Dumbo NYC

 View from the 29th floor of J Condo (Photo courtesy of dlalande)

This weekend’s NY Times The Hunt featured a widow, Eleanor Alper, who lived on a Fifth Avenue co-op for two decades before her husband’s death. Ms. Alper wanted to find “a big, bright, high-ceilinged place that could include an art studio for Ms. Alper’s painting and sculpture” between $2 million and $3 million. After searching in SoHo and Tribeca, she turned to Dumbo for the views, loft spaces, and the art community. She visited 70 Washington Street, a full service loft building with high ceilings and large windows. “But she would have had to combine two condos for enough space. Besides, some of the rooms were interior rooms without windows.” So she looked into J Condo and purchased a unit on the 32nd floor:

“Ms. Alper decided to buy the J Condo duplex. It cost $2.65 million, with monthly maintenance and taxes of around $1,650. She was glad it was just below the penthouse level, “because it is kind of pretentious on your address to have the penthouse,” she said.”

“She especially enjoys watching the air traffic at Newark Liberty International Airport and, closer at hand, the Downtown Manhattan Heliport. Below her lie the Manhattan Bridge and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, where motor traffic “is all very miniature and very cute.”

Ms. Alper is known for riding her bicycle and her scooter around the local streets. “I am making friends with Brooklyn,” she said. “It is really fun. It is a different Brooklyn than I remember. The neighborhood is full of surprises. That’s what I think my life should be. Lots of surprises.”"

With the budget she had, I’m surprised the artist did not find anything she liked in SoHo, where the original artists’ lofts are or in Tribeca, the home of many high end art galleries. Maybe she found the community in Brooklyn more suited for her. After all, she’s an artist at heart.

{Starting a New Life in Brooklyn, 20Jan2008, NY Times}