spite wall
Apparently Mrs. Boyd really had a terrible reaction to 9/11 and insisted in moving back to California (land of the earthquake sounded better, and was home). The apartment was promptly featured in Architectural Digest after they privately decided to sell - always a good sales tool. Although, ouch, it took two years. People respected, for the most part, what they did to keep the "architectural integrity" and "restore" the home - but there was some grumbling. I never saw it after they moved in. Before the Boyd's, it had been used as a place for events and you could rent it out - an attempt by Rudolph's boyfriend at raising funds to keep the place. Regardless he did sadly have to sell (to the Boyds).
I wrote once here - I think - about the infamous anecdote about the architectural critic who was on the fourth floor during a cocktail party? He put his Martini glass down (I am embellishing - I have no idea what he was drinking) - on what appeared to be a solid glass coffee-table - and it fell through a hole and landed all the way 4 floors down. That was Rudolph - full of minimalist play. Anyway, the Boyd's did change some of those lovely Rudolph games. (It was his home after-all, he was allowed). But geez, sounds like the thing is going under. Terrible situation.
Thanks bill, I didn't see this one.
good story. that arguably nyc's most desirable neighborhood. here are some beekman place imamges. more :
"It's always been hard to sell architectural heroism to Manhattan's millionaires, whose tastes tend to run more toward lacquered preservationism. "Most people who are in the market," says Stribling's Tim Desmond, "want traditional details." That's why it took two years to unload Paul Rudolph's intricately renovated house at 23 Beekman Place (Sotheby's Fred Williams sold it for $5.5 million). "There are clear floors and spaces that interconnect and overlap," Williams says, and potential buyers "were literally crawling on their hands and knees because they were fearful of falling down." Selling such a place "is a bit more like marketing a piece of art." Maybe that's why art dealer Anthony d'Offay is having Christie's auction off his 1950 Japanese-in-metal house at 242 East 52nd Street (it was built for the Rockefellers by Philip Johnson, who acknowledges that it "would make a wonderful office"). Architect Edward Durell Stone's 1956 "neo-Baroque" 130 East 64th Street house was also a tough sale. The concrete façade was taken down by his widow, then rebuilt by order of the Landmarks Preservation Commission before it could be sold last year for $2.3 million. "Atypical" houses, says Sharon E. Baum of Corcoran, who sold it, "take longer to sell, but people like buying something that's a name property." In 1997, Desmond sold another Rudolph brainchild, 251 West 13th Street, for $1.95 million to TV writer Tom Fontana. Fontana spent two years and $1.7 million de-geniusing it ("The place was ridiculous," he told the Times). Even if the Beekman buyers' 5-year-old is terrified of the cliff-hanging Jacuzzi, their broker, Douglas Elliman's Jan Hashey, says their renovation "more or less consists of a quart of Windex and paper towels."
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- bill 1-15-2005 4:39 pm
Apparently Mrs. Boyd really had a terrible reaction to 9/11 and insisted in moving back to California (land of the earthquake sounded better, and was home). The apartment was promptly featured in Architectural Digest after they privately decided to sell - always a good sales tool. Although, ouch, it took two years. People respected, for the most part, what they did to keep the "architectural integrity" and "restore" the home - but there was some grumbling. I never saw it after they moved in. Before the Boyd's, it had been used as a place for events and you could rent it out - an attempt by Rudolph's boyfriend at raising funds to keep the place. Regardless he did sadly have to sell (to the Boyds).
I wrote once here - I think - about the infamous anecdote about the architectural critic who was on the fourth floor during a cocktail party? He put his Martini glass down (I am embellishing - I have no idea what he was drinking) - on what appeared to be a solid glass coffee-table - and it fell through a hole and landed all the way 4 floors down. That was Rudolph - full of minimalist play. Anyway, the Boyd's did change some of those lovely Rudolph games. (It was his home after-all, he was allowed). But geez, sounds like the thing is going under. Terrible situation.
Thanks bill, I didn't see this one.
- selma 1-16-2005 3:15 am [add a comment]
good story. that arguably nyc's most desirable neighborhood. here are some beekman place imamges. more :
"It's always been hard to sell architectural heroism to Manhattan's millionaires, whose tastes tend to run more toward lacquered preservationism. "Most people who are in the market," says Stribling's Tim Desmond, "want traditional details." That's why it took two years to unload Paul Rudolph's intricately renovated house at 23 Beekman Place (Sotheby's Fred Williams sold it for $5.5 million). "There are clear floors and spaces that interconnect and overlap," Williams says, and potential buyers "were literally crawling on their hands and knees because they were fearful of falling down." Selling such a place "is a bit more like marketing a piece of art." Maybe that's why art dealer Anthony d'Offay is having Christie's auction off his 1950 Japanese-in-metal house at 242 East 52nd Street (it was built for the Rockefellers by Philip Johnson, who acknowledges that it "would make a wonderful office"). Architect Edward Durell Stone's 1956 "neo-Baroque" 130 East 64th Street house was also a tough sale. The concrete façade was taken down by his widow, then rebuilt by order of the Landmarks Preservation Commission before it could be sold last year for $2.3 million. "Atypical" houses, says Sharon E. Baum of Corcoran, who sold it, "take longer to sell, but people like buying something that's a name property." In 1997, Desmond sold another Rudolph brainchild, 251 West 13th Street, for $1.95 million to TV writer Tom Fontana. Fontana spent two years and $1.7 million de-geniusing it ("The place was ridiculous," he told the Times). Even if the Beekman buyers' 5-year-old is terrified of the cliff-hanging Jacuzzi, their broker, Douglas Elliman's Jan Hashey, says their renovation "more or less consists of a quart of Windex and paper towels."
- bill 1-16-2005 7:07 pm [add a comment]