loft living or penology? Quote Of The Day

you can’t make this stuff up
Today’s QOTD comes via the New York Times’ own Hunt Grunt, Joyce Cohen, and requires Manhattan Loft Guy readers to cross the river. Not far, but still …. In The Hunt feature in today’s real estate section in the Times, The H Grunt quotes an art-y type thus:

The context is clear that he means this in a positive way (he moved to 184 Kent Avenue, after a long search [of course, in The Hunt] all the way from … 181 Kent). The photos (renderings?) on the building’s StreetEasy link don’t give the same impression as the photo in the Times. Something about the tall and narrow windows in the center section are vaguely correctional. (Compare the Manhattan Criminal Court building, which carries that verticality all the way to the top.)

the Wiki is my friend
But we are talking about a Cass Gilbert building here, circa 1913, so let’s be kind. Looking only at the New York division of his Greatest Hits, we find:

• Woolworth Building
• U S Customs House
• NY Life
• 90 West Street

None of these is pedestrian like a warehouse can be. (184 Kent was a grocer’s warehouse, back in the day.) But his Brooklyn Army Terminal on the waterfront in Sunset park is not too shabby, either.

A tip of the Manhattan Loft Guy hat to Damien Girardi for a holiday QOTD.