Stuart ElliottFrom the March issue: With more resilience than one might have anticipated, New York City developers are still thinking outside the glass box. Pundits said the recession was supposed to mean the death of good architecture in Manhattan, as developers sought to do more “value engineering” on their projects. Fancy design was expected to be the first thing to be eliminated from the budget. But recent projects — led by 8 Spruce Street, Manhattan’s new tallest residential tower — show that’s not the case. Not only vital for New York’s competitiveness among world cities, this sort of forward-thinking architecture is great news for the real estate world — and for real estate values. [more]

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission approved a less formidable expansion of a six-story building at 980 Madison Avenue between 76th and 77th streets, two years after rejecting a proposed 30-story glass addition to the building, according to the New York Times. Architect Lord Norman Foster and landlord Aby Rosen had faced a firestorm of controversy over their proposed changes in 2006, receiving a scathing review from New York Times critic Nicolai Ouroussoff. Later alterations to the plan were also denied by Landmarks. The most recent plan, approved by a 7-to-1 vote, includes an addition limited to 108 feet.