ever so rare before and after shots of 39 Worth Street loft

that (almost) never happens (hooray!)
Long-time Manhattan Loft Guy readers may have noted the pregnant parenthetical that closed my post on April 15, 66 Crosby Street loft sells for $868/ft as a very tall project, wishing that we (well, I) could see before-and-after pictures of one or both of two high-ceilinged lofts at 66 Crosby Street, as both were fairly primitive when purchased (at least as to design and usage):

Would love to see pix of that, but that (almost) never happens. Sigh.

Really observant long-time Manhattan Loft Guy readers may have wondered if that parenthetical “(almost)” was just another but of temporizing or whether something was up. Something was up! I noted last week a fascinating photo set with essay (Curbed probably earned another hat tip for that, though I can’t be sure where I saw it) of the newly decorated and renovated version of a classic Manhattan loft that I profiled when it sold last year, and had it on my to-do list as a potential post.

That loft is #3E at 39 Worth Street, which was the subject of a W Magazine spread because the new owner is designer Alexander Wang (an apparent wunderkind), with the fascinating twist that the essay was written by the former owner, who was a Style editor at the New York Times. (There is also a video that goes with the profile, but I can’t get it to play; you may have better luck here.)

When I hit it in my June 13, 2010, 39 Worth Street loft finally closes, makes the papers, I was struck by how long it took to sell that loft and how, during the time it was for sale, a large construction site grew up around it (complicating the marketing, just a bit). Severely truncated, that history featured a launch in April 2006 at $2.95mm, a few breaks (total: 5 months) into February 2009 (then asking: $2.75mm), a longer break until October 2009 (back at $2.2mm) until a contract in March and closing last June at $2mm.

In those days, the loft was

a classic Long-and-Narrow of "2,560 sq ft" (per the former listing), set up as a one bedroom plus "guest quarters" plus home office, with the single bedroom (with bath) taking up the entire back of the loft, and lot line windows along the long side where the guest and office areas are (more about those windows later). *** [later:] lot line windows along the east side, then covered with butcher paper as a hint not to get too attached to them. The bedroom offered wonderful views of the construction site. Let’s just say that there is a lot of digging (noise, dust) involved in a building with five floors above ground and four floors below. The fact is that very few buyers will buy into a construction zone that close and that large, if they had other choices.

That post was also fascinated by the attitude of a reporter for the New York Observer about Tribeca (hint: not respectful) and (horrors!) a bit snarky about classic Manhattan loft “style” (the Observer said):

features all the faux-former factory aspects of the pseudo-industrial rusticity Tribeca buyers go gaga for: exposed brick, original tin ceilings, even mullioned windows. The floor plan includes a "huge" open dining/living room; a handsome-size office; and a "sun-splashed" master bedroom with a chef’s kitchen featuring—what else?—industrial stainless steel and hardwood with a double-wall oven and Gaggenau cooktop.

matters of black and white
W Magaznine was less interested in the visuals of the layout of the Worth Street loft, as re-created by the new owner (wunderkind designer), and more interested in his aesthetic sense for furnishings and lifestyle (it is the magazine of “Art & Design”). The slideshow with the article has mostly tight shots, many including Wang. (Personal fave: the refrigerator contents in Slide #9.) There’s one “before” photo that gives a good idea of the change in style (Slide #2).

Remember those lot-line windows that were covered with butcher paper in the late marketing period? Check out Slide #10 for the current “view”.

The Observer snarked on the former loft; I will try to avoid the snark in excerpting some W-notes about the new one:

• An entire black menagerie seemed to have given their lives for the privilege of a place in the home of New York’s hottest downtown fashion designer.

• This loft, they [Wang and decorator Ryan Korban] claim, is the most personal expression so far of the visual “language” the pair have formulated over the course of five years and two apartments, Wang’s showroom and first store, and the shop-within-shops that serve as worldwide outposts for his brand. “Very rich, very luxe” is Korban’s verdict on the result.

• “Even the people at the top in fashion, even though they’re older, I see their desire to be sexy and young, and I feel that is lacking in the interiors world. I’m trying to bring a sexiness to everything I do.”

Former owner Brubach captured the fact that homes embody dreams, lofts probably more than "apartments":

Like most new homeowners, Wang and I came with fantasies of change. His: “Having lived in New York, where you’re always out and your friends are always out because no one has enough space to entertain, I imagined an apartment where I could have my friends over and on the weekend not have to leave because I feel claustrophobic,” he says. “Where I would learn how to cook or do crafts projects.” Mine: I would host big parties and bring together people from different fields; I would cook intimate dinners for friends who would linger late into the night; I would retreat from the city’s assault on my senses, read, and write.

(Note how similar their “fantasies of change” were!)

He gutted her kitchen; she tries to understand:

The kitchen was central to both of our scenarios. Wang has moved all the appliances against a perimeter wall, with a marble-topped island nearby. “I have always loved an open kitchen,” he says. I’ve never understood an open kitchen. Or maybe it’s just that I’m too nervous a cook and an open kitchen leaves me nowhere to hide.

That open-kitchen-from-galley is the only structural change mentioned in the article; the rest is Style (errr, “Art & Design”). For contrast, check out the floor plan and photos from an old listing. (I would think the long narrow bath behind the old kitchen was also a candidate for change, but there was not much time for a massive renovation, given that Wang did not buy it until last June.) Perhaps I am reading too much into Wang’s dreams for the loft, but it seems he (and his decorator buddy) were focused much more on the interior of the space and less concerned about the light and views. In other words, the loss of any sense of the outside from those east windows was less a bug and more a feature for him, than for many loft buyers.

The change in the floor plan of this loft is not on the scale that I would expect from the new owner of that 2nd floor loft with 16 foot ceilings on Crosby Street. I would still love to see before-and-after pix of a place like that, but I am grateful to the new owner and (especially) the former-owner-turned-visitor-and-commentator for this evocative ‘lifestyles’ piece.

© Sandy Mattingly 2011