Posted January 6, 200817 yr i saw this came up for sale and thought you guys would be interested in this historic apt. if you ever wondered about lofts, willem de kooning's chelsea studio was known as the very first "loft" style apartment. Fame Slept Here By S.Jhoanna Robledo Published Jan 4, 2008 http://newyorkmetro.com/realestate/features/fameslept080114_560.jpg 156 WEST 22ND STREET The Facts: Four-story brownstone with ground-floor commercial space and three residential lofts. Asking Price: $6.5 million. Agent: Wigder Frota, Prudential Douglas Elliman. The Chelsea Art Scene, 1936 Edition As the art world’s center of commerce, Chelsea only supplanted Soho a few years ago. But artists were there long before—notably Willem de Kooning, who kept a studio in this building on West 22nd Street for a decade. In their 2005 biography of the artist, Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan explain that he moved here in 1936, with a girlfriend, Juliet Browner—illegally, as the building was zoned for commercial use only. (It had no hot water.) De Kooning kept it spotless, knocking off work early each Saturday to scrub. The couple gave regular parties and socialized with Martin Craig, a sculptor who lived downstairs... http://nymag.com/realestate/features/42587/ willem de kooning in his studio in 1938 http://jacketmagazine.com/21/denby-px/burckh-de-k.jpg _______________________________________ __________________________________________________ *** in a related story, a keith haring mural was uncovered in a soho apartment: http://preview.nymetro.com/realestate/realestatecolumn/wallart080114_560.jpg In this multilayered city, finding evidence of a building’s previous incarnation is nothing new. This summer, the Times reported that developers at 151 Wooster Street had uncovered a long-lost graffiti mural by Fab 5 Freddy and Jean-Michel Basquiat and managed to peel it off the wall for a planned exhibition. And not too far away, at 260 West Broadway, the architects Todd Ernst and Frank Servidio knew that the spot in which Ernst was building a maisonette might also contain a treasure. It had once been exhibition space for the School of Visual Arts, and they’d heard that a painting by one of its most famous students, Keith Haring, was buried somewhere within. As soon as they got the job in 2001, the architects began to search, and it didn’t take long to confirm the rumor. “It was like discovering an Egyptian tomb,” says Ernst. Within a week, they’d found a wall of those famous chunky curlicues, hidden behind a closet used for coats and AV gear. “The fact that it actually survived is amazing,” says Ernst. “It’s next to a sprinkler pipe and it’s made of shoe polish and alcohol, and it’s water soluble.” ... http://nymag.com/realestate/realestatecolumn/42586/
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