Anna Wintour Eagerly Anticipates Opportunity To Out-Preserve Woody Allen*
Is the Landmarks Preservation Commission really swayed by a letter from Anna Wintour or Jeff Koons? God, I hope not:
Developer Aby Rosen is beseeching his rich and famous pals to write to a key city panel in support of his controversial bid to build a 30-story tower on the Upper East Side.
Vogue editor Anna Wintour was among the glitterati to respond to Rosen’s call to arms, a form letter that asked some of the wealthiest New Yorkers to show their stripes for the redevelopment of 980 Madison Ave. at 76th Street.
Rosen and architect Lord Norman Foster have pitted themselves against many of the area’s well-heeled residents, who don’t want the 355-foot elliptical glass tower to be added to the Parke-Bernet Galleries.
The residential tower would forever alter the area’s skyline by matching the height of the nearby Carlyle Hotel.
The Landmarks Preservation Council, which has the final say, received hundreds of submissions before today’s 5 p.m. deadline.
The proposal has caused so much controversy that after 150 people turned up a public meeting to testify, the deadline for submissions was extended twice.
While the majority of submissions have called for the council to ax the tower, which is much taller than most buildings in the neighborhood, Rosen has banded together a gaggle of famous supporters.
Wintour, artist Jeff Koons, Betsy Bloomingdale, businessman Ron Perelman and celebrity doctor Patricia Wexler, along with several millionaires, artists and collectors, are among those who have declared themselves in the Rosen camp.
*See, for example.
Posted: December 5th, 2006 | Filed under: Architecture & Infrastructure, Celebrity, Manhattan, There Goes The Neighborhood