- Billionaire hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman seeks permission from New York’s Landmarks Preservation Commission to build a “flying saucer” penthouse on top of a 120-year-old building in Manhattan.
- Mr. Ackman has won the backing of Manhattans Community Board 7 on the Upper West Side for the plan to build his “temple for a titan” on top of a historic building that overlooks Central Park.
- A neighbor lamented that visitors from around the world would find “Ackman-eyrie in their field of vision and wonder who made this happen, what on earth possessed them?”
Maroosha Muzaffar from The Independent writes:
“Billionaire hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman is seeking permission from New York’s Landmarks Preservation Commission to build a “flying saucer” penthouse on top of a historic building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
Mr Ackman has won the backing of Manhattan’s Community Board 7 on the Upper West Side for the plan to build — what he likes to call — a temple for a titan, on top of the 120-year-old building that overlooks the Central Park.
The penthouse apartment on West 77th Street in New York City would replace a pink stucco penthouse on the 17th floor of the building.
Mr Ackman, 55, and his partner, Neri Oxman, bought it in 2017 for $22.5m.
In his video appeal to the Community Board 7 members, Mr Ackman said: “We love the site. We love the Upper West Side. My wife and I would like to raise our new family here, we have a two and a half-year-old child. Our approach here was to build something that would be additive to the neighbourhood.”
He added: “Everything is as minimal as it could possibly be. The bottom line is that no one will care as much as us about designing something that will be beautiful [and] have a minimal impact. We want to live peacefully with our neighbours, we do not want them to get angry with us.”
However, locals fear that the penthouse would ruin the world-famous New York views. One local said: “The indecency of the penthouse apartment is unsettling, it uses the 6-16 building as a strap for a platform stamp for a titanium. It stares at humanity and the wildlife below…”
See full story here.
Economic Left 
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