Starchitect Skyline: Branded Glass Houses in the Sky - Manhattan real estate in history/ today: 19th century to 21st century homes

"Starchitect" aka Star Architect, architect -branded designer buildings throughout Manhattan are changing the face of neighborhoods, lighting up the NYC skyline and turning apartments into Live-in Works of Art.

Innovative designs, the move away from the standard cookie-cutter apartments, luxury service and views are attracting consumers that want everything taken care of for them. From valet parking, concierges, meditation gardens, infinity pools, electronically controlled sliding glass walls to restaurant service and room service.

Recent record sales taking place around the city, a real estate trend that is breaking down the old neighborhood boundaries by allowing the new buildings to become destinations in and of themselves.

From the glass Richard Meir buildings on the West Side Highway in the Far West Village to the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle, they built destination buildings that created something that didn't exist before, and therefore set new pricing boundaries. The neighborhood is still important, but the buildings today are offering a lifestyle as well.                                                                                            

The glass towers have a distinct 21st century look. Materials such as glass curtain walls, glass and stainless steel, glass cubes are as distinct to the new millenium as brownstone and limestone is to the 19th century. 21st century designed homes are offering luxury buyers a new alternative to the once more sought after charm, character and elegance associated with pre-war coops.

Branding is an effective marketing tool for real estate developers, name brand architects and designers considered to be the 21st century architects and the next generation of urbanists from Phillip Johnson's Urban Glass House, Downtown by Phillipe Stark, Santiago Calatrava's 80 South Street glass and steel townhouses, glass cubes stacked on top of each other from a sculpture to Jade Jagger's Chelsea Living "PODS" are creating a buzz and demand for their brand name buildings. 

New luxury condos with new park views are going up in Chelsea around the The High Line. The Caledonia, the first luxury condominium tower on the High Line will be completed Fall 2008.

The High Line runs through three of Manhattan's most dynamic neighborhoods, Hells Kitchen, West Chelsea and the Meat Packing District. New apartments are planned along the elevated 22-block park the High Line is to become. 

The High Line a 6.7 acre span of former abandoned elevated train track running 22 blocks that is being transformed into an open agri-tectural park. The 21st Century Central Park.

At the southern end of the High Line, in the meatpacking district, the Dia:Chelsea museum will serve as anchor for the new neighborhood, with a 330-room André Balazs hotel. The grit-and-glamour that New Yorkers love about the meatpacking district is expanding northward along the High Line through West Chelsea

Manhattan Residential Real Estate history from the 19th Century to the 21st Century:

The luxury apartment house was actually invented in New York in the late 19th century. Upper-class New Yorkers lived in townhouses and single-family mansions during the 19th century. By 1930, 90% percent of Manhattanites lived in apartments. To lure potential tenants, developers borrowed the word "apartment" from the French to make the new buildings sound more fashionable. The word and the lifestyle stuck.

 19th Century Townhouses

      Brownstone and limestone

In 1890 The Dakota was the first luxury apartment building in Manhattan. 

     It's Beaux Art style architecture was popular in the late 19th century.

In 1904 The Ansonia was called the most technologically advanced apartment house in the world. 

      Apartment house living spread from New York to the rest of the country.

 1930 Art Deco Buildings

     The San Remo

After World War II the New York apartment buildings became flat panels of brick and glass, lacking shape, color, texture, and ornamants.  

 1948                                                            

     Brick buildings

1961                               

     Buildings were white brick

1974                                    

     Concrete set back vertical rectangles with balconies

1989     

     Brick facade with glass - post modern

1999

     Distinctive Brick  facade of the 90's

20007

         Glass Towers of the New Millenium

Manhattan real estate in history/ today

A blog series by Mitchell Hall 

Landmark Living

Starchitect Skyline 19th - 21st homes

The Castle 455 Central Park West

The Ansonia 

The Dakota

50 West 86th            

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