It’s Free to Look: 17 Minetta Street

"Aspirational location, inspirational design," the listing for this Greenwich Village townhouse promises. Once considered a modest family home, the three-story townhouse now carries a $5 million-plus price tag, which includes three bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, as well as a roof garden and a courtyard with a horticulturalist's delight of exotic flowers.

Seventeen Minetta Street is part of a unique enclave of alleys and culs de sac that crowded a brook that once ran from 23^rd Street to what is now Washington Square. Built in 1840 by developer Vincent Pepe, the building was recently redesigned by architects Alan Tanksley and Zhenya Merkolova. The new modernist look was featured in the October 2009 issue of Interior Design magazine, including floor-to-ceiling windows, sleek wooden finishing, and a three-floor winding steel staircase (above).

The neighborhood, a quiet English-style village in the center of Manhattan, is filled with artists, students, as well as a few business execs actually able to afford a multi-million-dollar townhouse. — Laura Kusisto

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