Archinect - News

Flatiron Building developers announce residential conversion plans

2023-10-26T20:08:00-04:00

The building’s future as housing began to take shape this week when the Brodsky Organization, a residential developer, bought a stake in the 22-story, triangular-shaped tower on Fifth Avenue. Brodsky will lead the conversion, carving out units — either for sale as condominiums or as rentals — from the notoriously awkward space. The exact layout and the number of new residences have not been determined.

The project will take about three years to complete once plans finally clear the lengthy approval process. Developers told the New York Times they are considering multiple schemes but have yet to determine the total number of residential units the conversion will create.

The saga began with a botched auction sale in March and has implications as the Flatiron, which was one of New York’s first skyscrapers, is now the most historically significant structure included in the city’s push to create 40,000 housing units out of its existing office stock by the end of the decade.

Japanese designer showcases Flatiron Building-shaped speaker

2023-04-14T12:12:00-04:00

Japanese fashion designer Takahiro Miyashita, through his eponymous label TAKAHIROMIYASHITATheSoloist., has unveiled a Hi-Fi speaker in the form of New York City’s Flatiron Building.

The piece stands 43 inches tall and depicts the iconic structure like a sculpture in the process of being carved from a block of cement. The speaker’s material is a high-performance grade polycarbonate composite resin. It features seven speaker units, with an output of 2,000W and a wide frequency range of 20Hz to 25KHz.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by HYPEBEAST (@hypebeast)

The speaker is available for pre-order now, set to be available in early September. It is going for a price of approximately $6,768. More details can be found on the company’s website.

The Flatiron Building is still up for grabs after auction winner fails to make deposit

2023-03-28T17:20:00-04:00

Ownership of Manhattan’s iconic Flatiron Building is still up in the air after the surprise winning bidder at last week’s auction failed to follow through on a $19 million deposit that would have guaranteed his sole ownership of the building, which has been vacant for years.

Last week, the private equity firm known as Abraham Trust came out on top of a whirlwind auction that was initiated as part of a lawsuit brought against the building’s minority owner, Nathan Silverstein, by his partners to determine who takes over the sole controlling stake and can therefore decide its future.

As reported by the Commercial Observer, the firm subsequently missed the deadline to make its required 10% deposit on the property it bought for $190 million by Friday. This will set off a ripple effect, as the partnership that originally brought the suit and placed second in the auction is apparently declining its option to make the purchase at their final bid of $189.5 million. The result of their decisi...

For sale: One of New York's first skyscrapers

2023-03-15T17:12:00-04:00

A protracted battle over control of one of New York City’s most iconic buildings will finally be settled at auction later this month. A group of developers will hash out their ownership of the Flatiron Building after a State Supreme Court judge ruled a sale could move forward on March 22 at Mannion Auctions. The auctioneer, Matthew D. Mannion of Mannion Auctions, LLC, confirmed that the sale is public — meaning anyone can bid, and the Flatiron Building is therefore anyone’s to win.

The city’s landmark first skyscraper, designed by Daniel Burnham and Frederick Dinkelberg has sat empty since publishing house Macmillan left the building for greener pastures of FiDi in early 2019. However, the four majority owners of the property aren’t looking to sell, according to quotes they provided to Hyperallergic. “Our plan is hopefully to maintain ownership. We’re going to bid for the 25 percent,” explained GFP Real Estate Chairman Jeffrey Gural.

The minority partner they’re trying to force out, Nathan Silverstein, says it’s a matter of “different viewpoints with people who evidently get upset too quickly.” Gural added that the plan would then be to lease each of the 22 floors individually, adding that his only strategy heading into next week’s auction is to “play it by ear.”

NYC's hot new developer design trend: the 1902 Flatiron Building

2016-04-07T19:36:00-04:00

“The lots that determine the Flatiron shape have previously been avoided since the resultant interiors are unusual and not easy to market,” Patrice Derrington, director of the Center for Urban Real Estate at Columbia University, wrote last week in an email. “However, ‘as needs be’ developers are attending to these less favorable sites, as they eke out every last possibility.”

As new New York City real estate gets increasingly rare and pricey, architects are facing unusual design challenges. Herewith, some of most expensive, tiniest, and outré in NYC design news:

INABA's Flatiron Plaza installation adds a frame to NYC landmarks

2014-12-26T17:27:00-05:00

Back in September, Archinect published INABA's winning entry for the first-ever Flatiron Plaza Holiday Design Competition. Titled "New York Light," the public artwork was recently installed for the holidays and is now open to the public on...well, Flatiron Plaza.

Project description from INABA:

The Flatiron Plaza is a unique space in New York.

Standing in the middle of the plaza people can see two of the city’s great landmarks: the Flatiron and Empire State buildings. It is a place to experience the magnificence of Manhattan’s urban plan – with a dramatic view of Broadway cutting diagonally through the famous grid. And because Madison Square Park creates a clearing in the urban fabric, the plaza is one of the few places in the heart of the city to see the skyline from street level.

Our public art installation ‘New York Light’ pays tribute to the special urban experiences from this one-of-a-kind vantage point. Designed to echo the form of the plaza’s namesake building, the prow of the st...

Edward Hopper’s "Nighthawks" as life-size installation at Flatiron Building

2013-08-16T17:02:00-04:00

In celebration of Hopper Drawing, a life-size window installation of Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks (1942) is on view inside the landmark Flatiron Building's prow, one of the original architectural inspirations for the iconic painting. We recommend viewing it at sunset!