Is Tishman Speyer now writing and photographing for the NY Times? Take a look at this photo. Aside from the parquet floor and the hint of a beam, I can't recognize a Stuyvesant Town apartment, so the photographer must have done a great job of positioning his camera and using an appropriate truth-defying lens. (And, yes, it is a Stuy Town apartment.) Some of the text in the accompanying Habitat article is pure rose-colored puffery:
Thanks to the miracle of temporary walls, a second bedroom was carved out of the living room, and the new partitions included French doors off the reconfigured hallway. So artfully was the work done that the new walls, which cost them $1,850 to install, look as if they had been in place forever.
The Finks adored their old neighborhood. But barely 72 hours after moving into Stuyvesant Town, they were burbling about the attractions of their new home. From the kitchen window they can watch the antics of the squirrel that lives in a tree across the way. The top of the Empire State Building is visible through the branches. Their old apartment faced a brick wall, and they never knew what the weather was.
There’s more. Their old kitchen was nothing more than a stove, a sink and a refrigerator next to a pull-out sofa, which, by the way, couldn’t be pulled out because there was not enough space. In this kitchen, they can actually cook, a nice touch for two self-described foodies....But the Finks are not dwelling on the twists and turns of Stuyvesant Town’s recent history. Rather, they are savoring the same amenities that have long attracted people to this complex, among them Stuyvesant Oval, in the center of the development, where they sit around the fountain, enjoy the free WiFi, buy fresh peaches at the Greenmarket on Sundays, and see people their age sunbathing atop brightly colored towels. The fact that friends of theirs already live in the complex makes it feel even more welcoming.
Courtesy The New York Times and writer Constance Rosenblum and photographer Librado Romero.
P.S. The audio slide show is very much worth your attention, too. Librado did a wonderful job.
8 comments:
They burble on about being "so excited" at their new space. Their downstairs neighbors must be "so excited" at listening to those flipflops on those huge expanses of UNcarpeted parquet floors and the echoing of their conversations (and other things) which will be acoustically enhanced by those "unfloated" bare parquet floors. Wasn't there a reason why MetLife always insisted on 80% carpet coverage?
They seem nice enough (I hope!) to have some consideration for a downstair's neighbor if they were made aware of the problem. But they are going to have to get more furniture and rugs, at least, to get rid of the "bare room echo."
BTW, was this a dream, but didn't Met Life actually check apartments for carpeting in ye olde days? I remember something of the sort when I first moved in here.
It wasn't a dream. MetLife did indeed check to make sure you had the walking areas carpeted, though they tended to take your word for it unless they got complaints from downstairs neighbors.
In the old days you were required to have carpeting over 80% of your floors within 3 months.
I went into the renting office a while back, pretending to be looking at the apts. I asked if yo needed carpeting. The 20 something guy told me "Oh they tell you that but it's not true." I repeated, "Really, you mean you don't need carpeting?" And he again stated "No, you really don't" I told him "that's funny because my lease states 80% etc. He was of course, speechless. I got his name but haven't reported him yet. I'm wondering what good it would do.
Also, am on the verge of going to management if my upstairs neighbor contiues walking around on the uncarpeted floors with shoes. Not to mention coming in at 3:30 Am and running around upstairs until 5
Am!!
BTW, has anyone had any trouble subletting? My lease is up in Feb. and probably will try to sublet sometime next summer. I'm RS.
Those ersatz French doors were installed yesterday in the NYU "dorm apartment" next to mine. Coupled with the pressurized wall already in there it makes the non-bedroom areas very small. The space between the phony French doors and the wall of the real bedroom is like a short hallway. Very odd.
Free WiFi?
Last time I checked it was for Oval Essential members only, which isn't free.
Did they unlock it?
There is free Wi-Fi in the Oval, but it barely comes through. Impossible most times. I've had better luck inside a Stuy Town building, depending on where you are. If you really want a good Wi-Fi connection, yes, you have to become an Oval Essential member.
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