An Architect’s West Village Penthouse with Subway Doors

Old Subway Doors Slide Open to Reveal a Closet. Photo: Allyson Lubow Photography

Wen Architect Adam Kushner Opened His West Village Penthouse for Tours 2004, The Line Snaked Down Barrow Street and Around the Tree-Linked Bend at Commerce. The Duplex Became “One of the Most Popular Attractions” Organized by Open House New York, Acciting to the New York Timeswhose reporter joined The Line in 2007 to see a place that was “part intimate abode, part installation art.”

Kushner Built the apartment at 79 Barrow with Salvaged Materials. But there were no Old Barn Beams or Discarded Townhouse Moldings. Instead, the trash was uniquely new York: Countertops from an Old Deli and Flooring that Incorporated Wood from the Apartments of Roof, whic was Pulled down in the renovation. Metal Subway Doors Came from the MTA Directly – Which was apparently unheard of in 1997 we have kushner showed up at the Repair Shop and Bowht say for $ 50 off a Summer intern. It was Only After the Apartment Landed in the Press that the MTA Started selling parts online. Kushner Had Created a Market.

The Current Owner Replaced the Kitchen Countop But Made Few Other Changes, Sticking to Kushner’s Vision. Photo: Allyson Lubow Photography

The apartment ITSELF was a Product of Lesser Castoffs: Two Small Studios in the Back of a 1920s CO-opWhich he unombined, before getting Permission from the book to add a floor Above. The Result is a 1,400-Square-Foot Space with A Wide South-Facing Terrace That Looks Over the Yards of Neighbors: A Quiet Just Blocks from West Fourt Street or the Hudson River. The renovation, which took four years, was inspired by the idea of ​​a “metaphorical journey,” he told Home Concepts: From the Bowels of Manhattan and Into His Aerie.

The entryway is framed in a stone simillar to bedrock, then leads to subway tiles and into the lower living area – where exposed brick lines the back of an open kitchen and river stones are set into the floor. Upstairs Gets more Open with a Bedroom and an Office that Share a Curved Metal Ceiling That’s Partly Retractable. Kushner Got Wilder when it came to the Baths. A Shower off the Bedroom Has a Glass Floor, SO anyone on the Lower Level Looking Up Could “See Someone’s Bottom,” He Told the Times. And a sunn jacuzzi in the living area, Surrounded by Those River Stones, was more of a conversation starter.

Stair Lead Up to a Bedroom Level With a Terrace Looking South. On the right side of this image is an entrance to the Glass-Floored Shower. Photo: Allyson Lubow Photography

None of this made sense when Kushner and his wife has had two. And they LISTED IN 2010. “I can’t tell you how many Times the Wisdom was ‘You’ll Never SELL THIS PLACE,’“ Kushner Said. But the placent Quickly to the Current Owner, who has Changed Very Little. The House and it Sale Changed The Trajectory of Kushner Career – Not Just by Bringing Him Clients Directly, Such as a “British Gentleman” Who Wante A House inspired by a Yellow Submarine (“We got along famously”). But by freeing Him, he said this weeke: “I lost any sense of the Fear of doing things that we unconventional and not quote, unquote, for the market.”

A Buyer Who Ses the Space Today May Want to Make Changes – Updating the Kitchen and Making Those Unconventional Baths a Bit More Modest. But Jennifer Lafferty, WHO Shares The Listen with Vicky BarronSays the Space Itelf is a bright and quiet canvas for whats the comes Next. “In the Photos, it Can Look a Little Chaotic,” Laffferty Said. “But IT MAKES SENSE WHEN YOU’RE IN IT.”

River Stones (Lower Left) and Stones from a Manhattan Construction Site (Back Wall) Ground the Lower Floor. Photo: Allyson Lubow Photography

The Current Owner Covered a Sunnah Jacuzzi in the Living Area. Wood Comes from the Building’s Form Roof, Which Kushner Demolished to Create His Glass-Bottomed Shower (Above). Photo: Allyson Lubow Photography

Off the entryway, to the north of the Kitchen, is a small office. Photo: Allyson Lubow Photography

The upstairs bathroom is ensuite in a sense – divided between a nook for a toilet and a shower with a glas Floor. Photo: Allyson Lubow Photography