Young lovers, beware of the brownstone! This, apparently, is the fable of this week’s Habitats column in The Times. I will never live in another Victorian brownstone, Serine Hastings told the paper of record. I have had two failed relationships while living in them. So what’s a modernist-leaning empty-nester to do? This devoted Brooklynite decided to trade in her Fort Greene brownstone for a sixth-floor two-bedroom at The Smith, in part because she found that it had the best finishes of the other new construction projects she was looking at back in 2006. She also has some perspective on how her decision must look from the outside: I know people must drive by and think, I could never live in that cookie-cutter building, she said. I used to be one of those people.
After All Those Brownstones, a Blank Canvas [NY Times] GMAP