Half price homes

sir_eccles · February 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/26/realestate/26condo.html

$1.1m is a snip for a 2 bed on the upper east side. Makes me wonder if real estate prices are just made up on the spot sometimes if it is that easy to cut it in half.

It also makes me think of this area of Brooklyn and the new condos I STILL see being built. What will happen to them? What will happen to the unsold units in the Richard Meier building? Would you be pissed if you had just moved in to that monstrosity and then found out they were auctioning off the remaining units at half price?

Perhaps that is why one of the few occupied apartments now has roller blinds on the windows, so we can't see them crying. I did notice that the rec' room on the ground floor now has a flat screen and a pool table. Small consolation.

theburgerking · February 2009

Monstrosity Is your opinion. I rather like it...

ntfool · February 2009

TheBurgerking wrote: Monstrosity Is your opinion. I rather like it...

Eh. Looks completely out of place in this neighborhood.

mac1 · February 2009

I think it is a cool looking building, and I disagree, I think it does work in the neighborhood. From certain angles it has a strange ghostly appearance, which is quite beautiful.

theburgerking · February 2009

Why and how is it out of place? This is representational of architecture in the 21st century. The design certainly wasn't intended to be like the neighboring buildings but it does, in my opinion, fit in well. I do think maybe it's a little too voyeuristic being across the library. Also, it looks quite cool from the distance in Prospect Park.

etson · February 2009

I do like the building architecturally. Would think about buying at half today's prices with two big caveats:
1) Would have to be on a high floor both for views and to have some privacy. By contrast, living in the SW corner apartment on the 2nd floor must be like being on Big Brother (maybe the people in there don't yet realize their every move can be seen from Eastern Parkway).
2) Would be worried about massive increase in common charges as the tax abatement runs off. Common charges also could be a problem sooner if they don't sell all the apartments.

ntfool · February 2009

I'm not entirely certain how a glass & steel facade "fits in" with the neighborhood, but hey, that's just my opinion. Its not like we're talking about a piece of architectural art, like IM Pei's glass pyramid at the Louvre or something. Its just a glass and steel box, which made no effort to architecturally "answer" the existing fabric of its surroundings (at least align some datum lines or something!), like, say, the aforementioned glass pyramid, or, better yet, the glass and steel entranceway addition to the Brooklyn Museum finished a few years back.

In addition, while some of us may like the idea of living in a glass showroom (and I even I could, given the proper surrounding environment), I can't imagine why anyone would want to do so in a dense, urban environment, particularly on a lower floor. If you lived in a glass box in the middle of the woods or something, I'd be all for it. But in the middle of Brooklyn? I just don't get the appeal.

Half price homes

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