Size Matters. So Do Money and Ego.
What an embarassment. This article made us so glad that we no longer live in Manhattan and that our children will not have to grow up around the kind of shallow, materialistic people epitomized by Gary Rabin. Hey, we’ve got nothing against double-wide townhouses, believe us, we just wish you didn’t have to be a…
What an embarassment. This article made us so glad that we no longer live in Manhattan and that our children will not have to grow up around the kind of shallow, materialistic people epitomized by Gary Rabin. Hey, we’ve got nothing against double-wide townhouses, believe us, we just wish you didn’t have to be a one-dimensional, status-hungry jerk to own one:
WHEN Gary Rabin closed on a 38-foot-wide New York City town house this month, he happily acknowledged that his new home’s girth would make him the envy of the tony town-house set. He had started off in 2003 with a 19.6-foot-wide brownstone on a quiet Greenwich Village block – wide enough by any conventional brownstone standards. There was no need to hang his head in shame the way he might have had he bought, say, a 13-foot-wide property. But being slightly below the coveted 20-foot mark, it wasn’t the sort of statistic he was likely to brag about among his real estate-savvy friends at dinner parties. In the fall of 2004, he found what he was looking for: a 38-foot-wide town house a few blocks away, a massive piece of real estate for New York. Sure, it was a lot more expensive, but he’s a lot happier, too…”There’s an element of pride when you walk out the door in the morning,” Mr. Rabin says.
Gag.
Quest for a Wide Town House [NY Times]
This is a blog by a self-described wall streeter who writes in the royal we about his brownstone.
Is it just me?
Very true It depends on the style. .. For me exterior is as important as interior.
They need to work together. I like 18 foot parlor with very high ceilings Italianate. It is very cool; of course not all furniture would work.
I love tall (almost gothic proportion) and don’t care about extra foot even if it is more challenging for that giant corner couch.
Just because someone wants to make a lot of money, for whatever reason in whatever way, that doesn’t make them necessarily shallow or one-dimensional. I think many Wall Streeters start out working insane hours but as their careers progress they work less. It’s their choice and why resent them for it? Somebody has to do it. People who start the mom and pop shops we love about Brooklyn probably also work 18-hour days. Do you think doctors are just in it for the money? Construction workers are paid handsomely for 8-hour shifts — are they less shallow than lawyers, MBA’s or entrepeneurs? Does loving one’s job make one shallow? Not necessarily. Generalizations of any kind are so dangerous.
at the risk of returning to the prejudice question: I will defend Brownstoner’s generalized slur against Wall Street types, not only because B-er knows whereof he speaks.
While generalizations based on genes are generically unsupportable, generalizations based on profession (and other things that are choices) *aren’t*. It’s a self-selecting group: People who care about money will organize their lives so that they make a lot. That’s not to say that everyone who makes a lot of money is bad, or even materialistic– but the generalization is logical.
I’d say ideal proportions depend on the period of the townhouse. Some 20′ wides are taller than others because of the style of the house — consider whether the parlor floor has higher ceilings than the rest of the house. And some houses have a very low-ceilinged attic-like top floor, making them squatter than others. To me, it’s not the exterior that matters as much as in the interior. For example, does it feel cramped to have a bed or a couch in a room? This is harder to avoid the more narrow the house and, as such, many new owners are removing walls and stairwells to open up their narrower townhouses. This doesn’t feel necessary in a 20-footer or wider.
I think Edith Wharton would have been the person to ask as to the ideal dimensions of a NYC townhouse. Not only did she live when many of these brownstones were being erected, she designed her own homes and wrote books on architecture and interiors before she wrote novels. In her first book, The Decoration of Houses, she calls proportion “the good breeding of architecture.”
You don’t need Leonardo to know that they should be like a nice, tall women.
18 to 20 foot with 5 stories works for me very well. 13 to 18 foot looks good in 4 stories.
That is preferred for Italianate (fort green, Clinton hill)
Federal brick looks better in more squat proportion 18 and 4 stories (it is no super model but more like cute more rounded girl)
It changes when brownstone has strong vertical element like bay window then you can get away with something a bit lower. (park slope).
Of course it would is a generalization and prejudice against certain proportion, but it is my point of view.
Wow! How interesting? I find that there have been many other times when the subject matter and the comments by Brownstoner were more prejudiced and no one made a peep. In particular comments relating to Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights “is is safe”, “is it worth the price”…… (questions that come up ONLY because the composition of the two neighborhoods is still not lilly)
These comments are so insidious that only a person of color would pick up on them. I’d imagine that the same comments would have been made about Clinton Hill and Fort Greene ten years ago too.
Also, I’d imagine that Brownstoner is “much in love” with Brooklyn and specifically Clinton Hills because they cannot afford Manhattan/Park Slope/Brooklyn Heights. Let’s keep it REAL!
Despite all this, I think Brownstoner is a great site. I check it out everyday!!
quote
“Yes, certainly, Malymis. Let’s all get back to talking about the wonderful architecture that wouldn’t have been possible without all the wealth generated by the folks on Wall Street. To hell with the Wall Streeters. We just want to admire their homes! Pathetic.”
Very true, People who generate wealth like merchants, manufacture owners, industrialist, real estate owners, where the ones who made it possible. Designers and architect made it happened and they work I appreciate not rich people money. It is OK to talk about brownstones as architecture itself.
I don’t hate wall street types.
Money can not buy taste but they can buy 36 foot brownstone. I like well proportioned ones.