Monday, October 15, 2007

It's the Palazzo Chupi for Bono

BUYER: Bono
SELLER: Julian Schnabel
LOCATION: West 11th Street, New York, NY
PRICE: Who knows?
SIZE: A big duplex

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Bono, the globe trotting do-gooder lead singer of U2, currently owns a 3,500 square foot duplex in the south tower of the venerable San Remo apartment building on the Upper West Side of Manhatan that he bought in August of 2003 from Apple CEO Steve Jobs for a reported $14,500,000. Many celebrities have or do call the San Remo home, including but not limited to Steven Spielberg, Dustin Hoffman, Donna Karan, and Demi Moore.

However, Bono has recently been battling another celebrity neighbor, Billy Squier, over the plumes of smoke from Mister Squier's fireplace that somehow infiltrates Bono's penthouse. According to the website Curbed (sourced from The Villager), the aging rocker has tired of this dispute and will soon be decamping for a downtown duplex penthouse at "Palazzo Chupi," the quixotic and controversial West Village building (pictured above) built by 1980s art world bad boy and filmmaker Julian Schnabel.

Since it's inception, the vaguely Venetian and quasi Florentine style building has raised the considerable ire of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (G.V.S.H.P), who at first argued that the 14 story building (3 original floors, 11 added on top) should never have been built due to neighborhood building height restrictions. Since the scaffolding and netting was removed in June 2007, many neighbors and a gentleman named Mister Berman, who heads up the G.V.S.H.P., are outraged and apoplectic over the vibrant color. Mister Schnabel thinks it's Pompeii red, other say it's hot pink. Which ever color it is, Your Mama thinks it is striking and quite fetching. Why must all new York buildings be either all glass or some boring variation of brick/brown color?

The building itself, however, is rather grisly, a disfigured concoction of balconies, balustrades and bizarrely arched windows. Clearly "Palazzo Chupi" will not win any architectural awards. Even still, Your Mama confesses, we sort of like the place. After too many years of hideously generic buildings going up all over lower Manhattan, and too many modern glass towers being built by big name architects, we find it refreshing to see a building with a strong point of view and a quirky and odd sense of itself. Is it pretty? No. Is it pleasing to the eye? Not really. But like Mister Schnabel, it's loud, intense and a little out of control, and we admire that the bombastic artist went out on a limb and built a building that is brash, thought provoking and has people taking all up and down the nearby Westside Highway.

If in fact the reports and rumors are true, Bono is only the second buyer in the building, besides of course Mister Schnabel who will occupy a vast apartment and utilize considerable square footage as studio space. It was only on the Second of October that Mister Max Abelson, a real estate gossip and journalist at the New York Observer, reported that financier William J.B. Brady recently became the first to close on a condo at the "Palazzo Chupi," having paid $15,500,000 for "Unit 1."

Lest the children think they can simply ring up any old real estate agent to get a glimpse of the apartments, let Your Mama educate you. If you want to buy one of the two remaining units at the "Palazzo Chupi," you must somehow get your interest in the building transmitted to the capricious Mister Schnabel, who has not listed the units with a broker. Apparently Mister Schnabel is negotiating all the deals himself, probably while wearing his pajamas.

What Your Mama really wants to know is not the hows and whys of Mister Schnabel's much talked about "Palazzo Chupi," but rather, why it is that Mister Bono is never seen without a pair of those ridiculous tinted glasses on his face? Anyone?

Sources: Toni Dalton for The Villager (photo)

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Immaculate

:)

Anonymous said...

I kinda dig it. Would have been nice if they'd gotten a little more cohesive with the Addison Mizner-y details, but it's interesting nonetheless. And the color rocks. Would be right at home in a Baz Luhrmann picture.

Anonymous said...

I live 2 mins walk from this monstrosity & it is a monstrosity ... can't believe Bono is leaving the San Remo for this - I'm amazed actually.

Anonymous said...

can you elaborate anon 2:32.. i am curious now.

:)

Anonymous said...

trivia time!!!

*bored as my plane is taxiing...

what is the well known saying below:

"Deter from enumerating your owned domestic fowl whilst their hard porous calcium containers are undamaged."

:)

. said...

Don't count your chickens before you eggs hatch! Fun!

Anonymous said...

booooooo aunt mary!

now i will have to dig up a new one!

*taking off..finally

:)

Anonymous said...

Il mio Dio! L'amore!! Multo erotico. El San Remo es muy agradable, pero...Come lei lo dice? Its not half as interesting as the village! And Mama, honestly, sweet-ums, are you that conservative that even colored lenses upset you? Come triste!

. said...

Maybe he has an eye infection. Maybe he's shy. Maybe he prefers his world tinted in his favorite color. Maybe he's too lazy to put on his eye make-up. Maybe he's a megalo-egomaniac whose good deeds are always performed on a world stage to a massive drum roll and he cannot deign to actually make eye contact with mere scum of the earth. And Hippie, don't you be all smartmoufed wif our Mama. And So-chic-darling, I'm with you on poking the lemmings of the style scene in the eye. Poke! Poke! Poke!

so_chic_darling said...

So where is Madonna buying now?That's the big Manhattan question.

Anonymous said...

Once upon a time, all I wanted was to lick Bono's stage sweaty, rock Jesus body. And then he started sporting a soccer mom bob and the glasses and Lord forgive me, all my lust for him evaporated.

CleverDevil said...

Not sure about the building, will have to check it out in person.

If you really want to know, I believe that Bono has some weird allergy that causes him to get red eyes and has to wear the glasses so he doesn't damage his retinas. Or he just wants to hide the redness.

Anonymous said...

I'd really like to see pics of Bono's San Remo apartment, anyone have any links?

Anonymous said...

Bono wears sunglasses all the time because his eyes are light sensitive