Ozymandius Realty has commissioned Vladimir Kagan, a well-known furniture designer, to design a 16-unit residential condominium building at 56 Great Jones Street in NoHo. The site also includes 350 and 352 Bowery.

The exotic design of the 10-story building calls for overlapping curved facades and its staggered form would be an interesting counterpoint to the New Museum of Contemporary Art that is due to open next week at 235 Bowery. The museum's design of shifted box-like forms has been designed by SANAA, whose principals are Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa.

Curves have become popular recently and are employed at One Astor Place, which was designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates, the Cooper Square Hotel, nearing completion at 25 Cooper Square at 5th Street and designed by Carlos Zapata and Perkins Eastman, One Jackson Square at 122 Greenwich Avenue designed by William Pedersen of Kohn Pedersen Fox and the IAC Building on West Street designed by Frank O. Gehry.

Ozymandius Realty is headed by Anthony T. J. Marano and Scott Marano.

Anthony Marajo Realty told CityRealty.com today that he was browsing in a furniture store in SoHo recently and admired a serpentine sofa designed by Mr. Kagan and was told that the designer would be in the store the following week. He met with him and discussed a possible building project on Mulberry Street and eventually they developed the scheme for Great Jones Street.

Mr. Marano said that the project will require a variance from the Board of Standards and Appeals and that a preliminary meeting has already been held with the board and a formal application will probably be submitted in "three to four months."

Mr. Marano said that the design shown in the preliminary rendering at the right will probably be changed to become "a little less geometric" and more asymmetrical. He said his concern is researching ways for the curved windows to be operable.

He said that Mr. Kagan, who is 80 years old, was trained as an architect in Russia and that ADG will be the architect of record. Mr. Marano also indicated that the yellow banding is "growing on" him but that the rendering is a bit "premature."

The site is one block north of Bond Street between Lafayette Street and the Bowery where several notable new projects are nearing completion.

Other projects of Ozymandius Realty include 50 Bond Street and 87 Leonard Street.

In 2006, a 1952 Serpentine sofa by Kagan sold for about $190,000 at Christie's.