A Harlem neighborhood has told designer and hot-pink proponent Karim Rashid that they don't need no stinking balconies, but if they must have them, they want them with less cyan and watermelon coloring. The Wall Street Journal reports that HAP Investments, the developer that has given Rashid the chance to design a few buildings in Manhattan, has let Harlem residents vote on a new color scheme for the controversial Hap 5 condo tower, and ended up with a version with white balconies trimmed in magenta (in HAP's parlance, "translucent Cirrus with graduated Magenta balcony trim"). Nevermind that color was hardly their only issue with the project.
Neither the NIMBYs nor Rashid have gotten what they most wanted. Laurena Torres, a broker who has been petitioning to stop the building (which broke ground in April) tells the Journal she has "1,143 people who say they don't want this building to be here, period. Forget about the colors and the 300 votes for pink, green or smoke. The bottom line is all of them are ridiculous because the property is totally incongruous." In typical Karim form, the designer's outlook on this new color scheme (one out of five options that voters were presented with, all created by Rashid), still seems pretty positive: "The facade will have a beautiful warm feeling like a sunset," he says. "White glass always looks so elegant, the purity and cleanliness contrasting with the graduating pink hues running up the building." HAP, of course, now gets to say it let the neighborhood have a voice in the project.
· Quieter Hues Follow Outcry Over East Harlem Building [WSJ via Curbed NY]
· All Karim Rashid coverage [Curbed National]
Loading comments...