Norman Foster presented proposals for a master plan to bring clarity back to Grand Central Terminal at The Municipal Art Society of New York's annual Summit in New York. Grand Central Terminal is one of New York's greatest landmarks and contains perhaps the city's finest civic space. However, over time it has become a victim of its own success. A building designed to be used by 75 thousand people per day now routinely handles ten times that number with up to a million on peak days. The result is acute overcrowding; connections to the rail and subway lines beneath the concourse are inadequate; and the arrival and departure experience is poor. Added to that, the surrounding streets are choked with traffic and pedestrians are marginalized. The rapid growth of tall buildings in the vicinity has all but consumed the Terminal. Within the station, the proposal creates wider concourses, with new and improved entrances. Externally, streets will be reconfigured as shared vehicle/pedestrian routes, and Vanderbilt Avenue fully pedestrianized. The proposal also creates new civic spaces that will provide Grand Central with an appropriate urban setting for the next 100 years. The 42nd street entrance to the south, where access is severely constrained, will be widened to fill the entire elevation by using existing openings, thus greatly easing accessibility. The access via tunnels on the northern approach from Park Avenue will be rebalanced in favor of pedestrians by creating grander, enlarged underground spaces through the Helmsley building. Lexington Avenue to the east will be tree-lined with wider sidewalks and will benefit from more prominent and enhanced tunnel access to Grand Central Terminal. The idea already mooted to pedestrianize Vanderbilt Avenue to the west would be extended. The street would be anchored to the south by a major new enlarged civic space between 43rd Street and the west entrance to the Terminal and to the north by a plaza accommodating new entrances to the East Side Access lines. Trees, sculpture and street cafes will bring life and new breathing space to Grand Central Terminal. At platform and concourse levels where congestion is particularly acute for travellers on the 4, 5, 6 and 7 lines, we will radically enlarge the connecting public areas, to address the huge increase in passenger traffic in the last 100 years. This will transform the experience for arriving and departing commuters and passengers. A generous new concourse will be created beneath the west entrance plaza on Vanderbilt Avenue connecting directly into the main station concourse. This visionary master plan with its focus on pedestrians and travellers will allow Grand Central Terminal to regain the civic stature that it deserves as a major New York landmark and an appropriate twenty-first century transport hub.

The powerful prime minister of Qatar is ready to plunk down nearly US$ 100 million for the city's most expensive penthouse - an ultra-luxe, two-story pad atop the under-construction One57 condominium across the street from Carnegie Hall, The New-York Post reported. The stunning duplex penthouse, with total area 1 thousand square meters, features a "grand salon," a large mezzanine, four fireplaces, floor-to-ceiling windows, at least five bedrooms, and motorized window shades, placed in the 90-story One57 building. Sheik Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani first eyed the spread after a Fifth Avenue board rejected his bid to spend US$ 31.5 million on two apartments owned by the late Huguette Clark, an eccentric American copper heiress and he decided to buy the One57 penthouse only after the Huguette Clark rejection. Sheik Hamad also opened discussions with Extell Development about buying a cluster of four separate, full-floor condos in One57 building. According to publication, that would up the total purchase to a staggering US$ 250 million. He wants his relatives to live in these apartments. The sheik has two wives and 15 children and a huge entourage. Previous price record belonged to an unknown buyer, who paid US$ 90 million in May for the penthouse in the same building, One57. Earlier the Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev bought an apartment in New York for US$ 88 million for his student daughter.

Construction officially begins on tower 432 Park, which after completion will become the tallest residential tower in New York, reported The New York YIMBY. While excavation on the site of 432 Park has been ongoing for several months, no foundation work had yet been completed. On May 14 marks the first laying of rebar for the base of the building. With foundation work now formally underway, 432 Park should be at street level within several months. The only similar tower in the city One57 rose to grade fairly quickly, although financing issues paused actual building's rise several times through construction. The simplicity of 432 Park's design could mean that the tower will rise even faster than One57. The new tower is constructing at the site of the former Drake Hotel on New York's Park Avenue has long been a subject of fascination in the development world. According to The Wall Street Journal, the CIM Group, owner of the building, a Los Angeles real-estate company founded by two former Israeli paratroopers and a Drexel Burnham Lambert executive has emerged as one of the country's most active property buyers, emerged new details for New York tallest residential tower. The 425 meters tall tower, designed by Rafael Vinoly and developed by Harry Macklowe, is expected to cost US$ 1.2 billion. There will be 128 units would vary in size from 130 square meters to more than 740 square meters, 25 studios to house residential support staff and the retail would run along 57th Street with 30 meters of frontage. The building is planned to hit substantial completion in April 2015. The expected average sales price is US$ 48.500 per square meters, which would be below recent resale at the Time Warner Center and asking prices at One57. As we reported earlier , a new mark for the priciest home in New York City was setting. An unknown buyer has paid US$ 90 million for the 1015 square meters penthouse on the 89th and 90th floors of One57.

According to US publications, an unknown buyer has paid over US$ 90 million for an unfinished penthouse apartment, setting a new mark for the priciest home in New York City. He bought the 1015 square meters penthouse on the 89th and 90th floors of One57, the building currently under construction at 157 West 57th Street. The building, which features a Park Hyatt below the condominium units, will offer striking views of the southern end of Central Park and will be among New York's tallest residential structures when it is completed next year. Since One57 opened for sales in December, about half of its 92 apartments have been sold. This purchase breaks the previous New York City record of US$ 88 million paid by a Russian billionaire to buy a Central Park West apartment for his daughter last year. As we reported earlier, it is 10-room penthouse with total area of 626 square meters. On a per-square foot basis, however, this is a much better deal. The latest sale went for about US$ 8 thousand a square foot (US$ 88 600 for 1 square meter), while the Central Park West pad went for more than US$ 13 thousand (US$ 140 000 for 1 square meter). Foreign buyers, including Brazilians, Chinese and Russians, have been on a buying spree in New York and Miami in recent months, developers and brokers say. Russian and Ukrainian buyers have shown a particular willingness to pay top dollar for so-called trophy properties. Gary Barnett, president of Extell Development Company, was quick to dispel any notion that the One57 penthouse was sold to a Russian, saying the buyer was not Russian, Ukrainian or from "any other part of the former Soviet Union." He described the buyer as a "very nice family" who plans to use the penthouse as a residence, and as "someone that people would recognize." One57 is a 90-story skyscraper currently under-construction in New York City. Upon completion in 2013, it will stand at 306 meters tall, making it one of the tallest buildings in the city. The mixed use tower is developed by the Extell Development Company and the Pritzker Prize-winning architect Atelier Christian de Portzamparc designed One57 with SLCE Architects. The building will have 135 residential units on top of a Park Hyatt Hotel with 210 rooms. Foundation work started in January 2010.

Russian businessman Dmitry Rybolovlev bought the most expensive apartment in central New York for US$ 88 million, reported the New York Observer. It turns out, the most expensive home in the history of Manhattan real estate. Rybolovlev owned 10-room penthouse at 15 Central Park West in New York. The total area of apartment exceeding 626 square meters, besides this it's surrounding by terrace area over 190 square meters. According to New York Observer, former principal owner of the "Uralkali" was the 93rd richest person in the world with a net worth around US$ 9.5 billion. Were he to move in full-time, that would make him the fifth richest New Yorker, behind David Koch, Mayor Bloomberg, John Paulson and Ronald Perelman. This is not the first time a rich Russian has set real estate records this year. The current belt is held by Igor Krutoy, a Russian composer who paid US$ 48 million for a massive spread just across the park at the Plaza. The fertilizer kingpin is no stranger to staggering real estate. In 2008, he purchased Donald Trump's 3 thousand square meters Florida estate, Maison L'Amitie, for US$ 95 million. Photo gallery here.