Wednesday, October 15, 2014

At The Nathaniel, named after a hated secondary character in an Ayn Rand novel



Speaking of Third Avenue and East 12th Street... the luxury rentals at The Nathaniel hit the market back in the summer.

Curbed took a tour of the building for a post yesterday.

Curbed clears up one minor mystery: Just who or what is The Nathaniel named for: Turns out it's for Nathaniel Taggart, who is the grandfather of the protagonist of Ayn Rand's 1957 novel "Atlas Shrugged."

Per the always reliable Wikipedia:

Nathaniel Taggart was the founder of Taggart Transcontinental. He built his railroad without any government handouts, and ran the business for no other reason than to turn a profit. He began as a penniless adventurer and ended up as one of the wealthiest men in the country. He never earned money by force or fraud (except for bribing government officials and throwing an opponent down a flight of stairs), and never apologized for becoming wealthy and successful. He was one of the most hated men of his time.

Perhaps, then, The Nathaniel will become the most hated apartment building of its time in the East Village?

Off to a good start! The Nathaniel's least-expensive offering is a $3,273 studio, which, Curbed notes, is just slightly less than the median rental price ($3,300) for an apartment in the neighborhood.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Those persistent rumors about 74-76 Third Avenue and the future of Nevada Smiths

The East Village will lose a parking lot and gain an apartment building

Bendy thing sighting as 84 Third Ave. eclipses the AMC Loews Village 7

Upscale rentals and a rooftop reflection pool at The Nathaniel on 3rd Avenue

The Nathaniel on 3rd Avenue and East 12th Street is apparently in Greenwich Village

14 comments:

  1. Are any of Ayn Rand's characters not hated?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Howard Roark.
    I started giving Ellsworth M. Toohey Anti-Mind awards to idiotic op-eds in the New York Times and other publications when I was a student. I still do it from time to time. A recent column by Paul Krugman got one.

    Many pronouncements of local pols get them as well.

    Bill the libertarian anarchist and resident of the Union of Soviet Socialist Boros

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sorry but that's not an apartment building, it's a friggin' theme park! They made the whole thing look like a cross between a retro-hipster lounge and a Museum of the Weird.

    Only a NY real estate developer would think it is appropriate to name a building in tribute to a fictional and despised character who is most famous for saying ‘The public be damned!’ Note to landlord: We already are.

    The whole theme and decor is just so precious. This may be the first apartment building where even the tenants are curated.

    The only question now is what planet will these future tenants be arriving from? Will they come in peace, to share their advanced technology and wisdom with the natives? Or is this just the next stage of their imminent planetary invasion?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Reading and not immediately rejecting Ayn Rand and her "philosophy" should be a disqualifier for membership in the human race.

    That this haven for bros and the woo crowd is named after a character in her "literature" is just too appropriate.

    ReplyDelete
  5. LOL. How perfectly freaking apt. Well, at least it's a nice looking richie rathole, no?

    Didn't Ayn Rand eschew health insurance, smoke until she got lung cancer and then live out her last days on welfare? May all her fanboys meet the same fate.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Too bad it's not named for Nathanael West, he would be an appropriate chronicler of the insanity that is NY today.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Boy, if the building is as cardbord-y as an Ayn Rand character, it will wilt in the next heavy rainstorm.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Rand was a smoker, but her millions from book sales hardly put her on welfare.
    The commie bummer at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in Pyongyang-on-the-Potomac is on welfare. He's never made a dime that wasn't stolen from a productive taxpayer.

    Bill the libertarian anarchist
    and non-resident of Galt's Gulch.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Nobody knows or cares who John Galt is, that's the whole reason why Atlas Shrugged, you Fountainhead.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Parts 1 and 2 of the recent Atlas Shrugged movies are compelling and infuriating - why should the State steal people's property? Those phoney conservatives who froth at the mouth about the XL Pipeline have no problem stealing people's land under eminent domain.

    ReplyDelete
  11. shmnyc asked a fair question:
    "Are any of Ayn Rand's characters not hated?"

    The answer, for me at least, is yes: Puck. I always had a fondness for Puck.

    ReplyDelete
  12. In her latter years Ayn Rand was a beneficiary of both Social Security and Medicare.

    Obviously, depending on who you ask, this may (or may not) be considered "welfare."

    ReplyDelete
  13. Rand's use of Social Security and Medicare were not hypocritical as some claim - she had paid millions in taxes throughout her life and was quite entitled to take some of it back.

    ReplyDelete

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