ohny - chinatown loft

On to the next installment of my OHNY post. Sunday morning P and I trekked to Chinatown to check out a loft space that had been created in an old tenement building. When the owner Koray Duman, one half of Sayigh & Duman Architects, purchased the 750-square-foot corner apartment, it had three bedrooms. Hard to imagine the now open space chopped up like that. Duman gutted everything, exposed the brick and raised the ceiling to create more space. He even left a piece of history on the walls, old wallpaper that was discovered underneath the gypsum wall boards and left in place. One of his friends, who is an artist working with neon tubes melded her art with the remaining wallpaper and gave it to him as a house warming gift. Not a bad house warming present, right? All enclosed spaces, like powder room, toilet, closet and washer/dryer are hidden in the chartreuse wall that is part divider and part closet. The two sofas in the living room can be moved and put together like puzzle pieces to create one large lounging area, hanging out on them you can take in great views of Downtown Manhattan. My favorite part is the bed made of felt and magazines, what a great way to recycle old magazines. I could probably build a small house with the magazines I have collected over the years. Also love the continuous use of color in the space, the chartreuse works very well with the white but I am not sure if I could keep up with it myself. I just have so many tchotchkes and colorful artwork…

What is your favorite part of the space? Or is it too clean and modern for you?

Have a great weekend! 

 

 

 

 

 

ohny - lazzaro residence

Peeping tomette is back! Because I visited so many sites this past weekend I will post on a daily basis this week, at least that is what I am shooting for...

Before Santa and I headed to our shift at One Museum Mile we squeezed in visiting the Lazarro residence in the Lower East Side. The apartment was renovated in 2009 by Azin Valy from I-Beam Design for herself, her husband and their pretty impressive furniture collection. If you read my posts about last years Open House New York you might remember I visited another one of their projects, an apartment in Nolita. 

Can you spot the Emmys in the pictures?

 

 

 

ohny - one museum mile

Yesterday I started the Blogging Your Way Boot Camp to whip me and my little blog into shape and our first assignment is to write three posts this week that cover certain topics. For my first post I picked something I am passionate about, which is the architecture and design surrounding us in everyday life. I like to walk around and just absorb my environment and then start dreaming about living in that cute little house or the old factory or whatever comes my way, sometimes my imagination runs wild and I start decorating "my" new digs.

Last weekend was the 10^th annual Open House New York weekend and it was my fourth time volunteering for the event. As I previously mentioned in another post OHNY is dedicated to give New Yorkers and tourists alike the chance to experience the architecture of the city. Participating locations range from historic landmarks to private residences and everything in between. If you are not located in New York or anywhere close to it you can also check if your city is part of open house worldwide.

On Saturday I worked my volunteer shift with Santa at One Museum Mile, a residential building which will be eventually housing the Museum for African Art on the first four floors. The building was designed by a renowned team including Robert A.M. Stern Architects, LLP, Andre Kikoski Architects and SLCE Architects. Some of the apartments were staged in collaboration with Lignet Roset and are also up for sale. If you see something you like and can afford to part with a million or two or three contact CORE. Yes, CORE from HGTV’s Selling New York. There you got me on another passion of mine watching anything home or real estate related on TV ;)

Are you a “peeping tom” like me who loves peeking into other people's homes?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

week forty

Can you believe the year only has twelve weeks left? If time keeps flying by like it was the whole year Christmas will be here in no time...

I had a pretty busy weekend because it was Open House New York weekend. On Saturday I worked as a volunteer with Santa at One Museum Mile but we managed to squeeze in a visit of private residence before starting our shift at 11am. I took a lot of photos all weekend that I want to share with you this week. From the roof terrace at One Museum Mile you have a gorgeous view of Central Park, the building sits right at the Northeast corner of the park and of course I will write a post about the experience as well. On Sunday P and I visited four more participating sites and it involved a lot of walking, riding the subway and more walking. Today I feel like I had a good work out yesterday and my whole body is sore. No pain, no gain ;)

Hope you had an equally fun weekend! Have a great start into week forty one!

happy weekend

I though I had a post scheduled for today but I had to find out I didn't. So I thought I would show you what I did in my upholstery class last night but unfortunately all the photos I took came out blurry. I had decided to work on the Saarinen chair I found on the street a couple of weeks ago and started to take it apart. Should have done that sooner because it must have stood out in the rain and assembled it couldn't dry properly. The chair smells a little bit like wet and mildewy basement but I am sure once the foam is off and I gave the frame a good scrub with a bleach solution it will be fine. Of course I will show some progress shots soon...

I will be back with hopefully lots of photos from this years Open House New York next week!

Happy weekend everyone!

911 memorial

When my parents where visiting we took them to see the 911 memorial, it was something that I wanted to do since it opened. The memorial was designed by architect Michael Arad in conjunction landscape architect Peter Walker, their design has been selected in a design competition and evolves around two reflecting pools in the footprints of the twin towers. The names of every person who died in the 2001 and 1993 attacks are inscribed into bronze panels surrounding the Memorial pools, there are 2,983 names in total that have been chosen to be displayed in a random order. All the trees on the memorial site are Swamp white oaks except for one Callery pear tree that was found in the rubble in the plaza of the World Trade Center. The damaged tree was originally planted in the 1970s has been now nursed back to health and planted at the memorial and is now know as the Survivor Tree.

My initial reaction upon seen the pools was how beautiful the water looks cascading down into them but then I started thinking about what had happened in that exact spot and I felt my chest tighten and the water rushing down turned into something more sinister. I am not sure if it was the intent of the architects but the falling water reminded me of the falling towers and looking at the black bottomless hole in the center of each pool gave me a chill down my spine. It was really interesting to observe the reactions of everyone looking into the pools, I saw a couple of people crying, some just quietly looked around but I haven't seen anyone that was not moved in some way. Standing in a spot where so many people have lost their life is definitely something emotional and everybody's emotions are as different as the people experiencing them. Have you ever visited the memorial and if so what did you experience?

PS. Unfortunately the museum on the grounds is not open yet and I could not find a specific date when it will be opened. 

 

 

 

 

 

week thirty nine

Wow, today marks the beginning of October. Where did September go, didn't it just start?

My parents left on Friday and because P is on a business trip I had the house to myself all weekend. Of course with so much time on my hands I made an ambitious to-do list. Ever since taking the Blogging Your Way class I wanted to add an about page and a menu bar to my blog, so I wanted to use this weekend to get these things done. May I remind you that I took the class last October! Also on my list was to give this chair one more sanding. My Dad was nice enough to already strip it and start sanding. But of course I didn't get anything done. I have to admit I have spent my weekend doing pretty much nothing. Saturday night I went out to see the Global Citizen Festival concert on the Great Lawn in Central Park, that was the only time I left the house the past weekend. On Sunday I was in my pj's most of the day but managed to shower in the afternoon and switch into sweatpants and a t-shirt. Classy! Honestly I loved just hanging around reading, watching TV and mindlessly browsing the web. I guess I needed a weekend off as well because I was running on empty physically and mentally...

Hope you all had a relaxing weekend as well! Here is to a great and hopefully well balanced October!

PS. Since I obviously need a good motivational kick in the b*** to change some things around on my blog I signed up for the Blogging Your Way bootcamp to whip myself and the blog into shape. Did anybody sign up for it as well?