They are advertised as one-of-a-kind homes in the air.But the floor-to-ceiling glass towers popping up in record numbersacross New York City are starting to sound an awful lot alike.Twonew high-rises, one on the Upper East Side, the other in Brooklyn, ahave the same name: Azure, a deep shade of blue. Seem familiar? Itshould. On the Lower East Side, another new building is called Blue. SkyHouse, under construction on East 29th Street, is not to be confusedwith the Cielo {Italian for “sky”}, on East 83rd Street. And then thereare Star Tower, in Long Island City, and Solaria, in the Bronx. Itis an unintended consequence of the city’s historic building boom: atraffic jam of similar sounding names. To showcase the sweeping viewsfrom buildings with huge, wrap-around windows, real estate developersare flocking to a set of words that evoke the sky, clouds and stars. Builderssay there are only so many ways to describe a glass box, the undisputedarchitectural aesthetic of the moment. Similar names, they argue, areinevitable.But several acknowledged that the fixation with allthings celestial could backfire. “The danger is that they start tosound the same,” said Nancy Packes, president of Brown Harris StevensProject Marketing, which helped name Azure on the Upper East Side.Atleast four new buildings, for example, are named for objects in thenight sky: Orion, Lucida {the brightest star in a constellation}, Ariel{a moon of Uranus} and South Star.“Manyof these names are really bumping into each other,” said David J. Wine,vice chairman of Related Companies, a major developer in the city,which has favored traditional-sounding names, like the Brompton, for aluxury condominium under construction on the Upper East Side. “It is a bit surprising,” he added.Trendsin New York building names are not new. Builders seized on the AmericanWest around 1900, producing the Wyoming, on West 55th Street, a blockaway from the Oregon, on West 54th, and across the park from the Idaho,on East 48th. And, of course, there is the Dakota, on West 72nd Street. Soon after, a wave of Francophilia yielded the Bordeaux, theCherbourg and the Paris. Native American motifs were enshrined in theIroquois, the Seminole and the Waumbek.Trees {Laurel}, Greek mythology {Helena} and Spanish cities {Madrid} have all woven their way into the city’s skyline. Andmailing addresses are often used as building names, especially when thestreet is considered prestigious, like Park Avenue or Perry Street, inthe West Village. Occasionally, names flop. When developers converted the Stanhope Hotel, across from the Metropolitan Museum of Arton Fifth Avenue, into luxury apartments two years ago, they called theproject the Stanhope. Few takers emerged, and the name was discarded infavor of the street address, 995 Fifth Avenue.What is striking about the latest wave is just how closely — or haphazardly — some of the names overlap. Thegoal, after all, in a crowded real estate market like New York, is tostand out, not to blend in, said Mr. Wine, of Related. Most of theunits in the new towers go for $1 million or more.“You need to be distinctive,” he said, “and a good name can do that.”Abuilding’s name is so important that developers spend monthsdeliberating over it. People involved in the process describe it as themost intense, emotional and combative phase of a building’s development.Thename must at once convey an image — trendy or traditional, luxurious oraffordable — it must be catchy and, of course, it must be memorable. Developersgenerally start with a list of more than 100 names and, working withmarketing experts, advertising executives and graphic artists, slowlywhittle them down to one. The winner becomes the centerpiece of amarketing campaign, typically costing millions and including newspaperadvertisements, Web sites, glossy advertorials and sales centers.Thegroup charged with naming a condomi
www.nytimes.com/2008/07/08/nyregion/08names.html?th&emc=th