Heiress Bidding To Out-Beautify Von Furstenberg Buildings

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The New York Sun

The new owners of the designer Diane von Furstenberg’s two far West Village buildings, which house her flagship store, offices, and residence, next week will show neighborhood groups an alternate design for the site.


The meeting is an attempt to persuade the community to consider the design “a more beautiful building” than what currently exists on the site and thus to grant it an exception to restrictive zoning laws that are likely to take effect soon. The new design was rendered by a celebrity French architect, Christian de Portzamparc.


Last year, a Russian heiress and former model, Anna Anisimova, then 19, purchased the buildings on West 12th Street from Ms. von Furstenberg for $23 million on behalf of Coalco International, a Russian company owned by her father, Vasily Anisimov. Mr. Anisimov, who earned a spot on Forbes’s “richest Russians” list, has an estimated net worth of $350 million.


Ms. von Furstenberg, who is married to the entertainment tycoon Barry Diller, is planning to move her operation soon to another West Village address.


One of the two buildings on West 12th is the oldest surviving factory on the Greenwich Village waterfront and one of a few standing 19th-century stables, and neighborhood groups are trying to get it designated a city landmark.


Mr. de Portzamparc won the renowned Pritzker Prize in 1994. His New York designs include the glass LVMH building on East 57th Street.


Under the current regulations, Coalco could construct a building of between 12 and 15 stories, but the Department of City Planning’s proposed revisions would limit building height in the area to 80 feet. The revisions await approval by the Planning Commission and the City Council this fall. The new restrictions would then take effect immediately.


An attorney representing Coalco, Jay Segal, said yesterday that ownership was reaching out to community groups to “see whether they would support a building that was closer to the original zoning if it was a gorgeous building, not just a nice building.”


Mr. Segal said Coalco purchased the building with the understanding that the old zoning regulations applied, allowing it to build more freely on the site. He spoke of the financial loss that Coalco would suffer under the new regulations.


“All we want to do is find something attractive enough so that other people would want to see it. Frankly, it’s a long shot,” the lawyer said.


At the time of the sale, Ms. von Furstenberg was quoted in the press as saying the buildings were to house Ms. Anisimova and suggested that a large development on the site was unlikely.


A meeting is scheduled for next Friday of the executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, Andrew Berman; a member of local Community Board 2; the architect, and representatives from Coalco.


A woman who lives in a building adjacent to the site, Rachel Chanoff, said no new design would persuade her to support a Coalco request for an exception. She said a group of about 5,000 residents of the far West Village sent a letter to Mayor Bloomberg; the chairman of the Landmark Preservation Commission, Robert Tierney, and the director of the Department of City Planning, Amanda Burden, asking that the von Furstenberg building and another threatened structure nearby, the Superior Inks building on West Street, be preserved and designated as landmarks.


“Not only do we not want a new, gorgeous building, we want the original building left there,” Ms. Chanoff said. “No matter who the architect is, it’s not about a towering gorgeous building, it is about a certain part of history that is going to be destroyed.”


Mr. Berman, the preservationist, said he would come to next week’s meeting with an open mind but it is “highly improbable” he could be shown a design that would persuade the Village group to loosen zoning restrictions they have been fighting for.


Mr. Berman said his group’s efforts to control development in the far West Vil lage were very public at the time of the purchase, and he questioned why Mr. de Portzamparc could not design a “beautiful building” under more restrictive zoning regulations.


“It doesn’t require ugly materials or cheap detail. You can build something very beautiful under new zoning,” Mr. Berman said.


The president of Coalco, Mikhail Kurnev, said sketches of Mr. de Portzamparc’s design were still on the drawing table but would be available next week.


The New York Sun

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