40 Mercer NYC

Andre Balasz and architect Jean Nouvel have collaborated on a 13-story loft/retail homage to glass 40 Mercer. When this design was approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, way back in 2001, Times critic Herbert Muschamp called it the "most significant architectural initiative we've seen from city government" since the landmarks law passed in 1965. After praising the building's use of glass from every conceivable angle, Muschamp got to the point.

"Not least," he wrote, "this design is about sex...Modulating the visual texture of glass with reflectivity, fretted patterns, screened-on images, blurring, veiling, coloration, support systems and other techniques, these projects summon forth states of narcissism, exhibitionism, voyeurism, veiling, vamping, elusiveness, disconsolation, Hitchcock's blonde."