David J. Maundrell III, founder and president of Aptsandlofts.com, isn’t sure what home hunters want, but he knows what they don’t want, he says:

People don’t want apartments with very little closet space. They don’t want strip kitchens. They don’t want these small, cramped rooms. People also don’t want one person’s vision. We try to help design a product that we can cast a wide net and bring in many people. Sometimes certain designs alienate. It may only be for one type of buyer or renter.

The company, which started in Williamsburg, has become known for its influence in shaping the look of conversions and new buildings there and throughout Brooklyn. It was one of the first to work with developers early on in the process and help steer them away from the Home Depot look, which their customers didn’t like, as we know from conversations with the firm’s brokers over many years. In a New York Times question-and-answer interview, Maundrell said the market is swinging back to condos, with some projects that were formerly built as condos then switched to rentals now switching back again. Maundrell details some buildings they will soon be leasing out, including 50 North 5th in Williamsburg, pictured above, and other buildings in Park Slope and Flatbush. The first two will rent for $60 a square foot or more; at a 62-unit building in Flatbush close to Brooklyn College, two-bedrooms will go for $1,900 a month. “We’re going to push close to 800 apartments to the market over five projects or so in the next 45 to 60 days,” he said. They plan to open a third Brooklyn office soon in an undisclosed location (current offices are in Cobble Hill and Williamsburg).

The 30-Minute Interview: David J. Maundrell III of Aptsandlofts.com [NY Times]


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  1. teach you the Overman! Mankind is something to be overcome. What have you done to overcome mankind?

    All beings so far have created something beyond themselves. Do you want to be the ebb of that great tide, and revert back to the beast rather than overcome mankind? What is the ape to a man? A laughing-stock, a thing of shame. And just so shall a man be to the Overman: a laughing-stock, a thing of shame. You have evolved from worm to man, but much within you is still worm. Once you were apes, yet even now man is more of an ape than any of the apes.

    Even the wisest among you is only a confusion and hybrid of plant and phantom. But do I ask you to become phantoms or plants?

    Behold, I teach you the Overman! The Overman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: The Overman shall be the meaning of the earth! I beg of you my brothers, remain true to the earth, and believe not those who speak to you of otherworldly hopes! Poisoners are they, whether they know it or not. Despisers of life are they, decaying ones and poisoned ones themselves, of whom the earth is weary: so away with them!

    Once blasphemy against God was the greatest blasphemy; but God died, and those blasphemers died along with him. Now to blaspheme against the earth is the greatest sin, and to rank love for the Unknowable higher than the meaning of the earth!

    Once the soul looked contemptuously upon the body, and then that contempt was the supreme thing: — the soul wished the body lean, monstrous, and famished. Thus it thought to escape from the body and the earth. But that soul was itself lean, monstrous, and famished; and cruelty was the delight of this soul! So my brothers, tell me: What does your body say about your soul? Is not your soul poverty and filth and wretched contentment?

    In truth, man is a polluted river. One must be a sea to receive a polluted river without becoming defiled. I teach you the Overman! He is that sea; in him your great contempt can go under.

    What is the greatest thing you can experience? It is the hour of your greatest contempt. The hour in which even your happiness becomes loathsome to you, and so also your reason and virtue.

    The hour when you say: What good is my happiness? It is poverty and filth and wretched contentment. But my happiness should justify existence itself!

    The hour when you say: What good is my reason? Does it long for knowledge as the lion for his prey? It is poverty and filth and wretched contentment!

    The hour when you say: What good is my virtue? It has not yet driven me mad! How weary I am of my good and my evil! It is all poverty and filth and wretched contentment!

    The hour when you say: What good is my justice? I do not see that I am filled with fire and burning coals. But the just are filled with fire and burning coals!

    The hour when you say: What good is my pity? Is not pity the cross on which he is nailed who loves man? But my pity is no crucifixion!

    Have you ever spoken like this? Have you ever cried like this? Ah! If only I had heard you cry this way!

    It is not your sin — it is your moderation that cries to heaven; your very sparingness in sin cries to heaven!

    Where is the lightning to lick you with its tongue? Where is the madness with which you should be cleansed?

    Behold, I teach you the Overman! He is that lightning, he is that madness!
    And while Zarathustra was speaking in this way, someone in the crowd interrupted: “We’ve heard enough about the tightrope walker; now it’s time to see him!” And while the crowd laughed at Zarathustra, the tightrope walker, believing that he had been given his cue, began his performance.

  2. My kitchen is partially open, but also extends around a corner so that the oven and refrigerator/pantry closet are out of view. This allows the person cooking to enjoy the company of others but also puts some of the chaos/mess out of sight, which is a perfect solution. The completely open kitchen is fine if the living space is large enough, which is rarely the case in these new developments.

  3. totally agree with your comment.

    I too like a big enough table and do not want to eat sitting on a bar stool. That might be cute for a 20 year old on the go, but not for me.

    The whole problem with todays open concept is that it is simply to small a living space.

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