Harlem Real Estate

One the very few things I know about residential real estate is that people like to fight about what is being built in their neighborhoods.

Two recent housing developments in Harlem have been gathering attention.


329 Pleasant Ave.

Earlier this year, a developer released this sketch of a planned nine-story, 20-unit apartment building on a nice street in East Harlem.  The color scheme was described as "Stratos Blue/Cosmos with Ocean Balcony Trim."

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the neighbors were a bit nonplussed.  

It is difficult to see how such apartments could be marketed to potential renters.  What kind of interior decoration scheme would work with a balcony railing in the hot pink to bright purple range?

Sensing the neighbors' displeasure, the developers gave them a say, putting out several different potential color themes for a vote.  This week, the results were announced: Voters favored "Translucent Cirrus with graduated Magenta balcony trim."  

Basically, people chose a white building with smaller, muted, purplish-red accents.  I don't know the site, but as I look at the buildings to the left and right I can sort of see it.  It's a contemporary building, and why shouldn't it look new?  I might have gone for all white, though.

Sugar Hill

This is a small Harlem neighborhood with a distinguished history.  Duke Ellington's memorable song, "Take the 'A' Train," made Sugar Hill its aspirational destination.  Past residents include W.E.B. Du Bois and Thurgood Marshall.  When people in New York think of Sugar Hill, they think of homes like these handsome brownstones.

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Now a new subsidized housing complex is opening at the north end of Sugar Hill.  It will house 124 poor and formerly homeless tenants, a preschool and a museum.  

Here is a street view released by the architect's firm:

The New York Times ran a couple closer-up pictures depicting creepy, ominous views from the sidewalk below this morning.  Its architecture critic said, "Fearsome in photographs, the development is, in fact, not nearly so imposing when you see it next to some of the public housing towers glowering over surrounding streets."

This is what is known as "damning with faint praise."  

At the end of his review, the critic said the apartments are "small, distinctive but difficult living spaces to accommodate a striking facade."  

Maybe dark gray to black is New York's signature color.  Maybe poor people will be happy to have ANY apartment, and so will be contented to live in this building.  I certainly wish them well.

My guess is, given a choice, most people would prefer a basement apartment in a handsome brownstone or a unit with big windows, even if it came with an aqua or hot pink balcony railing.

The building above makes me think of a Stalin-era apartment block in Moscow, or a prison.