Schnabel's Latest Erection Panned

BUT IS IT ART? Schnabel Eighties art star Julian Schnabel's entry into the luxury real estate market is stirring up the kinds of emotions his paintings once did. Nearing completion on West 11th Street in Manhattan, the as-yet-unnamed tower has drawn the wrath of the Greenwich Village Society for Historical Preservation, whose executive director, Andrew Berman, described it as his "worst nightmares come true" in an interview with The Villager. Noting that the 11-story, 167-foot edifice looms high over the otherwise low-rise neighborhood, Berman sniped, "It's really a monument to this guy's ego."

Reinforcing that judgment, sources tell Radar that Schnabel, who will be the building's charter tenant, intends to hand-pick the other buyers himself, presumably to preserve his vision of moneyed bohemian perfection.