Brownstone Interior Destroyed Modernized by Artist Couple
We had mixed emotions reading the Times Real Estate story this weekend about the older artist couple who financed the purchase of a Stuyvesant Heights brownstone four years ago by selling a Basquiat that one of them had picked up for $100 back in the Eighties. (Anyone know what block this is?) Aren’t there enough…
We had mixed emotions reading the Times Real Estate story this weekend about the older artist couple who financed the purchase of a Stuyvesant Heights brownstone four years ago by selling a Basquiat that one of them had picked up for $100 back in the Eighties. (Anyone know what block this is?) Aren’t there enough brownstones that have already been stripped of their original detail that someone wanting to create a modern space could avoid destroying yet another piece of history? Yes, these folks were considerate enough to call in a salvage company to save the architectural artifacts, but it’s still a bummer. And how about all that tree-cutting? What a soap opera! Update: Okay, it’s sounding like the Times article might have overstated how salvageable the interiors of this place were, so it’s looking like we came down a little too hard on these folks. Apologies.
Bankrolled by a Basquiat [NY Times]
Photo by Gabriele Stabile for The New York Times
Dave–when is Saraghina scheduled to open? And Butternut?! Looking forward to both.
Where do you live Gravis?
Sam,
We all have a right to say. That’s not the point.
*** Brownstones Are Overrated ***
Never mind sam. He’s just shaking his period-appropriate walking stick.
“Hey kids! Get off of your own lawn!
Sam, are you saying that even plaster and partitions from 1890 are worthy of salvation?
Even the fireplaces, originally used (obviously) to heat the house, are no longer required with a modernized heating system. To replace the flues and rebuild the fireboxes just to reuse the original mantles is a vanity project if ever there was.
I know them. They are not pretentious. Sam you’re riding an awfully high horse today. Read bedstuyhoya’s post at 10:12 before you continue your rant.
Gravis,
This pretentious old couple has a right to buy a historic house and ruin it. But I also have a right to say that what they did is appalling and to call them old farts.
sam…it’d sell faster than most other houses in bed Stuy.
How could there have been “nothing left”? There is nothing left now, that’s for sure. Unless there was a fire in the house, I’m sure the plaster and partitions, and stair and fireplaces were in. Imagine buying a brownstone and removing the fireplaces! Unbelievable. I bet this couple moves back to Manhattan or to L.A. in about ten months. -They will leave behind a motherload of sheetrock.