Too sexy for your pad?

Architecture isn’t for people! Or so, much of the cognoscenti would have you believe. The inconvenient reality is still that someone must traverse, converse in, walk in, sully, breed in, and indeed breathe in the spaces conceived by today’s practitioners. And so it occasionally happens that overhauled residential spaces end up resembling art galleries. Such is the case with the overwhelmingly sleek maisonette at 157 Hudson Street, a condominium on offer at $2,895,000.

This is the kind of space in which we would love to engage in wild, vaguely futuristic, beautiful people activities, or – in recovering from said- simply wallow and tan by the light reflected off the gleaming white epoxy floors. But live in?

The apartment makes a compelling contrast with the historically rich building in which it is set. Built in 1866 and expanded in 1898, 157 Hudson originally housed the horse stables of the American Express Company. The initial use for the building was to deliver packages and telegraphs via American Express stagecoaches. It has since been turned into a premier boutique residential conversion, with 17 units.

While there are many elements to the overall design that are worthy of emulation, the overall effect is too cold, studied, and Clinique. The renovation is excessively customized, there appears to be scant natural light, and there is no outdoor space.  The volumes, on the other hand, are ideal for showcasing large scale canvases, and someone will love it – only, probably after a price cut.

~ by madhattan on October 23, 2008.