Madonna has bought a Manhattan mansion with 13 bedrooms for $US40 million, the New York Post reported on Tuesday.

The paper noted that despite the high price tag, the 26-room mansion on the Upper East Side still shook from the nearby subway trains.

However, Madonna evidently overlooked this inconvenience in favour of having such rare New York amenities as a two-car garage, a 3,000sqm garden, nine fireplaces, an elevator, a wine cellar with a grotto, 13 bedrooms and 14 bathrooms.

Louis Vuitton designer Marc Jacobs and boyfriend Lorenzo Martone are said to have signed a contract to buy a $13 million townhouse designed by Robert A.M. Stern in New York’s West Village, the Real Estalker reports.

The 4,500-sq.-ft. townhouse, located on Bethune St., has private elevator serving all floors, a rear terrace, a roof terrace and all the most modern electronic conveniences.

The entire complex is registered with the U.S. Green Building Council and the developers are aiming at achieving LEED Silver Certification which will make it one of the more energy friendly and politically correct condo complexes in New York City.

Here’s your chance to show just how much you heart New York : Magnum is launching a new Edition of the book “New York” published by Gloria that includes agelatin silver print by Leonard Freed (estate stamped).There are only 25 of them available worldwide.

The book hosts 1500 images, 756 pages, weighs 12 kg (26 pounds) and is housed in case designed to look like a skyscraper.

The book features the most iconic images of New York by some of the most respected photographers of our times .Included among the 28 featured Magnum photographers are Annie Leibovitz, Helmut Newton, Patrick Demarchelier and David Baily, exhibiting some of the most iconic images of New York alongside chapters written by such literary talents like EB White, Tom Wolfe, Anthony DeCurtis and Ric Burns, among others.

The book has thirty three chapters covering every aspect of the New York story, including history, architecture, design, art, fashion, music, film, television, dance, sport and 9/11. Chapters have been written by the cream of New York literary talent including Ric Burns, Anthony DeCurtis, Don DeLillo, Paul Goldberger, David Halberstam, Pete Hamill, Michael Kantor, David Remnick, James Sanders, Gay Talese, John Updike, EB White, Colson Whitehead and Tom Wolfe.

The Magnum edition also includes a 11×14 gelatin silver print by Leonard Freed, estate stamped - whichmeans that each print is authenticated by the Estate as being made from the original negative and approved in quality to be to the photographers standards. The actual stamp is a blind embossed stamp that is made on the bottom right margin of each print. Leonard Freed was of the league of photographers who never editioned their work. He never sold tremendous amounts of prints and never had exclusive gallery representation , making this book a true collectible.

The book will be launched on 5 Nov with an event at National Arts Club in New York. To reserve a copy email jennifer@magnumphotos.com . The price is $4,000.

A tower of jagged and jutting glass-faced apartments, “stacked” nearly 800 feet high, will rise like a giant game of Jenga over Tribeca.

The Alexico Group, developers of the $650 million project at 56 Leonard Street, at the corner of Church Street, released renderings of the long-anticipated designs. It is the first residential tower by the celebrated architecture firm of Herzog & de Meuron, whose work includes the redesign of London’s Tate Modern museum and the Beijing National Stadium in China.

The Switzerland-based architecture firm breaks down the old image of the high-rise as a sleek, hermetically sealed urban object to propose instead a thoughtful and daring new alternative - the iconic American skyscraper re-envisioned as a pixelated vertical layering of individually sculpted, graceful private residences opening to the atmosphere.

56 Leonard Street will be a 57-story residential condominium building in the Tribeca Historic District of downtown Manhattan, where it will rise above cobbled streets and historic 19th century neighbors. The tower will house 145 residences, each with its own unique floor plan and private outdoor space, in a veritable cascade of individual homes that the architects describe as “houses stacked in the sky,” blending indoors and outdoors seamlessly together.

The building’s 145 condominiums, due for completion in fall, 2010, will be priced from $3.5 million to $33 million.

Developer Izak Senbahar claimed he is confident that they will sell, despite Wall Street woes and the downturn in the economy. “It’s a big world,” he said, “and there’s a lot of money in the world, still.”

These pictures are from a wonderful New York City penthouse apartment designed by UnStudio. This building features a series of metal bands at different sizes that creates a unique shape for the building and provides a little character for each floor.

These some pictures of this building, the wide living area with modern fireplace, modern bar stool table, the bathroom with an awesome views.

The building is Five Franklin Place in TriBeCa.

Via momoy

Just before the week end, I wanted to show you guys one of my dream apartment :

Located on the 73rd floor of a Manhattan building, the apartment is a pied-a-terre overlooking Central Park designed by E Benqué for a private client in 2006.

The interior design is primarily structured by different relations to the view and the urban landscape.

The furniture elements can be moved around on the window frames and allow to sit right against the floor to ceiling windows and experiment the thrill of altitude.

The design principle throughout the apartment is to imagine the reflections of the objects in the windows. Everything is designed and chosen according to the image it will create, day or night, mixed with lights of the city.