Friday, May 3, 2013
Photos: At Home With Passion Pit's Michael Angelakos
Posted by Josh Stillman on Fri, May 3, 2013 at 9:18 AM
Michael Angelakos, the lead singer of Passion Pit, shares a historic Brooklyn Heights apartment with his wife, Kristy, who works as a food writer. Their home is tasteful and refined, replete with working fireplaces and a spacious, sumptuous kitchen. Equally sumptuous is the sound system in the living room: a record player, amplifier, and speaker setup that Angelakos has been building for years. An extensive collection of vinyl LP's — many of them rare, original-print opera recordings — shares a bookcase with a small library of food literature. Their singular passions are visible throughout the apartment, but what's most striking is the orderliness of it all. This isn't the bohemian crash pad of a decadent young rock star but the carefully maintained domicile of mature individuals. Which is no small accomplishment, considering Angelakos is just 25 years old and fronts one of the biggest bands around. But when they first moved to New York, the couple lived over a restaurant and had to kill nearly twenty mice in a single month; after an ordeal like that, who can blame them for sweeping? Michael and Kristy spoke with us about Boston, concierge service, and still owning a teddy bear.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Does Anyone Care That Lena Dunham Might Move to Williamsburg?
Posted by Kristin Iversen on Tue, Apr 30, 2013 at 4:15 PM
I guess the real question is should anyone care that Lena Dunham might move to Williamsburg. To which the answer obviously is, yes. Some people should care. Her mom. Her dad. Her friends. That guy from fun., because she dates him. He should care. Her dog. Should anyone else care?
Inside the Bed-Stuy Home of Designer Rachel Doriss
Posted by Kristin Iversen on Tue, Apr 30, 2013 at 10:00 AM
In the fantasy New York apartment checklist that we all have in our heads, there are a few universal, non-negotiable requirements. There has to be a view. There has to be good light. Obviously, an outdoor space is a must. And, as long as we acknowledge that we're just talking fantasy here, wouldn't an elevator that opens right into the apartment be a pretty great thing to have? So, when I arrived at the Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment which designer Rachel Doriss and music producer Joel Hamilton call home, I found myself happily ticking off all the boxes on my fantasy apartment checklist, and marveling at the beautiful space that the couple live in with their young daughter, Coco.
Friday, April 26, 2013
Street Savvy's Crown Heights Playhouse
Posted by Crystal Gwyn on Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 11:02 AM
Based in a basement, Street Savvy NYC and CLR Therapy, founded off a fantastical premise that wall art and wears coexist: using a combination of spray paint and acrylics, the team layers over preexisting objects such as shoes, mannequins, denim jackets, and furniture, sometimes stamped with a target symbol, always revealing their process through noted Basquiat and CY Twombly influence. Though you will find them parading their (surprisingly only somewhat) stiff pieces on the streets of SoHo, they have also recently collaborated with T by Alexander Wang x Shopbop, and Housing Works to produce in-house installations and look books, transforming strict spaces into a Pee-Wee worthy Playhouse. Currently, the work gets produced in Marcus Jahmal's Crown Heights apartment, where a basketball hoop, fish tank and studio arrangement set the tone for an experimental playground: items reconfigured, walls repainted and croquis drawn, and the oversize flat-screen ignored. Stay tuned over the course of the next few months, as they practice pragmatism and move into a warehouse space to launch Knickerbocker Mfg. Co. to produce handmade quality head wear goods with D'Emploi.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Is Greenpoint Cool Enough to Justify a $3 Million Loft?
Posted by Virginia K. Smith on Thu, Apr 25, 2013 at 10:20 AM
Granted, in a lot of neighborhoods, a $3 million asking price for a loft wouldn't really raise any eyebrows. But in Greenpoint — which, in spite of rapidly rising prices, hasn't seen a higher-priced real estate deal than last year's $2.5 million sale of an actual 3-story house — the sale would be record-breaking, in a big way.
Monday, April 22, 2013
Breaking! Brooklyn Realtors Make Money Off People's Stupidity
Posted by Kristin Iversen on Mon, Apr 22, 2013 at 12:36 PM
Remember how just a few years ago the economy was terrible and the housing market went bust and all of our rents were suddenly really, really low? Well, maybe not that last part. I don't think anyone could claim with a straight face that rents have been anything resembling "low" for the last...oh, fifteen years or so. But around about 2009, there certainly was a lot of attention paid to the fact that many of those huge glass condos built in Williamsburg were standing empty and unloved. What had once seemed like a surefire real estate bet became a huge disaster not only for builders, but also for the banks that financed the construction. Don't cry too much for them though, because it looks like everything is going to turn out just fine. For the bankers and builders and realtors anyway. For renters and buyers? Not so much!
Photos: At Home With Pete Feigenbaum of Dinowalrus
Posted by Josh Stillman on Mon, Apr 22, 2013 at 11:52 AM
In a sense, Pete Feigenbaum is the quintessential New York millenial. He lives in a chic neighborhood — Williamsburg — plays in a cool band — Dinowalrus - and is in graduate school at an elite university — Columbia. Yet despite his Times-baiting persona, he's humble, genial, and keeps his apartment modestly quirky.
His room's littered with paraphernalia from his dual lives as a musician and a student: electric guitars and miniature housing models; vinyl records and architecture textbooks. After inviting us inside with a reference to the seminal punk documentary The Decline of Western Civilization, he went on to lament the structural integrity of the apartment's doors. Welcome, readers, to the 21st century.
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Would You Rent a $1,500/Month Room to Get the "Girls Experience?"
Posted by Virginia K. Smith on Thu, Apr 11, 2013 at 12:06 PM
You know, overwrought, self-effacing preciousness on Craigslist aside, and preposterous trends surrounding Girls notwithstanding, this could just be a whole post about how it's totally normal, apparently, for a single room in a "livable and trendy but trashy-enough-to complain-about-apartment" to cost $1,500 to live in every month, just because it's in Williamsburg, in 2013. Everything about this is deeply obscene, and I will never get over it.
Inside the Renovated Crown Heights Townhouse of Jesse and Thom Armstrong
Posted by Kristin Iversen on Thu, Apr 11, 2013 at 11:35 AM
"We did everything backwards," Jesse Armstrong tells me as we walk through the immaculately renovated 1901 townhouse that she bought with her husband Thom 7 years ago. At the time, the two weren't married, and were just in their mid-20s. But Jesse had been living in a condo in South Slope, "one of those new buildings with no detail whatsoever," and wanted "a project and a dining room" and certainly found one on a recently landmarked street in Crown Heights. So Thom and Jesse bought the townhouse together (the "pocket doors are what sold it to me," says Thom) and set to work restoring elements that had been the victims of a bad '70s renovation, and married a few years later. Their home is a beautiful combination of modern design sensibility and period detail including incredible fireplaces and the house's original inlaid mirrors, and is the perfect place to entertain—which they do often—or just hang out with their two small dogs.
Monday, April 8, 2013
With Williamsburg Social, the "Dormification" of Brooklyn Continues
Posted by Kristin Iversen on Mon, Apr 8, 2013 at 11:45 AM
- c/o mns.com
- Uh, who wouldn't want to live there? It's so elegant.
Remember how great living in a dorm was? Sure you do! It was the best thing ever to live in super-close quarters with a ton of other people, some of whom you liked knowing and some of whom you would consciously avoid at all costs and some of whom were kleptomaniacs who would go into your room when you were in a writing workshop and steal all your pot. Those were the days. Don't you just want to go right back to that special time of forced social interaction and awkward avoidance of eye contact? Well, ok, good for you. Cool even. And as long as you can afford to spend $2,600/month in rent for a fucking studio, a return to dorm life can be yours!
Friday, April 5, 2013
Williamsburg Is Getting a Massive Luxury Hotel
Posted by Virginia K. Smith on Fri, Apr 5, 2013 at 2:34 PM
After spending the past three years meticulously renovating the historic Williamsburg Savings Bank building, developer Juan Figueroa is reportedly moving forward with plans to build a 40-story "boutique hotel" on the adjacent lot. "It's going to be the hottest hotel in Brooklyn — no question in my mind," CBRE director Edward Eschmann told The Real Deal.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Rents in Bushwick Are Actually Calming Down
Posted by Virginia K. Smith on Thu, Apr 4, 2013 at 9:00 AM
- Image via Lacenleather
So, we can all relax a little. But only a little! After that dream-crushing 17 percent rent spike in February, a new MNS real estate report indicates that average rents in the neighborhood evened out over the past month, dropping down 12 percent from what was deemed an "abnormal" high.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
The Latest Sign of Gentrification: Biggie's Old Apartment Is for Sale for $750,000
Posted by Kristin Iversen on Tue, Apr 2, 2013 at 1:46 PM
- c/o artnowsf.com
New York Magazine's Daily Intel reports that the 3-bedroom apartment where a young Christopher Wallace, later known as Notorious B.I.G. (obviously), lived is now for sale for $750,000. That's a lot of money! Or is it? I don't know. I have maybe officially lost all perception of what "a lot of money" is when it comes to Brooklyn real estate. However, I used to live on that block, wayyyy back in 2001, which was still a completely different era than when Biggie lived there because it was already being called Clinton Hill back then, but still, that seems like an awful lot of money.
Friday, March 29, 2013
At Home With Illustrator/Bar Reviewer Bill Roundy... Sorta
Posted by Mike Conklin on Fri, Mar 29, 2013 at 11:26 AM
Bill Roundy is the brains (or…the hands) behind "Bar Scrawl," The Brooklyn Paper's series of illustrated bar reviews. When we suggested a traditional BK Shelter home profile — like, with photos — he offered to do us one better and draw the place himself. So without further ado, we present to you Bill Roundy's BK Shelter profile illustrated by none other than Bill Roundy.
Thursday, March 28, 2013
At Home with Artist and Designer Scosha Woolridge
Posted by Kristin Iversen on Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 9:45 AM
Located right in the center of Williamsburg, which can feel like the center of the incredibly chaotic universe, is the serene home that artist/designer Scosha Woolridge shares with her husband, Joe, also an artist, and their young son, Summit. The apartment, located in the back of the building and protected from the noise of the streets, is flooded with sunlight and full of vibrant art and beautiful textiles and, well, life.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
At Home With Su'Juk Owner Su Beyazit
Posted by Josh Stillman on Tue, Mar 26, 2013 at 10:09 AM
Su Beyazit, who owns the Clinton Hill boutique Su'Juk, describes her store as "homey and woodsy." Her home in BedStuy, however, isn't quite so modest. It's a roomy, loft-style space with three — three! — sizeable walk-in closets. After searching all over Brooklyn and Queens, she stumbled across a Craigslist ad at four in the morning and snatched it up almost immediately. After taking a look for ourselves, we can't blame her.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
The Dos and Don'ts of Spring Cleaning
Posted by Kristin Iversen on Thu, Mar 21, 2013 at 10:22 AM
It's spring! It's sprung. And now it's time to clean. So one of the interesting things about living in Brooklyn is that we all live in small spaces. Oh sure, we might know someone whose huge apartment we silently covet, but even those places, when you really think about it, aren't all that big. They can't be. This is New York. We compromise on space so that we can live here. We compromise on a lot of things so that we can live here, but that isn't really the point now, other than the fact that it is kind of always the point. Anyway. As we all know from living in New York, staying clean and organized is the key to everything. But you want to do it the right way and make the most out of this, the one time of year that you actually clean everything, you dirty fucker. So in an effort to maximize your space and help you clean efficiently and cost-effectively, I have put together a little guide to spring cleaning. You'll totally be able to invite anyone you want to come over when you're done and he or she will be so impressed that he or she will do whatever nice things it is that he or she does. Maybe it will involve cookies, I don't really know.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
The Most Expensive Rental In Brooklyn Has (Maybe) Been Found
Posted by Virginia K. Smith on Wed, Mar 20, 2013 at 11:50 AM
So, real estate is expensive, and it's tough to find a good place. But maybe if you save up and keep a sharp eye out, you can find a bargain. Maybe something like a converted stable, a nice fixer upper? Ahahaha, nope. Sorry. If you're looking in Cobble Hill, that will run you about $25,000 per month. Also known as an entire year's worth of pay (or more) for a lot of people. So.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
At Home With Lady Lamb the Beekeeper
Posted by Josh Stillman on Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 11:45 AM
Aly Spaltro is one lucky girl. The 23-year-old singer/songwriter, who records as Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, just released her debut album, Ripley Pine, to rave reviews and is about to tour Europe; on top of that, she's somehow landed an exquisite two-bedroom apartment in Park Slope. It’s the kind of place most of us could retire to. She knows she's lucky. And she doesn't plan on leaving anytime soon.
Spaltro's father was in the Air Force, so she grew up all over the world: Arizona, Germany, and, most recently, Maine. After becoming a regular in the Portland music scene, she set her sights on Brooklyn and stumbled into her dream home — not to mention considerable success as a musician — within two years. She was kind enough to invite us inside her "nest" and show us that it is possible to get some peace and quiet around here.
Friday, March 15, 2013
Gowanus Is Getting A "Boutique Hotel"
Posted by Virginia K. Smith on Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 11:19 AM
- Gowanus Inn project memorandum
Flood warnings and potentially skyrocketing insurance rates notwithstanding, Gowanus is still very much on the up and up, real estate-wise. So much so that the area will soon be getting a "boutique" hotel, courtesy of Beatrice Inn co-founder Matt Abramcyck.
