Michael Nassar

Everybody knows the General Electric Building, the iconic structure that stands as a towering focal point of the Rockefeller Center building complex.  (Or at least everybody thinks they do)  Yet the other night while skyline-gazing on the magnificent rooftop of The Palace I discovered what turns out to be the original G.E. building – one of the most impressive examples of Byzantine-influenced Art Deco in the city – just a few short blocks  away to the east.

It was easy to get distracted by the southern view, which captured both the Chrysler and Empire State Buildings in one sweeping panorama.  However, looking to the east I quickly became enamored of the tall building on the corner of 51st and Lexington with Art Deco detailing in a warm rosy granite and an astounding Gothic latticework roof of carytids and sunbursts.  Thanks to the wonders of iPhone, I learned the 1931 skyscraper was first the home of RCA Victor, before becoming the General Electric Building.

Tucked in and behind St. Bart’s church, which fronts Park Avenue, the tower serves as an almost unofficial campanile, complementing the warm color of the church’s stonework while rising high above it.  It’s an unusual move for a commercial building and a very early example of contextual design.  And though by today’s standards the lobby would be considered small and sedate, there is a refined beauty in the details of  intricately vaulted ceilings and polished pink marble walls.

Even the subway entrance outside the building has a flash of Deco extravagance. Plus, notice the attention to detail afforded the glass lighting fixtures  along the perimeter.  Occupying such a small plot of land, the slim tower is adorned with a quantity of decorative detail that belies the building’s significance – which makes it the very quintessence of civic romance.

One last look at Imanta – just because architecturally I really do love how the complex integrates into the environment rather than disturbing it or being obtrusive.  From the locally quarried stone and responsibly harvested wood, to the black slate pools and minimalist interiors, it’s an obvious design (and ethos) homage to Aman Resorts, but who cares?  Conceptually the idea of high-style/low-impact is a new thing for Mexico, land of the gringo-driven, mega-resort beach hotel, so any place that can make good on the promise of sustainability deserves credit in my book.  To do so with a flash of wit or whimsy only heightens the seduction for this traveler.

By the way, Imanta is only three months old.  They’re just getting their sea legs, so to speak, but are off to a stellar start.  I’m looking forward to watching this one grow up.

Hailing from Australia, Bulgaria, Chile, England, Japan, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the USA, some  of the artists have been before, others not. Many have never before worked with snow and ice. It is a mix of men and women between thirty and seventy years of age: painters, multimedia designers, art directors and interior designers.  And all of them magicians, to an extent; all of them dreamers.

ICEHOTEL is often referred to as a fairytale world – a Narnia in Swedish Lapland.  Is it a hotel or an art installation?  A fantasy or the ultimate in hard-edged environmental realism?  Created each winter through a combination of wild imagination and  backbreaking work, it melts away under the unforgiving rays of the sun come springtime. All that remains are footprints, memories – and a few hopeful possibilities for the next year.

Label it what you will from a distance- it sounds like a place that needs to be experienced in order to be understood.

I was recently invited to travel to Norway next month and go trekking in search of the Northern Lights.

Coincidentally, an exhibition of the groundbreaking Norwegian architecture firm, Snøhetta, only just opened at Scandinavia House here in New York.  I’m eager to get down there to check it out before it shutters April 3rd.  Snøhetta is doing some of the most exciting work out there today:  socially conscious and sustainable, they create structures integrating culture, climate and context as these striking photos of the 2009 Mies van der Rohe Award winning Norwegian National Opera and Ballet in Oslo attest.  (Click each image for greater detail)

Even more exciting for New York, the firm has been commissioned to design the 9/11 Memorial Pavilion dowtown.