Monday, October 12, 2015

Buy a condo on East 4th Street, get a photo of graffiti art



As we've been reporting, there's a gut rehab (new building really) happening at 324 E. Fourth St. between Avenue C and Avenue D… The condoplex is called Altes House.



The above photos show how the address — with three new floors — is looking these days… before eventually looking like…


[Image via Mortar Architecture + Development]

In December 2013 and January 2014, the then-empty building served as a makeshift gallery for a group of 40-plus artists, as was widely reported.

We'll get back to that in a moment. Yesterday, The New York Times had an update on what's going on at the Altes House.

First, the pricing for the units, which will sport lacquered cabinets and Carrara marble counters in the kitchens, with walnut vanities and heated towel racks in the bathrooms.

Altes House’s apartments, which are expected to open this winter, range from one-bedrooms with about 600 square feet to a three-bedroom penthouse with about 1,600 square feet. Prices average about $1,300 a square foot, or starting at $749,000 for a one-bedroom. The Miller Samuel appraisal company estimates that apartments typically sell for about $1,100 a foot in the neighborhood. Sales are to start this month through the Harkov Lewis Team of Halstead Property Development Marketing.

And then there's the memento that Altes House buyers will receive upon signing up...

Provocative artwork, some depicting Cubist nudes, children’s toys and explosives, that was splashed across walls in the empty building ... and discovered by Mortar Architecture and Development, the developer, has been professionally photographed for posterity. And buyers in the 11-unit, seven-story project ... will receive these framed photos as gifts, to preserve the building’s legacy.

“There were things that were broken, there was this graffiti everywhere, but once you started to get into it, and look at it, you started to become amazed by each piece,” said Anthony Morena, the principal of Mortar, about that morning in January 2014 when he entered the abandoned building and discovered the striking street art. To others, the scene inside might have appeared to be major vandalism. Cupboards were smashed, a stove was painted black and Budweiser bottles styled like Molotov cocktails were stenciled onto a cupboard.

Previously on EV Grieve:
2 new floors, gut renovation in store for empty tenement that last housed a Hanksy art show

At Hanksy's 'Surplus Candy' art show in an abandoned East Village tenement

Gut renovations underway at 324 E. 4th St., most recently the makeshift gallery for Hanksy and Co.

The unique façade of 324 E. 4th St. is gone

324 E. 4th St. getting the 2 building look (but just 1 rooftop terrace)

Teaser site arrives for the Altes House, 11 boutique condos for East 4th Street


[EVG photo from February 2014]

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is bad enough that these developers take a 19th century house and stick 3 very ill fitting floors on top of it now we have to hear about how artsy they are. Will the insults never end?

Anonymous said...

What they are putting up is aesthetic vandalism. Oh horror. An aluminum budweiser pop top.

Another instance where the original looks much much better. Our nabe is being ransacked, and then repopulated with mindless pods who delight in getting graf postcards? Sadly, these turkeys have done their demographics and know their target.

Anonymous said...

Was the facade landmarked? That building was a dump, and was used to sell heroin out of, across the street from an elementary school.

Anonymous said...

As in "get off your high house"?

blue glass said...

so much for graffiti prevents gentrification.

but please, preserve the smashed cupboards, black painted stove, and Budweiser bottles styled like Molotov cocktails for our artistic history.

the neighborhood is already a stage-set shell of what used to be. we've passed the tipping point and there is not much left to save.

Anonymous said...

They forgot to mention how this building is in "the heart of the East Village" just like the Adele.

Anonymous said...

Units 2A & 3A have open houses on Wednesday (Oct. 14) from 5-6 PM. They are priced at 1.45M and 749K respectively. Excuse me while I go try to get this nasty taste out of my mouth.