[NYguy]

Originally Posted by hartss

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/28/ar....html?ref=arts

The Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron has been enlisted to design a new residential tower in TriBeCa that will incorporate a monumental public sculpture at ground level by the artist Anish Kapoor, the project’s developer said. The real estate company Alexico Group, which also developed the Mark Hotel, said a design would be released in the fall. The tower is to rise at the intersection of Leonard and Church Streets, and the sculpture will be fully integrated into the architecture.

Sounds very interesting...from the earlier curbed.com quote:

Our source says Kondylis is off the project, and the new architects are, drumroll, Herzog and de Meuron.

So what are they up to? Oh, just a skyscraper made up of stacked glass cubes. There will be only two units per floor, and Corcoran Sunshine will market the project. Louise Sunshine, who put the Sunshine in Corcoran Sunshine, now works as the development director for Alexico, so there's the connection. Alexico is also developing the Remy in Chelsea, which also happens to be made of stacked glass cubes in a design by—wouldn't you know it—Costas Kondylis. But our source has seen the model for 56 Leonard Street, and it bares only "a very small likeness" to the Remy, and "looks nothing like" Santiago Calatrava's glass boxes at 80 South Street. Oh, did we mention this tower is going up completely as-of-right? Brace yourself, Tribeca, because the Swiss are coming.