Link-o-rama...

April 16 (Bloomberg) -- The mottled surface of 100 11th Ave. will shimmer like a towering alligator handbag or sparkle as if sheathed in sequins. Paris celebrity architect Jean Nouvel has just upped the ante on Manhattan condo design.

The crinkly glass that clads the $150 million, 23-story condo tower for locally based Cape Advisors Inc. blows away the pink-brick drabness that's been strangling New York apartment architecture for decades. Contractors are digging foundations for the project, where penthouse asking prices range to $22 million. Move-in is slated to begin in December 2008.

Nouvel, 61, curves the building from south to west to take advantage of Hudson River views from its site at the western edge of the Chelsea gallery district (it's next door to Frank Gehry's new IAC building). The surface is faced in densely nested rectangles of windows, from 2 feet tall to as wide as 16 feet. All are slightly tilted or angled, and some are tinted in subtle shades of gray. To enrich the kaleidoscopic effect, Ateliers Jean Nouvel has even prescribed window shades in tones that range from beige to brown.