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Foliage
in Central Park. Photo: JH.
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This
past Tuesday night New Yorkers got one of their first looks at
part of the interior of the twin glass prismatic towers of
AOL/TimeWarner, or TimeWarner, however they are calling themselves
these days. About a week ago there were some previous private/public
openings in the condominium section of the building that has
been under construction for the past two or three years and
now dominates Columbus Circle as well as Central Park South
and much of the area around it.
Just a few hundred yards away is Donald Trump’s
Trump Tower and Hotel which used to dominate Columbus Circle from
the time it was originally built 30 or so years ago as the Gulf+Western
Building. From the view on the 74th floor of the TimeWarner building,
you look down on the Trump building, big black glass tower, just
a few hundred yards away. And as you do, you can clearly read the
enormous banners Mr. Trump unfurled a few weeks back, suspending
them from the top of his building. There are four in a line and they
say, in total, something like: So you thought you’d have an
unbroken view, the greatest view, of the Park and now you can see
you don’t.
It’s true, technically but mainly it’s just the very
clever Mr. Trump having the last word, or his version of it and it’s
kind of amusing to say the least. Although there are a lot of other
tall buildings getting in the way of unblemished views from the new
tower.
It doesn’t matter, the new TimeWarner tower is sensational,
at least for the moment. And humongous. And if you could afford to
live there, (I saw a two bedroom, three and a half bath apartment
for about $9 million), and if you like living at a very high elevation
with views to the Atlantic and Connecticut and Northern New Jersey,
it is fabulous, simply fabulous. |
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Dinner
in the Grand Ballroom of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel
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Tuesday
night’s event was in the ballroom of the new Mandarin
Oriental Hotel which is in the north tower. The
lobby is on the 35th floor. The ballroom is on the 36th. The
views are spectacular. At night you can’t see the Trump
building because it’s black. To the south you’re
looking directly at the Biography Weather sign on Central Park
South.
The evening was for Americans For the Arts and chaired by Veronica (Mrs.
Randolph) Hearst, with co-chairs Agnes
Gund and Eli Broad. There were six honorees: Teresa
Heinz (Philanthropy in the Arts Award), Richard
Avedon (Lifetime Achievement Award), Christo and
Jeanne Claude (Artistic Leadership Award), Vance
Coffman (Lockheed Martin-Corporate Citizenship in the Arts
Award), Sofia Coppola (Young Artist Award), Kirk
Varnedoe (Special Memorial Tribute for Extraordinary Contributions
to the Arts).
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Richard
Avedon
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The presenters
were Arthur Mitchell presenting to Teresa Heinz,
Veronica Hearst to Richard Avedon, Vartan Gregorian to
Christo and Jeanne Claude, Aris Melissaratos to
Vance Coffman, Jim Jarmusch to Sofia Coppola, Chuck
Close accepting the Tribute Award for Kirk Varnedoe.
There was a short film accompanying each honoree. Mrs. Heinz, who
is actually now Mrs. Senator John Kerry, for example,
presides over a charitable trust that has invested heavily in the
rebuilding and refurbishing of Pittsburgh, once a great industrial
city because of steel.
The artist Chuck Close accepted a posthumous award for Kirk Varnedoe,
the dynamic director of MoMA who came to an untimely death (in his
late forties). Close described a remarkable American personality
whose greatness held so much more promise.
Sofia Coppola was very gracious in thanking all of those who’d
helped her develop her career and especially her parents.
Jeanne Claude Christo, speaking for herself and Christo (they are
known professionally as Jeanne Claude and Christo) talked about the
new Christo project they are constructing in Central Park in 2005.
There was a brief video of Mr. Avedon’s affecting portraits
(Marilyn Monroe, for example) and a video interview
with Andre Gregory (My Dinner With Andre) talking
about his friend’s photographic genius. Vance Coffman, the
head of Lockheed-Martin told the audience how important it was for
his corporation to be involved in the culture of the community, to
nurture and inspire.
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Veronica
Hearst and Vartan Gregorian. Photo: Patrick
McMullan.
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Perri
Peltz was the emcee and she looked very elegant in her
Badgley Mischka silvery gown, wearing an additional black strap
over one shoulder, holding up a black arm sling. Very chic, kinda,
but .... She had accidentally fallen while removing herself from
her child’s bed after putting him to sleep (she was trying
to do it without moving him, so as not to wake him). She’d
fallen against a bookcase and broke her collarbone. That was a
couple of days before. Very painful but Perri is a trouper and
knows the show must go on.
Black tie, big crowd for dinner, including: Jeff Koons, Eric
Fischl, Richard Serra, Ellen Zimmerman, David Shapiro, Ross Bleckner,
Robert Wilson, Hiro, Patrick Demarchelier, Anna Deveare Smith, Sophie
Dahl and Dan Baker Jr., New York City School Chancellor Joel
Klein, Amanda Hearst, Jamie Johnson, Dorothy Lichtenstein, Harold
Koda, Jeffrey Deitch, Glenda Bailey, Tory Burch, Jacquetta Wheeler,
David Rockefeller Jr., Elizabeth Strong-Cuevas, Fabiola Beracasa,
Alexander Von Furstenberg, Shoshanna Lonstein, Hope Atherton, Glenn
Lowry, Simon De Pury, Narciso Rodriguez and Jessica Seinfeld, Alberto
Vilar, Andres Santo Domingo, Zoe Cassavetes, Drue Heinz, Jamie Niven and Alan
Blinken to name a few. |
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Hope
Atherton, Nikhil Sharma, and Jeffrey Slonim
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Veronica
Hearst and Jaime Niven
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Bill
Cunningham
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Jamie
Johnson and Amanda Hearst
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Sofia
Coppola (right)
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Patrick
McMullan and Richard Avedon
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L.
to r.: Lily Koppel and Bob Lynch; Jeanne-Claude
and Christo; Aileen Mehle.
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Mr.
and Mrs. Richard Avedon
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Chuck
Close and Richard Avedon
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Ahn
Duong, Simon DePury, and Patrick Demarchelier
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Austin
Hearst and Peggy Siegal
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David
Rockefeller, Jr. and Elizabeth de Cuevas
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Teresa
Heinz with Harry and Jill Kargman
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L.
to r.: Bob Colacello and Claudia Cohen; Jessica
Seinfeld and Narciso Rodriguez; Fabiola Beracasa,
Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss, Zoe Cassavetes, and Sofia
Coppola. Photos: Patrick McMullan.
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L.
to r.: David Rockefeller, Jr., Elizabeth de Cuevas,
and Ashton Hawkins; Patrick Demarchelier and Kate Betts;
The All City Chorus.
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