Co-op of the Day: 27 South Portland Avenue, #3

I'll let the wags have their say and check the comments later.

Nice that it would have the morning sun and not overheat with afternoon sun in summer.

Posted by: BrooklynGreene at August 6, 2009 12:47 PM

Okay, I've let all the wags have their say.

Meanwhile, across the street, JA sold his 3-family house for over $3m. I think it was late in 2007...so I guess that was the height...?

Anyway, I can relate to Ditmas b/c my husband is an artist and you really do need room and light. Basically, when you're a visual artist, your studio needs to be a good workspace and if you have that workspace in your home, you need to make sure your cottage industry melds with your living space so that you're not sleeping or eating where you use chemicals or need to spread out over work areas/tables.

So, yes, an artist working at home usually needs more space. The husband unit has a studio outside the house in New England (where he does most of his work) and one in Brooklyn. And, sad to say, we're the denigrated Americans who live in too much space.

When we moved from Manhattan many years ago, it was from a "classic 10" or whatever they call it. My uncle managed to knock around in his Manhattan apartment that was nearly 5000 sq feet (yes) with more bathrooms than I can count for a long time before finally selling and moving (to Florida! Ugh! but that was years ago when people did that kind of thing). So I'm not totally out of touch with the burden of too much pointless space and really, really want to downsize. Not necessarily to a "Granny Crackden" (Rob, you sound like a true teenager with that one...and I resent the fact that "granny" had to be pulled into it!).

I was all for the studio on S. Oxford and this one on S. Portland isn't bad at all. I would love to have a simple space in NYC that doesn't require much commitment at all but know it's there if we're in the City. I keep thinking of moving entirely out-of-town but feel linked to Fort Greene. I think a small one-bedroom in Fort Greene would be our best bet. Just want to have 'age-in-place' living thinking toward the future (not so distant future).

Posted by: BrooklynGreene at August 6, 2009 3:15 PM

Robert, I was pointing out that I'm not unfamiliar with living in what I now clearly understand IS too much space and why I am finding myself really appreciating the studios that are being shown the last couple of days. Of course, I cannot be sure, but at this point, if I end up living in a small apartment, I don't think I would really dream about going back to something bigger.

When I was "younger", well in my twenties (i.e. getting to be a l-o-n-g time ago...ugh), I lived in Europe and lived in big and small places. I guess Europe has gotten very expensive since then so things have probably changed a great deal in terms of rents, etc.

Anyway, I somehow managed to return to the States with a couple of big valises (more or less)...ah to be young and not have all the baggage that one accumulates! When I came back, I first moved into a small one-bedroom with what we used to all an "efficiency kitchen" on Broadway. It was a small but clean efficiency apartment with a small bedroom that was so small (and faced the street) that I actually used the living room as the bedroom so the kitchen/entryway was seen from the bed. I had some furniture from my mother and a girlfriend gave me a daybed...I didn't have much. We didn't have Ikea then (thank God!) but I somehow just accumulated things along the way and now it's in crisis mode.

I didn't particular "collect" things...stuff collected me! But the husband IS a collector (for his work especially) so every time I suggest we scale way down he wags his head in disbelief (probably because he doesn't think I can do it but also because he has a ton of stuff: the books, artwork, ceramics, his own work, materials, equipment, work tables, tools, stuff, stuff, stuff!)

Hhh...it's scary thinking about it. I have a feeling we'll never rid ourselves of this. Some museums (if we don't have a huge cataclysm and there are still museums down the road) will be happy enough to take some of it off our hands, just some... but at some point if he can no longer handle making his art, someone will have to figure out what to do with all the stuff. I hope we can find a school that might take things. If I'm alive, we'll have to make a decision together...who knows...

Sure we generally need cloth for clothing, shelter and food, but why on earth we have this compulsion to both accumulate and also to create more objects will probably never be fully explained to my satisfaction. Ah, humans...

Mopar, there are some very dreary, poorly maintain studios in the Village. In fact, all over NYC there are dreadful places.

I'm not sure why everyone seems rather clueless about SROs. Look Single Room Occupancy rooms are just that: a room. Bathroom on the floor on down on the next floor shared with others. A musician friend of mine lived in an SRO on the Upper Westside. He passed away years ago. Great jazz musician. As I remember he was supposedly not even allowed to cook in his SRO room. Everyone in the building had a hotplate but I think it wasn't supposedly allowed.

Kids, years ago, life in NYC was a little different. There was relatively cheap food, diners, joints, a lot of working people (men *and* woman too) mostly single, would live as a boarder or in an SRO and not have access to a kitchen. This was normal. You managed. You had meals out and cold food in. I guess today, someone could very well do the same but I don't think there are many places without kitchens...and the cost of food seems higher to me...and rent is higher...

You used to be able to make a lower-end wage and save something and still be decently turned out on the street, and have a little pocket money. I knew many young men years ago who lived in a boarding house situation, had a job, ate out (and drank) and managed fine, and saved money. From what I can tell now, only people at a certain salary level can save at all. Even at what seems like a decent salary, the take home pay after taxes, health insurance pay-ins, etc. leaves most people just enough for the rent and the bare essentials. Am I wrong? It seems the Great Room/McMansion Era has helped ruin people's expectations as well so they are not willing to live in a studio like the one featured today.

It may not be huge but it could be very lovely. The kitchen looks like a recent renovation. The countertop could stand to be sanded. Maybe a small fridge can replace the big one so the counter to can have a small peninsula. The wall where there was once were closets (the area to the left of the windows) is set back and has a different flooring pattern. I would suggest the next person think about a wall of built-ins to greatly increase the storage space. There is all sorts of new furniture, I think mostly coming out of Europe, particularly Italy, that can conceal beds. Basically, there are these new Murphy bed types that are more sophisticated and let you have shelving on one side. The whole shelving unit pivots, a bed on the other side is like Murphy bed. Brilliant. I would put a desk in the arch on the back wall and keep an eye out for fully mirrored furniture (obviously the nicer stuff, not simple Ikea wardrobes with mirrors on the front).

It's too bad the studio couldn't be completely, tastefully decorated and "staged" for the photos/open house...I guess it doesn't "pay" for an apartment this size but I'm sure it would probably help sell it.

Posted by: BrooklynGreene at August 6, 2009 7:22 PM

You go BabyGreene!
:-)
I think your studio is very nice! Don't think my daydreaming of how to decorate is a dig of any kind. I was just thinking the wall that used to have closets on one side of the room would make a great storage wall with one of those new Murphy bed with space for a home office behind doors.
I guess you moved all your things out but maybe one basic chair in the space would help give a sense of the scale. I love those high ceilings on South Portland!

Posted by: BrooklynGreene at August 6, 2009 11:18 PM