Artist David Salle was one of the grandfathers of Tribeca, buying
a loft there in the early 80’s, transforming it into an architectural
masterpiece-it has been cited as an early example of the revival of the
mid-century style that now won’t die-and remaining there for almost two
decades.
But it seems that Tribeca has
lost its edge where Mr. Salle is concerned, and he’s been planning for several
months to move to Brooklyn by 2003. Earlier this year, Mr. Salle bought two
buildings across the street from the Brooklyn Academy of Music for $700,000. He
intends to combine them in a renovation-which will cost at least as much as the
properties themselves-to create a 10,000-square-foot space that would include a
residence and a studio.
“He still wants to be in a place that’s kind of on the edge,”
said architect David Fratianne, who’s been hired by Mr. Salle to combine 81
Hanson Place, a traditional brownstone with brick on the upper floors, and an
old Masonic Lodge directly behind it.
Aside from the occasion a year ago when a 10-by-15-foot chunk of
the brick façade fell to the street from the fourth floor, 81 Hanson Place is
far from a notable building. (The Department of Buildings looked into that
incident, and since Mr. Salle bought the property, the façade has been
reinforced and scaffolding erected.) Mr. Salle plans to recondition the
brownstone, much of the brick, the copper cornice above the original doorway
and the original stoop.
Mr. Salle’s designer, Christian Hubert, who designed his Tribeca
place, said that 81 Hanson Place was in terrible shape. “We realized it would
have to get totally rebuilt,” said Mr. Hubert. “So the areas of more design and
construction are the areas that are more dilapidated in the existing
buildings.”
On the fourth floor, for instance, where the façade needed to be
entirely rebuilt and recladded, the bricks will be replaced with curvy
stainless steel-which alone will cost $200,000. Inside the building’s upper
floors, Mr. Salle is creating two open-air spaces to be covered in
multi-colored tile and planted with bamboo.
The old Masonic Lodge, the second building Mr. Salle purchased,
has orderly rows of tall windows and a brick façade, studded with masonry
details, that had been well preserved.
The project will begin in January, and the plans are not
completely final, but a set of mechanicals at least gives an idea of what Mr.
Salle has in mind. The plans include multiple living areas, a large dining
area, offices and copious studio space, all in a sleek contemporary vein with
vast walls of wood paneling, built-in cabinetry, soft recessed lighting and an
emphasis on Mr. Salle’s art collection.
North of Boerum Hill and Park Slope, and just south of Fort
Greene, the neighborhood around B.A.M. is bustling. Dancer Mark Morris opened a
dance school and rehearsal space in an abandoned mental-health outpatient
clinic at 3 Lafayette Avenue in September (a grand opening, scheduled for Sept.
12, was rescheduled due to the World Trade Center attack). And B.A.M. itself is
expanding into adjacent properties to add more programming and, in partnership
with other local civic organizations, even to develop subsidized housing.
“I certainly think that David is happy to be part of the cultural
development in that neighborhood, and that that’s an important dimension of
this project,” said Mr. Hubert.
Mr. Salle’s building isn’t scheduled to be finished until late
next year at the earliest, but he’s already been spending most of his time at
his home in Sagaponack, Long Island. His Tribeca duplex apartment has been sold
in two parts: The bottom floor for $995,000 in September 1999, and the top
floor for $1.3 million in October.
upper west side
123
West 93rd Street
Two-bed,
two-bath co-op.
Asking:
$695,000. Selling: $675,000.
Charges:
$1,171;
42 percent tax-deductible.
Time on the market: two months.
BABY ON BOARD What with the playroom, the gym, the bike room and the storage room,
this building on 93rd Street between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues seemed like
the perfect place to settle down with a family. But this particular
1,350-square-foot apartment doesn’t afford a family much room to grow-it’s
reasonably spacious, but it has only two bedrooms. The place worked when the
owners had one kid, but when they decided they wanted another one, they headed
for New Jersey. A very pregnant single woman took the place for herself and her
new baby, who arrived shortly before the sale was final. John Caraccioli of the
Halstead Property Company was the listing broker on the sale.
upper east side
300
East 74th Street
One-bed,
one-and-a-half-bath co-op.
Asking:
$649,000. Selling: $585,000.
Charges: $1,121; 50 percent tax-deductible.
Time
on the market: seven months.
APARTMENT WITH TWO STRIKES HITS A HOMER
Listing broker Claire Vitale of Bellmarc Realty insists that this
1,150-square-foot penthouse should have been an easy sell. It’s on the 37th
floor and has views out to Queens, nine-and-a-half-foot ceilings, a large
living room with a bay window and a balcony that faces east. But, Ms. Vitale
said, the building’s management had put a new air-conditioning unit on the roof
right above this apartment. The air conditioner leaked, and because the seller
wasn’t living in the apartment at the time, nobody realized what was happening
until the floors and the ceilings were already damaged. “People would walk in
and say the roof leaks, which is not true,” said Ms. Vitale. “The air
conditioner got repaired and the floors and ceiling and walls got fixed, and it
was spectacular again.” In spite of the
contract to buy the place for $600,000 in early September, but after Sept. 11
they decided it wasn’t such a good idea to move onto the 37th floor. A few
weeks later, a brave young woman with no such qualms signed a contract for
$585,000.
greenwich village
23
East 10th Street
Two-bed,
one-bath co-op.
Asking:
$585,000. Selling: $540,000.
Charges: $1,033; 50 percent tax-deductible.
Time
on the market: eight months.
THE SLOW SELL She had lived there for
13 years. It was enough. She needed a change of pace; she wanted to try new
things. She put the apartment on the market and started looking around on the
Upper East Side. They were a couple who both worked in the fashion industry.
They wanted to live downtown, and more specifically they wanted to live in this
building-the Albert on the corner of University Place. It was the first place
they looked at, and they never bothered to look at anything else. The apartment
had been sitting on the market for a while, so they knew they had a bargaining
chip. They offered well below the asking price. What they didn’t know was that
it would take the seller almost four months to get out of the apartment. She’d
signed a contract to sell the 950-square-foot place without having anywhere to
move. The buyers wanted to give up on her and the place and look for something
different, but they didn’t. This building, they felt, was worth the wait.
west village
Julianne
moore’s
safe house
In the December-January issue of Interview magazine, Julianne Moore tells friend and fellow actor
Ellen Barkin about her somewhat compulsive system, which she calls her “Lucky
Way,” for staying on top of her game: She tries to replicate the same
schedule-down to hitting the same green lights at the same intersections when
she’s driving to the theater-every day.
It sounds like a side effect of preparing for her role
in 1995’s Safe , in which Ms. Moore’s
character is hyperallergic to life in modern-day California-but who’s judging?
From now on, whenever she’s in New York, the actress is
going to have to factor in a few additional seconds to get to and from her
apartment. On Oct. 10, Ms. Moore bought a three-bedroom, 3,800-square-foot
duplex loft at 345 West 13th Street for $2.65 million. The penthouse is four
floors above the two-bedroom homeMs.
Moorehas ownedsince 1999inthe building, a formerprinting plantabutting
the meatpacking district.That apartment went up for sale for $2.2 million.
“The ceiling height as you walk in is 15 feet,” said
Kathy Matson, the independent broker who sold the penthouse to Ms. Moore and
her partner, The Myth of Fingerprints
director Bart Freundlich.
“And on the second floor it’s close to 11 feet, and it
opens up with glass doors to a deck terrace and the view is incredible: You
used to be able to see the World Trade Center; you face the Hudson.”
The sellers, Terry Ford and Terrence Peck (a telecom
guru who regularly appears on CNNfn), moved to Miami.
Debbie Korb of
Sotheby’s is representing Ms. Moore in the sale of her place; Halstead brokers
Nancy and Robin Horowitz represented her in the sixth-floor deal.
