Well, the afterglow only lasts so long, as Jean Nouvel knows only to well, as he's been thrust back into the world of the living following his Pritzker win. According to the NY Times, his latest big project, the Tower Verre in Midtown Manhattan, has run into some snags with city planners and regular folk, who are trying to keep the building from being built, considering it far too tall and apt to damage the neighborhood's preservation efforts. With everyone up in arms about it all, a hearing was held on Tuesday night and everyone was allowed to weigh in. Here's a bit:

About 100 people attended the hearing, held at the preservation commission's downtown offices, and about 50 signed up to speak. By the time that half of them had spoken, the tally was leaning heavily against the project.

Michael Vann, an architecture student at Pratt Institute, called the tower "a celebration of ingenuity, imagination, creativity, originality and vision."

But a few minutes later, Chris McNally, a construction manager who lives on West 54th Street, described it as "a sharp spire stabbed into the heart of the neighborhood."

To which Chris' friend said, "Don't worry about him. He says that about everything. It's always 'sharp spire' this 'stabbed in the heart' that. Heck, he was yelling it at the hot dog vendor out front when we were coming in tonight."