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Photos: Inside The Transformation Of A Gorgeous Greenwich Village Residence
By
Ben Yakas
Published Oct 16, 2016
Modified Oct 16, 2016
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Oct 16, 2016
Modified Oct 16, 2016
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Back in 2013, architect Adam Kushner (of KUSHNERstudios) and his wife bought the gorgeous residence at 16 Minetta Lane for $3.75 million from famed event designer Robert Isabell. In the years since, Kushner has been hard at work remaking the home—and yesterday, New Yorkers got a chance to get a glimpse inside of the Greenwich Village work-in-progress as part of OHNY.
Photographer Sai Mokhtari was there to document the tour—the first floor/kitchen is completed, but everything on the upper floors is a construction site still. Kushner is leaving the front of the house preserved, with the historic facade intact, but building out the residence on the upper floors. The house will also have a criss-crossing trellis of ivy (which is a throwback to Isabell, who covered the windows with ivy).
Kushner noted that much of his vision for the home was inspired by criss-crossing trees on the perpendicular street (see the last photo above). He wants the lower levels (behind the existing facade) to be lined with logs of wood going throughout the home; the basement floor is already made of wood pieces he cut and put together himself. The kitchen counter is made of a single piece of wood from a fallen tree he found upstate.
During a slideshow talk on the project, Kushner showed an old map that marked a well at the corner of the property, and sure enough, they hit the well as they were excavating at that exact location. Kushner said he's planning on putting a jacuzzi over where the well currently sits. (Also during that presentation, a long time resident of the neighborhood noted that Minetta Lane would crumble and have to be rebuilt every few years back in the 18th century because the creek would erode it.)
The cherry on top: the home will have a planned 50-foot rock climbing wall, which will make it NYC's longest climbing wall when done. It will go from the basement all the way to the rooftop area and will be embedded with family mementos and photos the whole way.
You can get a feel for how the apartment looked before Kushner's additions in the video below.
Click through above to check out photos from the tour. And if you missed out this year, you may get another chance to see how much the residence has progressed in 2017: Kushner noted that he's planning on doing another OHNY tour next year.
Tagged
16 minetta lane
greenwich village
manhattan
minetta house
ohny
open house new york
original
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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