Newsday from New York, New York • 139

Funk for Aesthetics s- i Ortr Muhammad IplThe Solomons at their office at 12 E. 49th St I Upland-Comers e-X. PH EAN AND DAVID SOLOMON are an attractive cou-II Pk- Hes tall, with curly, dark hair, often said to reft aemble Groudio Marx and possessed of a deadpan sense of humor. Shes blonde and stately; people describe jher ajfcalm and tough. Photo hr PhilUp W.

SchoulU Jr. Photo by Nathaniel Uebeiman The construction site at 750 Seventh Ave. (left) and a model of the tower. They are probabl. Veloper, said Peter Spielman, a Canadian banker who has ft helped three of their They are not ft established as some and, thank God, they certainly dont -ft.

want to be the pop stars of the development crowd, which would make us very nervous," JjftTheyve kept a low profile, rarely giving interviews while a 3 i 3k ik I us CO i 2 CD a IM CD to (O (O their projects were in the intensive start-up phase. And even ftnow, they wouldnt reveal the names of their three-week-old daughter or their new boat. When the conversation turned briefly to the presidential election, David Solomon insisted ifton speaking off the record, I just prefer to do my work and eqjoy my life with a certain degree of privacy, he said. Both the Solomons grew up outside New York City. Da-.

vid, 36, is a Chicagoan. His father, now retired, was an architect ami his mother is ah interior designer. David attended private schools; one of his schoolmates was play- wright David Mamet, Jean, 35, grew up in suburban Deft marest, J. Her father was a senior art director at Ogilvy ft Mather and her mother stayed home to raise the family. petuate symbolisms which are no longer relevant, he says.

Times Square as a meeting place, a piazza, is a wonderful idea, Solomon continued. I think a combination of all those things is what were aspiring to. Not just signs. Not just, We have trees, so people will walk here. Its whats behind those signs, whats in those shops.

One aspect ofthe Solomons projects everyone agrees on is that the names of the architects designing them promise buildings of integrity and imagination. The Solomons have selected big-name designers for all their projects. Their first big effort was Astor Terrace, an apartment building at 92nd Street and Third Avenue; it was designed by Raul de Armas, a partner at Skidmore, Owings Merrill, who also did their first office building. Tower 49 at 12 E. 49th St.

(Tower 49 was sold two years ago to a Japanese buyer for $301 lion, which set a UJS. record of $500 per square foot The tower rising at 712 Fifth incorporating the neo-classical facades of the landmark Rizzoli and Coty buildings, was designed by William Pederson of Kohn Pederson Fox. These projects represent a substantial statement of what we think of architecture and what developers should be doing in this city, said David Solomon. I think developers have a responsibility to take the chaos which we live in and respond to it by creating buildings that convey a life and a character and a concern for architecture with a capital They must be buildings that make a statement. in thought was a very hot market Their role in upgrading Times Square might be to stake out Uie upper end of that array that might define the area.

Berwick scoffs at such reasoning. Their attempts to justify the citys premier entertainment district into an office district reflect their narrow business interest, but it certainly doesnt deserve to be applauded as an astute or dispassionate public statement. More tangible than the debate over Times Squares essence is the question of what all the new buildings mean far the survival of the theater district The zoning requires space to be set aside for entertainment-related uses, which could mean movie theaters and record stores, as well as the small businesses, integral to theatrical productions, that are being driven out by rising rents and condemnation of buildings. At least the new buildings will make theatergoing less intimidating by improving street lighting, sanitation and general cleanliness, says Gerald Schoenfeld, chairman of the Shu-bert Organization, one of the two biggest theater-owners in the city. Youll have a population going to and from the hotels and the new apartments being built.

Youll have people with a vested interest in the area 24 hours a day. And you will be pleased to come to Eighth Avenue and walk on it, or to 42nd Street. Schoenfeld thinks the Solomons buildings will be just fine. But these days, David Solomon sounds a more conciliatory tone. Im not opposed to signs or lighting.

Im opposed to trying to per ftThey metat Cornell University 18 years ago and studied architecture at Harvard and MIT before coming to Manhat- fttah in 1976. Uring capital from' family connections, they began buying loft buildings in SoHo and Tribeca for $500,000 and under, just as those areas became fashionable, ft They moved on to office buildings along Fifth Avenue in the and 30a, which they up and resold at a profit. We had an objective to be mqjor builders, David said. gThey completed Astor Terrace, an Upper East Side condo-minium built in partnership with Equitable Life, in 1986; all the units were sold. Since then they have undertaken four Midtown office buildings.

Their first. Tower 49, in which their partners were G. Ware Travelstead and First Boston seta record when it was sold for $301 million. Three others, worth total of $1.5 billion, are under con struction: 712 Fifth in partnership and 750 Seventh Ave; and 1585 lerahip Broadway, with Taubman which mon Equities is building alone. Only at 1585 Broadway has major1 lease been signed: the Park Avenue law firm of Proekauer Rose Goetz Mendelsohn will move into 400,000 square feet there.

The Solomons say theyve done well but declined to give specific figures. They make enough, though, to keep a crew at the realty for yearly regattas in the Aegean Sea. They plan to. keep their base In New York real estate, but theyre talking to European partners about development overseas and are looting to diversifyth rough corporate acquisitions. The couple splits responsibilities.

Jean deals with con- tractors and day-to-day development while David handles planning and finanre. They often go all day without seeing each other at the office. 1585 Broadway, under construction Just north of Times Square, Is the type of area revitalization that developers David and Jean Solomon would like more of. Away from work, though, they know how to relax. On a typical country weekend, We go out on the boat.

Its very mazed, often just the four of i us, maybe another couple, I said Duval, a managing director at First Boston who met the pair when they were partners in Tower 49 and went on to become very close to them. Were not going to parties, just sitting there reading, talking about politics, just having a quiet dinner, maybe barbecueing, and conversation. A lot of it can get very personal. Barbara W. Selvin Photo by FMlUp W.

Schoults Jr..