Posts from — April 2007

AWNY Photomat

by AllWaysNY

Lost Ad by AllWaysNY on Flickr.

This photo was snapped back in 1998 when this great advertisement for J.A. Keal’s Carriage Manufactory was briefly revealed in the middle of Times Square. The neighboring building had been demolished, revealing the ad, but it was again hidden by new construction. Forgotten NY has got some more about the ad and the surrounding area here.

April 11, 2007 No Comments

4 Billion Dollars and a Dream

by AllWaysNY

View the AllWaysNY Google Map of the Priciest NYC Properties

The New York Observer carried an article yesterday about the ten most expensive buildings in New York. After compiling the opinions of several local real estate mavens, John Koblin came up with:

GM Building (would go for $4 Billion+ if sold today)

MetLife Building

Rockefeller Center

9 West 57th Street (view AllWaysNY’s post on this early undulator)

245 Park Avenue

277 Park Avenue

7 World Trade Center

1 Bryant Park

4 Times Square

Seagram Building

Just like mother always said, if you’ve got a mid-century–present tower (doesn’t matter if the design is anything special, though ribbons or other wide expanses of glass are preferable), located in Midtown, with nice open floor plans, and some good buzz, you’ve got a winner. As to why some skyline icons like the Chrysler or Empire State did not fare well in the survey, Koblin points to their floor plans:

Something that New Yorkers regard as an engineering disaster—the MetLife Building girdling Grand Central Terminal, for instance—can be, for real-estate people, the gold standard for office towers. Why? A building like MetLife was designed specifically with bloated rent checks in mind, while the Woolworth Building’s tiny floor plates certainly were not. And higher rents mean higher sales prices.

The difference becomes even more evident when you compare the old floor plans of Woolworth Building (below left) with those of the new 7 World Trade Center (below right).