Kind of a timeless topic to bring up during a
slow news week holiday week. Had a conversation recently with an East Village friend... and somehow we started talking about our ideal East Village home. I quickly suggested one with two closets.
Not grand enough.
My friend said that he'd like to live in one of the apartments here at East 10th Street-Stuyvesant Street overlooking the Abe Lebewohl Triangle and St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery ... (Didn't Nicole Kidman's character live in one of these apartments in "The Interpreter"?)
Sure. Why not.
Seems like a nice spot.
I've always had my eye
on 421 E. Sixth Street between First Avenue and Avenue A.
According to
Forgotten New York: "421 was a Con Edison substation built in 1920-21 that converted direct current to alternating. It is at present (2008) the studio of modern artist/sculptor Walter De Maria."
Off the Grid just had a post on this landmarked building, offering more background:
According to a 1919 Board of Appeals resolution, the “four-story fireproof transformer building” would accommodate a switchboard room, static air chambers, blower room and rotary foundations on the first floor; rotaries, transformer, and booster compensator on the second floor; a battery room on the third floor; and a high tension room and blower and exhaust chambers on the fourth floor. Three people would work on the first floor and two on the second.
I've never met anyone who has been inside. I'm not sure if any photos exist of the interior. Kinda "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"-ish.
So, for a moment, toss aside reality, like rent or practicality or heating bills ... or the fact that you'd be displacing, say, 50 residents or an entire church parish. (Not that this has stopped some developers ...)
This is your dream home! Where would you like to live?
A few ideas to start the process...
Maybe you'd want to live in the penthouse at the Christodora?
Or
maybe the entire building!
Or maybe fix up
the dilapidated secret theater inside 100 Avenue A?
[
Kevin Shea Adams]
For people who with a lot of electronics, consider the Con Ed plant...
[
Shawn Chittle]
Anyway, your turn...