spin it.

― Paul Eater (eater), Friday, 12 November 2004 17:35 (nineteen years ago) link

one month passes...

the more they finish the building, the more i like it. I mean, hell no I wouldn't wanna live there because of the noize either, but a lot of the other buildings in astor place are hella ugly. the cooper union science building! crappy pizza and bagel and felafel places on 3rd and st. marks (not to mention the continental club)! ugly starbucks awnings! good riddance, i say.

― hstencil (hstencil), Saturday, 8 January 2005 07:32 (nineteen years ago) link

the more they finish the building, the more i like it

I hate to admit it, but I think I'm starting to agree. However, I'm disappointed that it doesn't, in fact, look anything like this:

http://www.artnet.com/magazine/news/ntm3/Images/ntm9-1-6.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 8 January 2005 09:15 (nineteen years ago) link

I do love this thread, it must be said. I am a slave to nostalgia.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 8 January 2005 09:19 (nineteen years ago) link

Is this the one with the giant sign outside that says something like "UNDULATING. POSH. ENORMOUS."? I didn't like the use of the word undulating to describe a building.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Saturday, 8 January 2005 15:31 (nineteen years ago) link

I've been meaning to post that now that the windows are up, I don't mind the building too much either.

― Aaron W (Aaron W), Saturday, 8 January 2005 16:31 (nineteen years ago) link

i like it better than the big boxes they've built on Houston Street, anyways.

― hstencil (hstencil), Saturday, 8 January 2005 21:30 (nineteen years ago) link

lauren's post = OTM

― Lixi Swank (tracerhand), Saturday, 8 January 2005 21:56 (nineteen years ago) link

I want to check this out when I'm in NYC.

― Danzig and Jeanne-Claude (deangulberry), Saturday, 8 January 2005 22:27 (nineteen years ago) link

um, i wouldn't mind living there.

― phil-two (phil-two), Saturday, 8 January 2005 23:09 (nineteen years ago) link

especially if someone else were paying my rent

― phil-two (phil-two), Saturday, 8 January 2005 23:09 (nineteen years ago) link

are there any current pictures of this thing?

― kyle (akmonday), Saturday, 8 January 2005 23:36 (nineteen years ago) link

I'll take some soon.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 9 January 2005 02:21 (nineteen years ago) link

two months pass...

The Cube is GONE!!!!

http://homepage.mac.com/alexinnyc/.Pictures/Photo%20Album%20Pictures/2005-03-15%2014.45.21%20-0800/Image-04C023DC95A311D9.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 23:01 (nineteen years ago) link

whoa, what??!?

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 23:05 (nineteen years ago) link

(it went out for a bite to eat but will be back in a few weeks)

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 23:07 (nineteen years ago) link

http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2005/03/14/astor_cube_replacement.php

― lychee mello (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 23:10 (nineteen years ago) link

good riddance!

― phil-two (phil-two), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 23:10 (nineteen years ago) link

If you really miss it you come see it in Ann Arbor, where we have an identical one.

― mitch dub (ano ano), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 02:05 (nineteen years ago) link

b-b-b-b-but I just saw some refugees pretending to be dead right next to it!

― Darius Rucker Lookalike (deangulberry), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 02:07 (nineteen years ago) link

How about the swiftly sprouting mid-rise at Houston and Chrystie, soon to introduce Whole Foods to the East Village?

― Paul Eater (eater), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 05:17 (nineteen years ago) link

that building pisses me off, because I often work for a friend who has a studio on chrystie, and since they tore up that intersection it's hard to get around.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 05:19 (nineteen years ago) link

http://www.villagevoice.com/nyclife/0509,bpress,61613,15.html

― Mary (Mary), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 06:37 (nineteen years ago) link

I like how, in that area, you can see another Starbucks from inside a Starbucks.

― David Allen (David Allen), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 14:41 (nineteen years ago) link

In Providence RI, I think there is a street corner where 3 dunkin donuts are visible.

― Dr. Eldon Tyrell (ex machina), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 15:03 (nineteen years ago) link

Remember that Dunkin Donuts commercial, the last one with the Time to Make the Donuts guy, where he dreams that another version of himself already made the donuts?

― David Allen (David Allen), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 15:20 (nineteen years ago) link

Mary, thanks for posting that link. I was trying to make sense of a lyric by Lloyd Cole in his work with the Negatives that mentions Astor Place. The article changes the context, as I imagined it.

― youn, Wednesday, 16 March 2005 15:33 (nineteen years ago) link

Really great thread. I have a lot of memories of meeting people at the Astor Place Cube. That new building does seem annoying...

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 15:49 (nineteen years ago) link

WTF, this is like bizarro world.

― Je4nne ƒury (Jeanne Fury), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 16:01 (nineteen years ago) link

aw, that cube.

― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 16:03 (nineteen years ago) link

Fuck, no more cube :(

Your search - borg cube nyc - did not match any documents.

― Dr. Eldon Tyrell (ex machina), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 16:03 (nineteen years ago) link

Never liked that cube / corner, and actually like the new building.

― paulhw (paulhw), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 16:07 (nineteen years ago) link

Anyone know what the rents are in that thing?

― Matthew Weiss, Monday, 21 March 2005 02:36 (nineteen years ago) link

Dude, the ad copy on the side of this thing is hilarious:

"SCULPTURE FOR LIVING: Undulating. Provocative. Abstract. Reflective."

Abstract??? Undulating???

― Hurting (Hurting), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 15:20 (nineteen years ago) link

If the building is going to undulate, let me out first, kay? Bye.

― Hurting (Hurting), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 15:49 (nineteen years ago) link

The building, I think, was supposed to look like this....
http://www.artnet.com/magazine/news/ntm3/Images/ntm9-1-6.jpg

...which explains the undulation theory. However, rather yawnsomely, it actually just ended up looking like this:

http://homepage.mac.com/alexinnyc/.Pictures/Photo%20Album%20Pictures/2005-03-30%2016.07.30%20-0800/Image-F3FEAEE6A17711D9.jpg

Now, granted, this picture doesn't really do it justice, but it quite clearly demonstrates that any architecturally sensuous undulation is quite out of the question. It basically looks like a giant tube of blue shampoo that divides the East Village from the Village.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 23:10 (nineteen years ago) link

I will definitely see this in May when I'm out there 'cause my gf has clients at Lafayette & E4th. It doesn't look like much, right now.

― M. White (Miguelito), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 23:18 (nineteen years ago) link

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