A Bad Office Can (Maybe) Become a Good Apartment

A daily mix of stories about cities, city life, and our always evolving neighborhoods and skylines. [Curbed]( WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24 street view [A Bad Office Can (Maybe) Become a Good Apartment]( The challenges and complexities of cubicles out, bedrooms in. Photo: Hugo Yu If you strolled by the tower at 4 New York Plaza shortly after it opened in 1969, you might have guessed from the fortresslike exterior what kind of worker it was built for: a big bank’s mainframe computers. At 22 stories and more than 1 million square feet, the tower muscled in on the low-rise 19th-century mercantile buildings of Coenties Slip like a hippo trying to blend in with a herd of guinea pigs. The architects at the now-defunct firm of Carson, Lundin, and Shaw tried to match the handmade brick and tough-guy attitude of waterfront warehouses. They erected a monolith with an air of timeless permanence, then gave it a high-tech finish by reproducing the look of a computer punch card (then the state of the art in data storage) with narrow slits of glass. [Continue reading »]( Want more on city life, real estate, and design? [Subscribe now]( to save over 60% on unlimited access to Curbed and everything New York. [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( The Latest [Meet the Gay Architect Pitching ‘New Fire Island’ (Location TBD) “There’s something magical about Fire Island Pines, but even magic fades with age.”]( By Brock Colyar [Living in a One-Bedroom With Kids — by Choice Some parents are more committed to their pricey New York City neighborhoods than to having a door to their bedroom.]( By Laura Fenton [Coveting Your Downstairs Neighbor’s Apartment? You’re Floorplantsy. When that slightly better one-bedroom in your building has you lusting.]( By Kim Velsey [A Serene Gut-Reno in the East Village, Six Flights Up Magdalena and Jonathan Keck wanted to live on the top floor no matter what.]( By Wendy Goodman [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( [Read More From Curbed]( [Sign up to get The Listings Edit](, a weekly digest of the most worth-it apartments in New York. [GET THE NEWSLETTER]( [logo]( [facebook logo]( [instagram logo]( [twitter logo]( [unsubscribe]( | [privacy notice]( | [update preferences]( This email was sent to {EMAIL}. Was this email forwarded to you? [Sign up now]( to get this newsletter in your inbox. [View this email in your browser.]( You received this email because you have a subscription to New York. Reach the right online audience with us For advertising information on email newsletters, please contact AdOps@nymag.com Vox Media, LLC 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, 12th Floor Washington, DC 20036 Copyright © 2024, All rights reserved