Our know-it-all big brother, Curbed NY, has declared war. It seems the three Curbed kingdoms—NY, SF and LA—all have their own BLU(E) buildings opening imminently. And predictably, the New Yorkers are exhibiting their usual sense of superiority and smug self-satisfaction. They seem to think their BLUE beats our blü. They even think SF's umlaut-deficient Blu is better than our blü. And those bike messenger/flash mob/fashion-challenged peeps in SF believe their Blu beats our blü.
So, it's time to settle this like men. Nerdy men with an Interweb poll. More info and poll after the jump!
We offer a side-by-side comparison above. But it’s unfair to compare renderings to finished product (NY's is an actual photo, not rendering). The reason we win is simple. We've got two words for New York: Adaptive re-use, bitches. Oh, yeah, you call it conversion back East. We'll concede it’s nice to have a well-known architect like Bernard Tschumi behind a project. We get it, NY. Your fragile little egos need to be reinforced by overpaying for a pedigreed name, even if the project is massively out of scale and context. We're using what we've already got, and turning it into insanely priced luxury rentals.
Need more reasons? How about the view, especially from the rooftop terrace and lounge--those are 360º views of the hills and ocean and more hills. Yeah, we got hills, mofos. What does the LES condo look out on? Trendy hipsters with crooked haircuts and ironic Ts? And what do we see from SF’s ho-hum Blu tower? A city that burnt down its own Burning Man. Sigh.
And let's talk luxury. Don't mess with 90210 when it comes to luxury. Amenities in the NY BLUE include a doorman. And some indoor grass. Woop-de. Who needs a doorman when you can have concierge that get you a last minute reservation at Spago? And our blü has a fitness center, personal training, in-home chefs and in-home massage, natch. If Angelenos know anything, it’s how to be pampered.
But most important: New York thinks our developers have no faith in their projects when it’s a rental, not a condo. We call it prescience.
You can read why Curbed NY disagrees here. And you can read Curbed SF's fight to win here. Once you're done, it's time to vote. And for LA, of course. The poll, which includes SF and NY readers, will be open until Monday at 5pm PST.