Latest news with #CooperUnion
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
New York's Chrysler Building Is Back on the Market
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." The Chrysler Building, one of the most iconic and recognizable skyscrapers in New York City's skyline, is up for sale once again. Back in January, a New York state judge effectively evicted owners RFR Holdings, a real estate investment firm, from the building after not paying their rent. Now, Cooper Union, a private arts and science college that owns the land underneath the skyscraper, has hired British real estate firm Savills to oversee the sale, according to Time Out. Completed in 1930, the Chrysler Building briefly held the title of world's tallest building for 11 months. It stands 1,046 feet tall, with 77 floors. (The Empire State Building, just a few blocks away, surpassed the Chrysler Building as the world's tallest in 1931, standing at 1,250 feet tall, not including its antenna.) Designed by architect William Van Alen, it was commissioned by Walter P. Chrysler as a symbol of the Chrysler Corporation, with its stainless steel spire and ornamented crown. Ownership of the building has changed hands a few times already, for as much as $800 million in 2008 when the government of Abu Dhabi bought a 90% stake in the tower. But then it sold for a shockingly low fraction of the cost at $150 million in 2019 to co-owners Signa, an Austrian real estate company, and RFR, a New York-based development firm. But in 2024, according to the New York Times, Signa filed for insolvency, and an Austrian court ruled that it would have to sell its share of the building. Cooper Union and Savills aren't disclosing the new price tag for the Chrysler Building just yet. Even with astronomical property costs in Manhattan right now, it's questionable how much Savills might be able to fetch. The aformentioned NYT report paints a more dilapidated picture inside of the shining structure on the outside, with tenants complaining about 'bad cell service, the lack of natural sunlight, elevator troubles, murky water coming out of fountains, and pest infestations.' You Might Also Like 12 Weekend Getaway Spas For Every Type of Occasion 13 Beauty Tools to Up Your At-Home Facial Game
Time Out
23-05-2025
- Business
- Time Out
You can now buy the Chrysler Building—here's how much it'll cost ya
Midtown's shimmering Art Deco crown jewel is officially for sale—again. The Chrysler Building, that spired symbol of 1930s New York glamour, has hit the market after a courtroom soap opera that ended with a $21 million eviction notice and a developer ousted from their lease, reports Crain's New York Business. For the first time since 2019, the skyscraper's leasehold is up for grabs. Cooper Union, which owns the land beneath the tower, has tapped real estate firm Savills to shop it around. Just don't expect a bargain. While the asking price is under wraps, the last sale, involving RFR and the now-insolvent Signa, closed at a fire-sale $151 million, down from a staggering $800 million in 2008. Of course, whoever takes the keys will still owe Cooper Union $32 million annually in rent, rising to $41 million by 2028. Pocket change! Built as a 'monument to me' by auto tycoon Walter P. Chrysler, the 77-story tower has been everything from a Depression-era office oasis to a backdrop in Sex and the City and Men in Black 3. Today, it's 100% leased on paper. But behind the stainless steel gargoyles and red Moroccan marble lobby lie cracked ceilings, finicky elevators, pest problems and lobby tourists who try to sneak past the turnstiles. 'There's been times where we would get water from any of the fountains and it would just be completely brown,' one tenant told the New York Times last year. 'My office just ended up shipping giant bottles of water from Costco.' Savills' pitch? Potential. 'It's a great opportunity to reimagine what is the crown jewel of the New York City skyline,' said David Heller, an EVP at the firm. With rents at $65 to $79 per square foot—half the price of shiny neighbors like One Vanderbilt —the Chrysler is a relative steal. But prospective buyers should bring vision, cash and maybe a pest control contract. As Ruth Colp-Haber, a real estate broker, told the Times, 'It's a tale of two buildings.' One is an icon. The other needs a serious glow-up.
Wall Street Journal
14-05-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Paul A. Strassmann, World War II Resistance Fighter Turned Computer Guru, Dies at 96
When Paul A. Strassmann arrived as a 19-year-old immigrant in New York in 1948, his most notable work experience was as a guerrilla warrior who blew up train tracks to stall Nazi troop movements in Slovakia during World War II. In New York, Strassmann diversified his skills. He sold socks at a department store in Queens and studied civil engineering at Cooper Union. As a surveyor during summer breaks, he dodged scorpions in Israel and rattlesnakes in West Virginia. Later, while studying industrial management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Strassmann learned how to use a mainframe computer as part of a project to forecast traffic and estimate the number of toll collectors needed on the New Jersey Turnpike, providing enough data for a 600-page thesis.
Observer
08-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Observer
Milan Design Week celebrates Oman through Gaetano Pesce's Oman Collection
In an enchanting tale of creativity and cross-cultural synergy, celebrated Italian designer and architect Gaetano Pesce received a gift that would lead to a transformative exploration: a package of precious Omani frankincense. This aromatic resin, steeped in history and tradition, kindled Pesce's imagination and prompted a spirited journey of experimentation that culminated in the extraordinary Oman Collection, now on display at Milan Design Week from April 8 to 13. Born in 1939 in La Spezia, Gaetano Pesce has long been a trailblazer in the worlds of design and architecture, with a career that spans over sixty years. He studied architecture at Venice University, where he championed a manifesto advocating for incoherence in art, arguing for the necessity of change and unique self-expression. Pesce has carved a name for himself through a rich tapestry of projects and teachings, having imparted his wisdom to students at prestigious educational institutions worldwide, including Carnegie Mellon and Cooper Union. Pesce's works defy conventional boundaries, transcending traditional distinctions between art and design. Each creation serves as a response to the zeitgeist, reflecting a deep sensitivity to the needs of contemporary life. To date, he has received numerous accolades, including the esteemed Chrysler Award for Innovation and Design, as his distinctive style continues to captivate audiences in exhibitions globally. Through his innovative collaborations with renowned brands such as Cassina and B&B Italia, Pesce has left an indelible mark on the design landscape. Notably, his striking installation for Bottega Veneta in 2022 captured imaginations with its poured resin floor and uniquely crafted chairs, showcasing his relentless pursuit of creativity. The Oman Collection: Nature and Design Intertwined The Oman Collection exemplifies the remarkable blend of architectural artistry and the alluring world of perfumery. At the heart of this showcase are three iconic pieces, each born from Pesce's adventurous spirit and fascination with the potent beauty of the Frankincense tree. While conceptualising the Oman Collection, Pesce pushed the boundaries of design. He forayed into uncharted territories, experimenting with a pioneering fusion of polyurethanes that allowed for a balance between strength and flexibility. The "Oman Chair," with its elegant form inspired by the gnarled silhouette of the Frankincense tree, sets a striking precedent. The second piece, the "Oman Chair with Frankincense," takes this creative endeavour a step further by integrating the aromatic resin itself—a material that encapsulates the essence of Wadi Dawkah's resin-rich environment. Finally, the "Oman Throne" stands as a tribute to the majestic presence of the Frankincense tree, elegantly translating its grandeur into an inviting plastic form. Pesce's characteristic use of vibrant colours breathes life into these pieces, infusing them with a playful spirit that captivates the eye and invites curiosity. Each work not only reflects his ingenious creativity but also embodies the rich cultural heritage of Oman. Hosted in the prestigious Gallery Antonia Jannone Disegni di Architettura, the exhibition is a collaboration between Studio Gaetano Pesce and Contemplazioni—an artistic company dedicated to the creation of immersive exhibitions. Following its successful debut at Art Basel Miami 2023, this presentation at Milan Design Week marks an essential moment in Pesce's ongoing artistic dialogue, where each piece resonates with profound meaning and a heartfelt homage to the beauty of Oman. The genesis of the Oman Collection can be traced back to the mutual admiration shared between Gaetano Pesce and Amouage's chief creative officer, Renaud Salmon. Salmon's thoughtful gift of Omani frankincense was merely the first step in what would blossom into an extraordinary creative collaboration. In spring 2023, the duo ventured to the stunning Wadi Dawkah, a UNESCO World Heritage site marked by its ancient Boswellia sacra trees, where thousands of years of tradition infuse the air. During this immersive journey, Pesce found inspiration not only in the natural beauty of the landscape but also in the sustainable and ethical philosophy of the valley. The fruit of this collaboration extended beyond the Oman Collection, as Pesce crafted a visual identity for the site, capturing its essence with a logo that mirrors the unique drop of Frankincense resin. As Milan Design Week gears up, the exhibition promises to be a highlight, offering a rare glimpse into Pesce's imaginative process and his ability to connect deeply with materials. Visitors can immerse themselves in the thought-provoking dialogue between man-made forms and the natural world, where innovation flourishes in tandem with tradition. The Oman Collection, through its playful designs and aromatic undertones, highlights Pesce's belief that art transcends static beauty; it must evoke emotion and engage the senses. Each piece tells a story—of ancient trees that have been revered and harvested for millennia—and invites viewers to breathe in the fragrant histories that have shaped the art of perfumery in Oman.
New York Times
27-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Jazzed About Abstraction: Jack Whitten's Show Is a Peak MoMA Moment
'I'm a product of American Apartheid,' the artist Jack Whitten wrote, a blunt fact that led him to project, in his art, a very different reality, one of 'infinite diversity in infinite combinations.' It was a vision that propelled and buoyed him through a nearly six-decade career. 'This is why I get up in the morning,' he wrote, 'and go to work!' And how very lucky we are, at a moment when references to diversity and difference are being scrubbed from accounts of our national history, to have a refreshing tidal wave of a Whitten career retrospective sweeping and scintillating through the special exhibition galleries on the Museum of Modern Art's sixth floor. Titled 'Jack Whitten: The Messenger,' the show encompasses some 180 paintings, sculptures and works on paper, from a 1963 art-school collage to a final painting from just before he died in 2018. Over that span Whitten called every studio he worked in a 'laboratory,' and every piece of art he made an 'experiment.' And, indeed, much of what's in the show challenges ready definition. Such is the case with a piece called 'The Messenger (for Art Blakey)' installed just outside the first gallery. From a distance it could be a photograph of a star-drenched night sky, or of clouds of foam on a dark sea. Or it could a painting with white paint glopped and dripped, Abstract Expressionist-style, on a black ground. Get close and you find that, in fact, it's a large rough-textured mosaic pieced together from thousands of pixel-like cubes of dried paint. You consult the title for meaning: Art Blakey, Black drummer extraordinaire, leader in the 1950s of the hardbop group called the Jazz Messengers. Suddenly the glops and drips look sonic, like musical bursts and pings. So what, exactly, do you have here? Astral vistas and Atlantic crossings. Jazz and Jackson Pollock. A painting that's built, not brushed. An art whose messages are historical, mystical, personal, by a radically inventive artist who ranks right at the top of abstraction's pantheon, as will become clear in the exhibition ahead. Whitten was born in Bessemer, Ala., in the Jim Crow South, in 1939. His father was a coal miner, his mother a seamstress, whose first husband, James Monroe Cross, had been an amateur painter of local scenes. Early on, Whitten knew he too wanted to be an artist, though it took a while to make the move. In the late 1950s, he immersed himself in civil rights activism — he met Martin Luther King Jr., in Montgomery — until, feeling battered by the experience of violence, he left the South. He headed to New York City. There he studied at Cooper Union, and became interested in abstract art. He forged friendships with painters of an older generation, Willem de Kooning and Norman Lewis among them. He hung out with younger abstract artists — Melvin Edwards, Al Loving, William T. Williams — who were, like him, looking to make work that was culturally and politically 'Black' without being overtly polemical. The art form that seemed to do that most successfully was jazz. Once an aspiring musician himself, Whitten always claimed it as a crucial influence. And he got his fill of it in the downtown clubs where Blakey, John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk — he knew them all — regularly played. (All four can be heard on an ambient soundtrack in MoMA's galleries.) And from the start he was experimenting. A 1967 oil painting called 'NY Battle Ground' — the reference is to civil rights and antiwar protests in the city — is explosively painterly in a classic Ab-Ex way. But already, in 'Birmingham 1964,' he had produced, from aluminum foil, stretched stocking and torn newsprint, a grief-and-fury-filled assemblage-style memorial to the 1964 church bombing that resulted in the deaths of four African American girls. And in the same year he had combined a screen-printing process and acrylic paint to create a ghostly photographic-looking image called 'Head IV Lynching.' Whitten would make acrylic paint, not yet in wide use, his medium of choice. And, in an effort to cut loose from conventional painting styles that privileged the artist's 'touch,' he found ways to physically distance himself from his work. An older African American painter Ed Clark (1926-2019) had pioneered this gambit earlier by painting with a janitor's push broom. Whitten took the technology further by inventing instruments from scratch, among them a 12-foot-wide version of a squeegee or rake — he called it the 'Developer' — with which he could apply a wide layer of paint to a horizontal canvas. Beginning in 1974, he used the instrument — an original version is propped against a wall — to produce a series of paintings he referred to as 'slabs.' Each painting consisted of several successive layers of paint with drying times of varying lengths between applications. In a finishing gesture, he dragged the squeegee, in one quick stroke, across the top of the 'slab' to uncover the layers beneath, a process he likened to the exposure of film to light in photography. The chromatic and textural variety achieved is truly virtuosic, both in the original 1974 series and in the variations that followed as he shifted his palette from color to black and white; his abstract mode from quasi-gestural to geometric; and the method of making the painting from horizontal to vertical orientation. All of this would probably have been enough to establish and sustain a long career, but big changes were still to come. New media arrived. After an artist residency at the Xerox Corporation in Rochester, N.Y., Whitten started painting and drawing with photocopy toner on paper. And after establishing a pattern of spending summers in Greece — the home of his wife Mary's parents — he focused his time there on producing an extraordinary body of African-inspired sculptures, carved from local wood and embedded with nails, tools and electronic detritus. In 1980, Whitten's TriBeCa studio was destroyed in a fire, and while renovating a new one he stopped making art for three years. When he began again it was with a set of newly invented forms and techniques. And from this point on an already powerful exhibition — organized by Michelle Kuo, chief curator at large, with an all-MoMA team led by Dana Liljegren with Helena Klevorn — lifts off into the stratosphere. The innovations were of two related kinds, both of which involved turning acrylic paint into a sculptural material. Using paint he made casts of objects he found on New York City streets — bottle caps, tire treads, manhole covers — and attached these casts, assemblage-style, to canvases or wood panels. The culminating work in this format is a 20-foot-long mural-like memorial to the destruction of the World Trade Center on 9/11, an event that Whitten witnessed firsthand. A pyramidal pileup of molds of shoes and glass and metal shards mixed with ash and dirt from the site, the piece has the entrapping weight of a PTSD nightmare and is as powerful a response to a still unthinkable event as I've seen in art. Actually, much of Whitten's art, starting with the 1964 Birmingham assemblage, is commemorative. And with another formal innovation, the use of acrylic mosaic, he introduced a versatile language for such content. You find it in pieces dedicated to the artist's mother and father, and in an exuberant 1998 shout out — an image of a sleek blackbird rocketing skyward —- to the irrepressible jazz singer Betty Carter, who died that year. And it has its most dramatic expression in the series of tributes called 'Black Monoliths' that appeared from the late 1980s through the end of the artist's life. These are dedicated to individual figures who shaped Whitten, either from a distance as public figures (Muhammad Ali, Representative Barbara Jordan), or through personal acquaintance. There's Jacob Lawrence, who mentored the young artist with career and life advice in New York. And James Baldwin, who showed him how to make Black identity and creativity one thing. And Ornette Coleman, one of the musicians who gave Whitten ways to connect, in what we might now call an Afrofuturistic approach, abstraction to science, politics and spirituality. The twilit gallery where the 'Monoliths' hang, black and glowing with their admixtures of bright-color tesserae and pearlescent dust, may be the single most beautiful room of contemporary art in any New York City museum right now. And the work in it defines the idea of identity in the way the introductory Blakey tribute does: as inclusive and expansive, cosmic and specific, monumental and molecular. Whitten spoke, with wishful optimism, of wanting to be an artist-citizen of the world, a world in which 'there is no race, no color, no gender, no territorial hangups, no religion, no politics. There is only life.' Life is what this great show of his fantastically inventive art is filled with.
