Former spaces..

I love the character of old buildings that are converted into living spaces. New York offers many gorgeous apartments that were once warehouses, but there are also a lot of other beautiful conversions too!

This first apartment, located in the West Village was originally a stable built in 1909. The below picture depicts the space in it's original form. If you love the transformation, you're in luck, the apartment is on the market... that is if you have $19.5 million laying around to spend for this penthouse duplex!!! Architect Michael Haverland says "we mixed cool industrial equipment with exposed conduits and outdoor light switches with exposed steel on the stairs and windows and rich, luscious materials like walnut, to create a balance between warm and clean modern looks."This room shows what I love so much about old buildings - those ceilings and support columns add so much detail to the apartment. I'm loving the play of cool (concrete) versus warm (maple) materials in the dining room.
Looking at this apartment has made me start craving steel casement windows! They're so gorgeous here.

This next apartment, was originally built has a synagogue, but over the years, it also housed an underwear factory, a shower-curtain factory, the neighborhood still, a Chinese laundry, and a fabric store. The owners, Thomas Nozkowski, a painter, and his wife Joyce Robins, a sculptor, weren't looking for a cool place to live, but just somewhere cheap where they could both have studio space, and wow, have they lucked out!

Nozkowski and Robins hauled out five truckloads of trash and did most of the renovations, on a budget of $3,000. Renovations that included removing the dropped ceiling that covered the sky light and windows.

I love those balconies over looking the first floor and that sky light is an amazing feature. “The prayer books exude from the woodwork,” says Robins. Jewish tradition dictates “you are not allowed to dispose of them; they have to be buried,” she says. “So the congregation stuffed them in the walls. I collect them. I’m keeping them safe.

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Photo Credits: New York Magazine