Thursday, March 7, 2019. Baby, it’s cold outside here in New York. Mid-20s by day and mid-teens by night. However, as you can see from JH’s photo, freezing or not, the beauty is there for the seeing.
First things first. Today, this morning at 11AM, Mr. Harry Macklowe and Patricia Landeau will marry at the Weylin, an “exceptional event space” in Brooklyn that used to be a Williamsburg Savings Bank. There used to be a time back in the 20th century when people who grew up in Brooklyn and then made it in Manhattan, never went back. I know Mr. Macklowe grew up in New Rochelle (a looooong way from Brooklyn in those days). But as Mr. Macklowe — who is one of New York’s most famous real estate developers — knows, Brooklyn today is both “in” and “up there.”
I mention that detail because “in” and “up there” is where Harry Macklowe tends to be present. I say that only because that’s where he always is when I read about him in the papers. Recently he’s been in the papers because of his billion dollar divorce from a long marriage.
He’s been seen in the company of Ms. Landeau for a long time. I’ve seen them several times at Sette Mezzo dining with friends. They look like a happy couple. The bridegroom wears the energy of a man half his age. You can see it in his smile. He’s also the guy who built the tallest building on the North American continent, at 432 Park Avenue. It may not be the tallest now since it has started a trend, but it was the first.
The wedding has already garnered a lot of press. The bridegroom even had photos of himself and his new wife installed on the corners of the glass cube of 56th Street and Park Avenue, adjacent to 432. The banners are 42×24 ft each. The photographs were taken in France by Harcourt Studios and reproduced in New York. They will be up there for a month. Hollywood couldn’t have done it better, even in the good old days.
He also issued this quote about it: “Our smiling faces being on a building that I built, I am proud of as well as of my wife, my life, my friends and colleagues. It gives me a great thrill to invite friends from my community whom I respect and regard and share this moment of joy and happiness.”
And as you are reading this (if your timing is right), the newlyweds will be dining and dancing on the 78th floor of 432 Park with the entire blanket of all of Manhattan, New Jersey, Long Island and Connecticut at their feet. The floor was gutted in order to create a special ballroom for 200 guests, many of whom are his colleagues in the real estate industry.
The party was designed and executed by David Monn with Olivier Cheng/Caviar Kaspa catering. The décor will be all white with white chandeliers. The candles will be white, and the flowers. But the David Monn touch will turn it all into something visually spectacular. The bride will be wearing an Ivory Chloe cocktail dress with Yves St. Laurent sandals. The groom will be wearing a custom Brioni.
That was today. Yesterday was a Michael’s lunch day. JH and I had one of our infrequent business meetings face-to-face. We entered the restaurant with a media scene at Table One. Kathy Lee Gifford was hosting a lunch for a dozen women. And it was obviously being filmed, as you can see from the photos.
Once seated at our table – which is next door to Table One – we learned that the guests at the table had come from all over the country, having been flown in by the “Today” show to attend Kathy Lee’s last show. The lunch was extemporaneous. After the show Kathy Lee invited them to lunch at the big round table in the bay. That’s all I know about it, and it’s all hearsay, but you could tell by the laughter at the table and the chatter that a good time was being had by all.
Michael’s chef Kyung Up Lim had come out of the kitchen to talk with Michael. JH had never met him and decided to take a picture of him with Michael and Steve Millington.
Michael and I were talking about the weather in LA in the past couple of weeks. “Rain,” he said. A lot of rain. His house sits on the hillside overlooking the beach in Malibu. He took a drive farther up to the area where so many houses were destroyed in the recent fires, leaving nothing but the devastation charred remains of the houses that once were there.
He showed us this photo above he took of the mountainside suddenly green from heavy rains. Beautiful. The hills are now richly verdant; no brown around as far as the eye can see.
Click here for NYSD Contents
