The construction shrouds around the controversial, 12-story, residential condominium building at 360 West 11th Street being developed by Julian Schnabel, the artist, began to be partially removed in June, 2007, to reveal soft red facades at the top punctuated asymmetrically by some Venetian-style windows and balustrades.

Mr. Schnabel has added nine-floors to a former 3-story stable building with a brown-brick fa??ade and, according to plans on file with the Department of Buildings, the building will have six apartments and a gallery.

The building is located between Washington and West Streets in the West Village.

In January, 2006, Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, led a group of about 20 demonstrators outside the offices at 280 Broadway of the New York City Department of Buildings, "DOB, Shame on You" and "Illegal work should never be rewarded."

The Department of Buildings had issued a stop work order on the project in early November, 2005, after complaints that Mr. Schnabel was continued to work on the project after it had been rezoned October 11 to permit smaller buildings than he planned.

Mr. Berman said that the department apparently lifted the stop work order shortly before Christmas and that work at the site resumed. He called upon the department to reverse its decision and revoke the permits, arguing that the 167-foot-high project exceeded the area's new zoning limit on heights to 75 feet.

Mr. Berman said his organization and the neighbors were "calling on the Mayor to intervene because the decision to lift the stop work order was a failure of the 311 system and the Department of Buildings to respond in time to complaints of illegal work that enabled Mr. Schnabel to "beat the clock" and finish foundations before the new zoning went into effect.

The permit was issued when the department said it was unable to substantiate the allegations.

An article in the June 13-19, 2007 edition of The Villager by Lincoln Anderson quoted Mr. Berman as criticizing the color of Mr. Schnabel's tower, shown in a photograph accompanying the article as bright and strong pink: "What it actually looks like is a house you would see in the hills above Hollywood - if it was two stories....it's a nightmare." "It almost looks as though he went to great pains to make this building as ugly as possibly and to make it stick out like a sore thumb," Mr. Berman continued, according to the article.

The actual color of the facades of the top of the building is somewhat less harsh than the photograph in The Villager and to some observers the various arched Gothic-style windows and balconies were somewhat reminiscent of the fabulous interior court of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, one of the nation s most hallowed sanctuaries of art.

Hut Sachs Studio, of which Thomas Hut and Karen Sachs are the principals, is the architect for the project and its website states that "the program for the final building is five luxury condominiums with swimming pool, a community facility and two floors for artist studio." The concern also worked with Mr. Schnabel on the recent interior renovation of the Gramercy Park Hotel, an Ian Schrager Company project. 

Another article by Mr. Anderson in the July 28-August 3, 2011 edition of The Villager noted that the facade's red paint had faded to a pale pink.

Some neighbors, he wrote, "feeling uneasy at the building's bright exterior, likened the hue to Pepto-Bismol," shortly after the initial paint job.