Mr. Nadler suggested that he and his partner, as architects, enjoy certain advantages in assembling parcels.

Vincent DiCanio, president of the DiCanio Organization of Smithtown, began planning the the Galleria 17 years ago, assembling parcels of land from different owners.

This is to make it easier to assemble parcels in a city where there are few sizable individual lots.

Today, the developer Douglas Durst is talking about building a Times Square tower, and real estate executives say that many developers have started assembling parcels of land.

Many are in midtown Manhattan, and were apparently bought in the hope of assembling large parcels of land that could be redeveloped for office towers.

In contrast to the construction lull elsewhere, developers are still acquiring land as fast as they can - even assembling large parcels to fill the demand for space in ever-fancier, ever-taller buildings.

Philadelphia has issued $160 million in bonds to demolish 10,000 structures in five years in hopes of assembling larger, developable parcels.

At the time, the Dursts were actively assembling parcels west of the Avenue of the Americas, between 42d and 47th Streets, envisioning a kind of latter-day Rockefeller Center.

Assembling parcels large enough to be attractive requires considerable work in city and town centers.

Leonard Adell, the founder of the Adell Corporation, started to assemble parcels along the Avenue of the Americas in the 1970's.