Architecture Wednesday: Tribeca Loft

This recently renovated 3,735 square foot, full-floor loft—currently the home of Today Show host Savannah Guthrie—features four bedrooms, three-and-a-half bathrooms, glass-walled dining room, chef’s kitchen and breakfast, a home office and ten-foot ceilings.

The elevator opens directly into the foyer which leads to a great room with 50 feet of linear frontage of south-facing windows, is ideal for entertaining as the room is divided into three separate areas, one with a custom marble and white oak bar; other features in the great room include a wall of custom oak millwork, concrete ceilings and a stunning steel and glass wall with doors that lead to a large formal dining room with an antiqued mirror and cerused oak backdrop.

Off the dining room is the chef’s kitchen with custom floor-to-ceiling cabinetry, a honed black Saint Laurent marble center island and a full suite of Gaggenau appliances including a wine refrigerator, a vented range hood and a casual dining area with additional cabinet storage.

The primary suite boasts a fireplace and massive, dressing room with more custom oak millwork and a wall of antiqued mirror closets; just beyond is a five-piece bathroom with Carrera marble and bluestone finishes, a deep soaking tub beneath a flatscreen television, separate shower, double vanity with storage. Off the primary suite is the home office with built-in desk and a Murphy bed behind custom millwork panels, giving this room the ability to also function as an additional guest bedroom. The second and third bedrooms share a Jack-and-Jill bathroom clad with a double vanity, while the fourth bedroom has an en suite bathroom of its own.

Other high-end upgrades and features include hand painted wall murals, Austrian white oak flooring, collectible light fixtures, and luxurious drapery throughout; there’s a proper laundry room with abundant extra storage, a high-tech AV system with in-wall and in-ceiling speakers and a private 62 square foot storage unit.

I shouldn’t quibble, because this is lovely and spacious and chic, but one one think that for 7 million, even in New York City, you could get a little outdoor space, btu there’s not even a wee Juliet balcony in the whole place.

Huh, I guess I can quibble.

Click to emBIGGERate …

 Dwell

Architecture Wednesday: SoHo Loft

Believe it or not, this home is as old as the Minnesota Manor House from last week, but this isn’t huge, per se, it’s a loft … in the heart of Soho on a picturesque, cobblestoned block between Spring and Prince streets.

This one sits on the 4th floor of a pet-friendly co-op designed by Henry Fernbach in 1883, and it was formerly home to Greene Street Recording Studio of Public Enemy and Sonic Youth fame.

Enter through a key-locked elevator that opens into an airy, open-plan living and kitchen area. Farmhouse-style doors lead to the private spaces of the home, which include office, built-in closets, and in-unit washer/dryer. There are three bedrooms, and just two bathrooms, but it’s a wide-open main room with 11-foot ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows on both the eastern and western sides of the loft, a rear-facing terrace, original wood columns and beams, walls of exposed brick, and hardwood floors.

And had we moved quicker I could have had it for a shade over $4M.

Dwell

They're Everywhere ... Part Quatre

 It's almost like shooting fish in a barrel, and so here we go again:

 SOUTH CAROLINA

In 2016, Nancy Mace defeated Democratic incumbent Rep. Joe Cunningham to become a Congressperson for the state after tying herself to Thing 45.

But then she voted to certify the Electoral College results of the 2020 elections and was horrified by what she saw on January, declaring that she wanted “to be a new voice for the Republican Party and that's one of the reasons I've spoken out so strongly against the president, against these QAnon conspiracy theorists that led us in a constitutional crisis.”  She also said she backed Representative Liz Cheney and hoped she remained in GOP leadership, but she opposed impeachment, preferring censure instead.

But just a few months later she voted to oust Cheney from her leadership position, and voted against establishing both an independent commission to investigate and the current House select committee looking at January 6. But then she voted in support of finding Steve Bannon in contempt for failing to comply with the select committee’s subpoena.

And then this week, Thing 45 said he was endorsing Mace’s GOP primary rival Katie Arrington and called Nancy Mace “an absolutely terrible candidate” so what does desperate, thirsty Nancy Mace do?

She goes to new York, and goes to Thing 45 Tower, and films herself recounting her past support for Thing 45 and touting his policies as president. Mace described herself as one of Thing 45’s “earliest supporters” in 2015, someone who traveled to seven states to campaign for him and was a strong proponent of his administration policies.

The thirst is real, and the stupidity is overwhelming.

WISCONSIN

Republican Senator, and certifiable lunatic, Ron Johnson has said he won’t try to persuade a Wisconsin manufacturer to add more than 1,000 new jobs in his hometown because, wait for it, they have enough jobs in Wisconsin already.

Seriously Wisconsin? This is what you want representing you?

CAST A GODDAMNED VOTE!

TEXAS

Shelley Luther, a candidate for the Texas House of Representatives, and a former teacher, is complaining that, as a teacher, she wasn’t allowed to let her “kids laugh at” transgender classmates.

In a recording, Luther says of the transgender community and teaching transgender students:

“I am not comfortable with the transgenders. The kids that they brought in my classroom when they said that this kid is transgendering into a different sex, that I couldn’t have kids laugh at them. Like, other kids got in trouble for having transgender kids in my class.”

I know, it’s Texas, but pitting children against children?

It’s enough.

WASHINGTON DC

Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Congressional Representative, someone you’d hope has a modicum of intelligence, was ranting the other day about Nancy Pelosi, and accused the House Speaker of having a … this is soooo good …  “gazpacho police.”

Georgia? Is this what you elected to office?

CAST A GODDAMNED VOTE!

NEW YORK CITY

Tucker Carlson spent his Fox “News” show asking lots of leading and conspiratorial questions about who planted the pipe bombs at the DC headquarters of both major political parties the night before the January 6 insurrection.

He suggested that the FBI is withholding information about the still-unsolved case, and then claimed that Vice President Kamala Harris’s visit to the DNC on January 6 was somehow “strange.”

He’s really trying to link the Vice President to a pipe bombing? Putin must be paying him good coins to spread this trash.

OHIO

Terpsichore Maras, A QAnon influencer and convicted con artist, who claims she can time travel, who led a campaign to replace elected officials with QAnon supporters, and who misrepresented her expertise in an election lawsuit before the Supreme Court, now wants to become Ohio’s next Secretary of State.

And she isn’t even trying to hide her affiliation to QAnon nutbag society because she uploaded a logo, replacing the ‘o’ in ‘Secretary of State’ with a Q.

Ohio? Seriously?

CAST A GODDAMNED VOTE!

Get educated and save yourselves from The Stupids.

Architecture Wednesday: Shipping Container Penthouse

It’s not everyday that a shipping container home appears on the market and it’s almost never that the shipping container home is in New York City, so that makes this two-story penthouse particularly noteworthy.

Sitting high above West 31st Street in Midtown Manhattan this home was , it was designed by local firm LOT-EK, who repurposed a 20-foot shipping container into the home’s main bedroom.

And even though it’s a penthouse, it’s not a grand space, measuring just 860 square feet. But the home is made up of two distinct parts; the lower level is the open floor plan public spaces, with details like concrete walls, exposed pipes, and steel doors that pay tribute to the home's past as the building's mechanical room. There are also expansive windows, including a large bay window on the southern wall.

LOT-EK expanded the property by setting a shipping container atop the lower level which contains the primary bedroom and a multifunctional loft area.

But one of the best parts is the outdoor spaces, the gardens, and the up-close view of the Empire State Building.

It was listed for $995,000m but sold for more than $1.2 million.

Still a steal.

Dwell

No Matter Where You ...

 ... are in New York City, the views are breathtakingly, mouthwateringly beautiful.

Franklin Graham Makes You Promise To Hate Before You Can Help

With all the cases of COVID-19 in New York City, Samaritan’s Purse, an evangelical Christian humanitarian aid organization that provides aid to people in physical need, is funding and erecting a Field Hospital in Central Park to handle all those people who need care.

Nice, but … Samaritan’s Purse run by Faux-Christian bigot, homophobe, asshat, fuckmonkey Franklin Graham makes all workers, including health care providers “read and adhere” to a statement of faith that says gay people will burn in Hell.

You know, because when you’re caring for the sick you want god to know who should burn in Hell.

A City Hall spokesperson said the field hospital will operate as a Mount Sinai facility, and must adhere to the hospital’s policy against discrimination. But I guess they still have to read about Hate and agree that The Gays should burn in Hell.

New York state Senator Brad Hoylman, the only openly gay member of the New York State Senate, put the group on notice:

“Graham has a long history of homophobic and transphobic remarks. He’s called LGBTQ activists ‘immoral,’ said being gay or trans is ‘detestable,’ and even claimed Satan is behind the fight for equal rights … LGBTQ New Yorkers already experience health disparities compared to the general population, including higher rates of HIV, cancer and respiratory health issues. This means many LGBTQ New Yorkers have weaker immune systems or pre-existing conditions that make them more vulnerable to COVID-19. COVID-19 doesn’t discriminate, and neither should Franklin Graham. It’s unacceptable that a New Yorker infected with COVID-19 could be subjected to discriminatory treatment from an organization whose leader calls us ‘immoral’ and ‘detestable.’ Today I’m calling on Franklin Graham to publicly assure LGBTQ New Yorkers that they will receive the same treatment as anyone else at the Central Park field hospital. The City of New York and the Mount Sinai hospital network must monitor conditions closely at Graham’s facility and ensure every single LGBTQ patient is treated fairly. We cannot abandon our moral compass in the middle of a pandemic. Sadly, beggars can’t be choosers: New York needs every ventilator we can get. But homophobic pastor Franklin Graham and his field hospital operation in Central Park must guarantee all LGBTQ patients with COVID-19 are treated with dignity and respect. We’ll be watching.”

Bravo, sir, although the idea that Franklin Graham has a “moral compass” is laughable.

I hope the volunteers at that hospital step up, and away, from the kind of “Christian” Franklin Graham represents.

Teresa Klein Called the Police on a Black Child Who Bumped Into Her

In Brooklyn last week, Teresa Klein, a white woman called the police claiming that a young black boy touched her behind in a Brooklyn deli.

Yes, she did. Klein was quickly labeled “Cornerstore Caroline” by Jason Littlejohn, a Flatbush resident who recorded the commotion outside of the Sahara Deli Market, in which Klein rails in a phone call to police:

“I was just sexually assaulted by a child. The son grabbed my ass and she decided to yell at me.”

The boy, who is about 9, burst into tears as bystanders confronted Klein about the incident.

Here’s what happened … Klein was in the bodega and a young boy was standing nearby; as that child turned, his backpack brushed against Klein’s backside and she went off, accusing a nine-year-old boy of sexual assault.

But he was a black child … shades of Emmett Till who was murdered years ago because a white woman lied about him making advances toward her. Thank the goddess we moved on a half-step from those days.

And thank the goddess for cell phones and surveillance cameras, because now everyone, including Teresa Klein, knows that she overreacted.

For three days this story was all over social media, with cellphone and instore camera footage, detailing the events, and finally, at the end of the week, Teresa Klein returned to the store to buy cigarettes and to face her neighbors, who heckled her as she spoke to journalists.

Then, and only after being prompted by a reporter, Klein entered the store to see the footage of this little bump with a backpack. And only then did Klein apologize:

“Young man. I don’t know your name but I’m sorry.”

Klein denies acting out of bigotry toward the boy but complained that the child’s mother reacted aggressively when she said the boy had touched her.

Huh; you shriek at a child, and accuse him of sexual assault, and then, when his mother steps in to defend her child, she acts defensively? Go figure.

Stop it. White people, just stop it. I don’t care who the president is, or how he acts, we should be better than this.

If you scared a black child’s gonna grab your ass, stay home!

If you’re afraid of black people barbecuing in the park stay out of the park!

If you’re nervous about two black men sitting in Starbucks, drink your goddamned coffee at home!

If seeing a young black child mowing a neighbor’s lawn causes you concern, sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up!

If you spot a black man babysitting two white kids and you think there’s something sinister happening, go home!

And as for you white people who also see these things and hear these things and find this kind of blatant racist behavior unacceptable, you need to speak up, too, or you might just wanna stay home yourselves.

Say something to the racists. Shine a light on them and their behavior will crawl back under a rock where it belongs.

NYT

Architecture Wednesday: Tribeca Manse

Last week was an over-the-top beach house in California, but this week I need my city life, so I’m thinking of this 13,500 square-foot triplex penthouse that is built within a magnificent 1862 limestone Loft Mansion in the heart of Tribeca.

There are four bedrooms and six… only six? I prefer one for each day of the week … bathrooms in the home that is spread out over the 4th, 5th and 6th floors of the mansion; but the floors are open so that light from the rooftop …oh yeah, there’s a 2,775-square foot terrace up top … can fill every floor, and shine through the home’s centerpiece: a glass staircase.The house retains the original 12-15-foot ceilings and cast-iron columns and has a private gym and a half basketball court in the basement!

Now, I don’t play basketball, so I might use it as a fabulous party space instead ….

Click to emBIGGERate

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