He Picked His Gramercy Park Apartment Out of a Hat

Design editor Wendy Goodman takes you inside the city’s most exciting homes and design studios. [Design Hunting]( A visual diary by Design Editor Wendy Goodman [Living at the Club]( Michael Shane Neal is just the third artist in 117 years to occupy this studio at the National Arts Club. The studio. Photo: Annie Schlechter Things are done the old-fashioned way when it comes to snagging one of the National Arts Club’s coveted studio spaces, which are housed in a 1906 building behind the club’s 1881 mansion on Gramercy Park South. You must be a club member to apply, then you have to go through various steps, the last being a lottery where your name is put into a hat. Artist Michael Shane Neal did just that in 2020, when many of the studios’ residents had fled the city because of the pandemic. He was vying for the space of his mentor, artist Everett Raymond Kinstler, who had lived and worked there for 66 years until shortly before his death in 2019. “It was almost like an otherworldly experience,” the Neal tells me as we sit in the northern afternoon light, recalling his first visit here, “going through the looking glass, or CS Lewis and going through the wardrobe, and I knew on the other side of these doors, really history had been made over a century.” — Wendy Goodman [TAKE A TOUR]( Want more on design, real estate, and city life? [Subscribe now]( to save over 60% on unlimited access to Curbed and everything New York. Other Design Stories 1. [Have You Heard About the Hot-Girl Toilet Seat? Commodes with eggs and old cellphones suspended in resin aren’t for everyone. Maybe they’re for you.]( 2. [2024 Will Be a Better Year for Homebuyers But not exactly great.]( 3. [Down the eBay Rabbit Hole to Find a Bitossi Clock These chunky mid-century ceramics looked ugly at first. Then I had to have my own.]( 4. [Curbed’s 10 Most-Read ‘Truly Terrific’ NYC Apartment Listings of 2023 Including a Frank Lloyd Wright–inspired house in Queens and a much-obsessed-over Gilded Age mansion.]( [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( [Read More on Curbed]( Introducing The City Desk, a weekly newsletter about New York. [Sign up to get it every Thursday.]( [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