Slazer Enterprises of New City, New York, announced today that it has commissioned the Office of Metropolitan Architect (OMA), which is headed by Rem Koolhaas, to design a 22-story mixed-use building at 23 East 22nd Street directly behind its One Madison Park residential project at 22 East 23rd Street.

The buildings will share residential entrances at 23 East 22nd Street although the towers will be separate. The new building will have 21 residential condominiums and is scheduled for completion in 2010.

One Madison Park, a rendering of which is shown at the right, is under construction now and will have 90 apartments in a blue-and-light-gray glass facade with 7 "pop-out" elements of four to six stories each on its north side. The "pop-outs" appear to wrap around the building's northeast corner and do not extend to its northwest corner and, furthermore, are separated vertically by one story.

One Madison Park, which was originally called Saya, has been designed by Cetra/Ruddy Inc., and will be about 600 feet high and the tallest on the south side of Madison Square Park.

The new building is being building in collaboration with Creative Artists Agency and will feature screening facilities.

Ira Shapiro, co-founder with Marc Jacobs of Slazer Enterprises, said in a statement that the partnership with "Rem Koolhaas/OMA and CAA is incredibly exciting" as it will be OMA's first residential building in New York and "give One Madison Park residents access to a screening room unlike any other."

OMA, which is based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, has designed the spectacular Seattle Public Library, the Prada Epicenter in Los Angeles and New York, the IIT Campus Centre in Chicago, and is now designing an extension of Cornell University (NY), 111 First Street, a high rise residential building and hotel in Jersey City (NJ).

Its office in Beijing is designing the monumental and very impressive China Central Television Headquarters and Television Cultural Center now under construction in Beijing and the new Shenzhen Stock Exchange and a high-end residential tower in Singapore.

Its other projects include a new head office of the Rothschild Bank in London, the Cordoba Congress Center in Spain and a contemporary art museum in Riga and various projects in the Middle East.

OMA managing partner Victor van der Chijs said in today's announcement about the new Slazer tower that "For OMA this is the first time our office will participate on such a financial base in a project," adding that "We not only incur the risks of being involved but we will share the added value normally gained only by the developers."

No renderings of the OMA building are available yet.