Art Guides
Aby Rosen Courts Collectors for His New Luxury Tower With Art
A large Rachel Feinstein mirror mural will grace the entrance.
A large Rachel Feinstein mirror mural will grace the entrance.
Eileen Kinsella ShareShare This Article
This morning at the Seagram building on Park Avenue, real estate tycoon and renowned art collector Aby Rosen discussed details of the ambitious plans for his new 63-story luxury tower, designed by Foster + Partners, and currently under construction at 100 East 53rd Street (which is immediately adjacent to the Seagram).
The new building will have 94 units in total, with apartments starting at $3.3 million. Real estate blog, The Real Deal, says the building will include a $55 million duplex penthouse, while another duplex on floors 10 and 11 will have an asking price of $35 million. The building will also feature a 60-foot swimming pool, wellness facility, spa, library, and sitting rooms. Each home is designed for residents with an appreciation of art, architecture and culture.
Rosen spoke briefly at the breakfast, which of course was elegantly catered by Sant Ambroeus, noting that the ground floor of the new space will feature an “innovative world-class food court with four or five hand-picked vendors and casual seating.” It will also feature a high-end restaurant residents will be able to access directly.
Of course, given Rosen’s penchant for cutting-edge contemporary art, the development will also feature site-specific works by some high-profile contemporary artists. First and foremost is Rachel Feinstein, whose giant mural painted on mirror will grace a marble wall of the front entrance. A smaller scale version of Feinstein’s mural was on view this morning at the new building’s sales gallery, which is located on the 15th floor of the Seagram building.
Rosen noted that the smaller-scale model of the Feinstein mural was intended to give an idea of how the final work will be situated.
“We love her New York upbringing,” Rosen told artnet News at the event. “We love her way, how she paints on mirror. Basically you walk in and out of the building and you see yourself but you see yourself within a skyline or a fantasy world that she creates.”
There are plans for two other, relatively smaller commissions from New York artists, but these are yet to be finalized, Rosen said. “The idea is to bring in New York artists who understand the energy we want to create here.”
We also saw eye-catching works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, and Cy Twombly hanging on the walls of the sales gallery.
“This is a little bit different,” Rosen added, on the subject of the art for the new luxury building. “It’s not like we’re curating and changing it all the time. When it’s a condo project like this, you’re going to set it in place and you want to let it mature. That’s how the art becomes part of the building. When you constantly change it, it’s equally exciting but it’s not the MO that we’re going to have for that building.”