Best I've Never Needed 40 Million Dollars So Bad

The Richard Meier Perry Street Condos. Before moving to New York I had heard about them, seen them on some TV show talking about how this star architect had completely designed them and all sorts of superstars (Martha Stewart, Calvin Klein, Nicole Kidman, Vincent Gallo [superstar to some], Hugh Jackman rented there, etc. etc.) were buying into them and that these apartments were a big, big deal. And then I saw them for myself for the first time as a New Yorker and simultaneously found them both striking and not terribly impressive. I mean...obviously they're all designy and at night you can make out exotic interiors within some of the apartments (and perpetual construction projects inside others) but overall, more than anything, these buildings just don't seem very big or imposing so it's hard to imagine them being all that awesome.


the two buildings on the left are the Perry Street condos, the one on the right was also designed by Richard Meier and is where Natalie Portman lives. It has a nice looking pool in the basement, you can see it from the outside. The negative things I say about the Perry Street buildings they really don't apply to the much shinier, far less green final building.

Yet that difficulty of imagining the awesomeness changed today when I discovered the listing for am 11,000 sq/f (Eleven thousand square foot. ELEVEN THOUSAND) triplex "mansion" inside the south building. Upon seeing photos of this apartment I instantly knew which one it was because from the street (and in this photo of mine, if you look closely) you can make out a spiral staircase inside an apartment about halfway up the building and from outside you can tell that it's open, that we're dealing with a two-story tall room right there. So often I've wondered about that apartment and now I know about that apartment. Several years back Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy bought three floors in the building and hired Meier to come in and oversee the transforming of these three separate apartments into one super-apartment. He bought it back then (not sure of the year) for $17.5 million and now is selling it for $40 million dollars (which I type here wanting to have some sort of impact on you, but I know that I already revealed the price in the title of this post). And while it does seem grand and awesome, $40 million does seem a little much. Oh, and word is Mr. Joy never moved in. Of course not.

Floor plan:


Photos:









From the listing:

A modernist masterpiece designed to the minutest detail by internationally acclaimed architect Richard Meier. This significant apartment comprises the 8th, 9th and 10th Floors and over 11,000 square feet of living space in 176 Perry Street, one of Richard Meier's minimalist transparent towers overlooking the Hudson River in the historic West Village. One of the most dramatic apartments in Manhattan, it was built to the very highest standards. The 9th floor features an enormous 51' x 26' double height living room overlooking the Hudson. This floor also has a professional gourmet kitchen and 54' x 17' dining room/gallery. On the 10th floor is the 51' x 16' master bedroom, a studio/exercise area, bath, sauna and dressing areas. The 8th floor features a huge recreation room, 3 bedrooms with baths, a music room/guest bedroom with bath, and a library/guest bedroom with bath. Each floor has a terrace and is connected by a swirling staircase - a work of art in its own right. Truly spectacular!

I think it could use some fireplaces and I do hope the white Eames chair is included when you move in.

Can you even imagine all the sliding around in socks to be done in this apartment?

Best Housing Opportunity

EDITED: Natalie made me realize something was seriously missing.

An Bushwick apartment posting discovered on craigslist (we all regret that Collin already decided on a place to live):


Part vandalism, part fantasy, part recklessness, and part wild abandon- 'The Lair' was birthed from the idea, nay, the necessity to seclude ourselves from all the hackneyed, media satutured bull, to reside within a den of requited passion for art, life, and the pursuit of all things organicly marvelous.

In other words.. The Lair is a sublevel apartment. In plain words.. The Lair is a basement apartment. All those incapable of living in a place with few windows where most of the sitimulation comes from within, please stop reading now because this ad is not for you. I know the coming pictures might razzle and dazzle you, but I repeat if you are not ok with fairly low ceilings and limited natural light, this ad is not for you. However, if you are still intrigued, please read on...

We are 2, somewhat insane, artists and tattoo aficionados with 2 open rooms to rent. Our two friends and fellow artists are moving because one found love, while another is going to look for it. One room, which is the larger of the two is available immediately for November 1st, while the other will be available for November 16th or December 1st.

The lair is a three bedroom apt, that perhaps on any other day, would be a traditional railroad apartment. Except today is not like all other days, and as such neither is our apartment anywhere near the norm. Instead of your usual railroad, it's more like a maze that an architect drew while sniffing crack. Still.. we love it. All 3 rooms are parallel to each other making each entrance ostensibly private in some way.

Continue reading and see more pictures.

Best Wacky Neighbors

Dear Fellow Members of the Union Square 3rd Ward (and other patrons of the 15th Street building),

You know the townhouse that got torn down down the street from the chapel? The internet can't stop talking about the apartment building that's going to be built there, an excessively balconied monster topped off by a . . . uhm, escape pod?



Here's the website for the development, it's nutty. But I'll post the floorplans here, too:



If you've been struggling to find a reason to go to church every week, maybe monitoring the progress of this place going up is the excuse you've been needing?

BUT WAIT, there's more.

It turns out that the people that are building this building live in the townhouse next door and even though it looks absolutely normal from the inside, guess what? It's nutty on the inside! They've got a waterfall, fishponds, clear stairs, cavelike rooms, you know, all the normal stuff.

Here's a slideshow tour of their home from the New York Times that's worth watching if like shaking your head and saying "That's crazy. That's crazy."

Some Links:
Curbed coverage of the development (I stole all their pictures)
New York Times on what the neighbor's think. (Guess what? They don't like.)

Best Mumbai Real Estate Development

60-story private home coming to Mumbai, India.

This is how I like my billionaires. Crazy with their money and demanding a live in staff of 600 to take care of themselves, their mom, their wife and three kids.

I cannot wait for pictures of this place to start showing up on flickr.

Best Neighbor Opportunity

UPDATE An angry reader called me from Australia to let me know that the link I had posted was to a listing in Brooklyn. I don't know how that happened. So I fixed that link and added some more listings for my building because, why not?

Hey, want to be my neighbor? An apartment on the 21st floor of my building just became available.

Click

Not super-impressive, but I guess it proves that not every apartment here is a studio like mine.

More apartments for sale at the John Adams:

A two bedroom
I think this is my nextdoor neighbor's apartment
A studio

Also, all these listings lie when they say there's a roofdeck here. There isn't.

Best Brown Imperturbable Faces

I don't even remember the last time I posted about an apartment listing, but check this place out:


92 Jane Street--Curbed Report
92 Jane Street--listing

I don't even know where to start with this place.

A month or so ago I visited a townhouse that Tina was housesitting. It looked like just any old townhouse from the outside, but on the inside it was a multi-layered collection of African-themed nooks and balconies. That's the thing that I love/that drives me crazy about New York. Unlike most cities or suburbs where you can drive past a mansion and say "Hey, look at that mansion, I bet it's awful nice on the inside" here you can just never guess what's hiding behind just another set of bricks and windows.