loud paper: some strip, some tease

February 13, 2009

some strip, some tease

Even in tough economic times, there's still room for some vicarious real estate. A little architectural burlesque.

So, with that preamble, I'm excited to link to Undoing the Cover-Up, a profile on the home of Natalya Kashper, partner in Brooklyn's own DUB Studios. (Shout outs to the other partners: Michael Piper and Gabriel Sandoval.)

The 7,200-square-foot space started out as a Pop-art bachelor pad (the previous owner's tasteful rhinestone fireplaces didn't make it into the story) and was stripped down to reveal the building's 1890s bones. I feel a Duchamp reference somewhere in that last sentence.

The design is stunning. I lust after the space. It haunts my dreams. I could fit seven to fifteen Tiny Houses in it.

So, without further ado, my first outing with the Grey Lady's Thursday Home section:

NATALYA KASHPER sat in her minimalist living room, a light-filled space made rich with rough brick walls, a sculptural masonry fireplace and wooden ceiling joists. She looked out of the arched windows, framed in deep wood casements, and took in the view.

“I remember coming to SoHo with my mom and thinking, ‘This is so beautiful,’ ” said Ms. Kashper, who grew up in California. “SoHo is the epitome of an old American city.”

That might explain her instant attraction to the 7,200-square foot loft, which occupies the entire top floor of a landmark red-limestone building at the corner of Wooster and Broome Streets.

Ms. Kashper is one of the three architects who formed DUB Studios, a young practice with offices in Brooklyn and Los Angeles. So after Ms. Kashper and her husband, Eugene, an entrepreneur with beverage and real estate interests both in the United States and Russia, bought the property for $6.9 million in 2006, she naturally appointed herself the principal designer.

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Slide show

Posted at 09:26 AM in architecture, design, writing | Permalink