Who are townhouse aficionados?
Those of us who live in townhouses in New York City belong to a small circle. We choose townhouse living because we want the autonomy and privacy it affords. Some of us love townhouse architecture and craftsmanship and share a profound sense of participating in our city’s rich history.
- For some, townhouse living represents having achieved the pinnacle of success and our homes become testaments to luxury living.
- For some, the income from our building’s multiple units offsets the mortgage, affording a gracious home in our owner’s unit.
- For some, townhouses are an investment vehicle, with an astounding return rate.
- For many, townhouse living is a source of enormous curiosity.
As townhouse residents and investors, we designed Vandenberg to provide the resources that owners and sellers need, to foster happy and successful townhouse living. Because that is what it is all about.
For our Townhouse Living insights:
1. Attend our Seminars
We offer quarterly seminars with in-depth information. We bring you experts on relevant issues: lowering your taxes, doing a 1031 exchange, how to interact with contractors, the latest in rent regulation.
2. Watch our videos
Watch our videos for in-depth details and what it’s like to live in a townhouse.
3. Follow our Instagram @TownhouseExperts
To see the beauty and realities of townhouse living.
4. Subscribe to Monday’s with Dexter (put on right side)
Start the week with Dexter and the Vandenberg team’s market insights and information on new listings.
5. Read our Blog
Read our blog for new stories and updates on townhouse living and listings.
6. Contact us for referrals to experts.
Resources: The Townhouse living requires particular resources. Some represent the fun of townhouse living: hiring a colorist to enhance the light, One townhouse might not have been properly deregulated,. Tenancies, repair, capital, etc (fill in) and to satisfy the curiosity of the interested townhouse community – referral to other experts for expedient solutions
7. Improve the value of your home.
Call Dexter and Nicole for strategies to maximize your building’s value.
8. Attend our Open Houses.
Why not see what townhouse living is all about?
Read our Blog
Read our blog for new stories and updates on townhouse living and listings:
Townhouse Market
Friends,
When we talk about how the townhouse market is doing, one important factor to consider is the absorption rate. In an ideal scenario there would be 55 listings new to the market and 55 sales, which would be 100% absorption. In 2008, only 40 of 55 sold and in 2009, 28 of 67 sold. So far in 2010 we’ve had 25 townhouses on the market of which 16 have sold, meaning a 64% absorption rate. This is much healthier than 2009’s 42% absorption rate. (Since the average townhouse takes 6 months to sell, this can be skewed slightly.) However, these 16 closings indicate that we are getting back up to 2008 levels but perhaps not back up to a typical year of 55 sales so far this year. This latter fact is surprising to me because we at Vandenberg have been thrilled with the activity level in 2010. Apparently, this means that Vandenberg has gained a larger share of the market.
–Dexter
Townhouse for Rent
What really sets this townhouse rental rental apart, however, is its fabulous location. Nestled between Upper East Side brownstones on a tree-lined street in the middle of the exclusive area, this home is on the same block as a Rockefeller residence and Richard Nixon’s former residence. Lexington and Third Avenues are nearby, so you will never need to go far for a delicious delicacy. The world’s best upscale shopping district is on Fifth Avenue, an easy walk away. Central Park, the Frick and Whitney Collections, and Museum Mile are also within walking distance. Excellent public schools are nearby, including a new international elementary school which meets green standards.
Townhouse Open House
11:00am – 12:00pm
163 West 81st Street – $5,250,000
338 West 84th Street – $4,850,000
New York City Townhouse for Sale!
This spectacularly designed Clarence True townhouse is one of an extant row of five overlooking Riverside Park. Built in True’s signature low-stoop Elizabethan Renaissance style, this New York City townhouse is distinguished by elegance and comfort. The interiors reference the tastes of the 19th century and the fine arts of the Renaissance and the Classical periods. The formal parlour and dining room recreate the past while incorporating modern touches. A wood-paneled elevator makes all six floors easily accessible. The chef’s kitchen contains everything you could desire: state-of-the-art appliances, generous counter space, and an eat-in area seating at least six. Built in speakers provide music on every floor. Whether your family prefers a breakfast on the hidden terrace overlooking Riverside Park, or a simple cup of coffee in front of Saturday morning cartoons displayed on your home theater screen, this NYC townhouse has what you need to feel at home.
Unlike many smaller Manhattan townhouses, this home was built to accommodate not only your family but also your personal staff. It contains over 7,500 square feet of usable space. The independent one-bedroom apartment under the eaves is perfect for a live-in nanny or maid. The convenient service entrance is camouflaged by attractive wrought ironwork. There is also plenty of workspace for your assistant, publicist, and other staff. An elevator means that your staff can access the entire house as easily and discreetly as possible.
Are you interested in buying a New York Brownstone? For more information on NY townhouses and New York City Brownstones for sale , contact Vandenberg — The Townhouse Experts TM. We specialize in townhouse realty.
Free Seminar on New York City Brownstones
“The 2010 Townhouse Market”
Chair, Brownstone Revival Coalition and
President, Vandenberg, Inc., The Townhouse Experts™
Dexter founded Vandenberg in 1990 and he and his team sell more townhouses on the Upper West Side than any other single agent. He will talk about what’s happening in this extremely active New York brownstone market.
“Designing your Townhouse Garden”
Susan Welti and Paige Keck
Co-Owners of Foras Studio LLC
Landscaping Design Specialists
James Stephenson
Hardscaping Design Specialist
The seminar will be from
7:00 – 9:00pm and held at the Dorot on
Thursday, June 3, 2010
171 West 85th Street
Free to the Public!
Sponsored by Vandenberg, Inc.
Brooklyn Brownstone For Sale
This extraordinary Brooklyn Heights townhouse is located on one of the highest elevations in the borough and boasts gorgeous views of the Verrazano Narrows bridge at night. Located on a premium block, this Brooklyn mansion sets a new standard in luxury “green” living. The current owner spent almost ten years renovating this house to be completely chemical-free, low-VOC, organically insulated, and energy-efficient. The entire house is wired in 3-phase electricity, resulting in low electrical costs. Each floor has its own climate controls and Southern Marvin tinted windows, reducing unnecessary heating and cooling. Recognizing that Victorian architecture was ingeniously efficient in its proportion and layout, the renovations preserve historical light fixture placement, yellow pine floors, and a panoramic copper bow window from the High Victorian period. Touches like these add both historic charm and cutting-edge efficiency to this exceptional NYC townhouse.
As the story goes, in 1861 a prominent Captain was so in love with his wife that when she said that his four daughters each deserved a townhouse, he readily agreed. Three of the four are still intact. This is number two, as evidenced by the marking on the revealed molding in the parlor rear. House number one was replaced by part of Grace Church.
The neighborhood is one of New York’s most desirable – full of affluent young families, it is located only one stop from the Financial District. The Promenade and its breathtaking views of the Manhattan skyline are only steps away. Prestigious private schools (Brooklyn Friends, St. Ann’s, Packer, and Grace Church School) and beautiful townhouse gardens surround this quiet cul-de-sac in one of the most exclusive family-oriented neighborhoods in the city.
Are you interested in buying a New York Brownstone? For more information on NY townhouses and New York City Brownstones for sale , contact Vandenberg — The Townhouse Experts TM. We specialize in townhouse realty.
Manhattan Townhouse for Rent!
This contemporary brick-front Manhattan townhouse has been designed to provide everything you could possibly need for both work and play. Plenty of indoor and outdoor space, two wet bars with climate controlled wine racks, and an in-ground Jacuzzi make this the perfect property for any style of entertaining. At the same time, generous home office space makes this Upper East Side townhouse the ideal headquarters for an entrepreneur, freelancer, or small business owner. Curving staircases and large mirrors maximize the living space. Bay windows give character to the front rooms on three floors.
What really sets this townhouse rental apart, however, is its fabulous location. Nestled between NYC brownstones on a tree-lined street in the middle of the exclusive Upper East Side, this home is on the same block as a Rockefeller residence and Richard Nixon’s former residence. Lexington and Third Avenues are nearby, so you will never need to go far for a delicious delicacy. The world’s best upscale shopping district is on Fifth Avenue, an easy walk away. Central Park, the Frick and Whitney Collections, and Museum Mile are also within walking distance. Excellent public schools are nearby, including a new international elementary school which meets green standards. Are you interested in buying a New York Brownstone? For more information on NY townhouses and New York City Brownstones for sale , contact Vandenberg — The Townhouse Experts TM. We specialize in townhouse realty. |
New York Brownstone. Sold!
NYC Brownstone
Vandenberg in the News
MARIA BERMAN was hopelessly smitten with the working fireplace in her first New York apartment, a third-floor walk-up in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn.
Michael Falco for The New York Times
Fran Leadon’s place in Cobble Hill is lighted and aired by transoms.
Librado Romero/The New York Times
Maria Berman treated her nonworking fireplace in Harlem to a new mantel and a marble hearth.
“That fireplace was in use most of the year,” said Ms. Berman, an architect who lived in the apartment in the early 1990s. “For three years I had quarter cords of wood delivered to my doorstep.”
But in 2002, when she moved with a fellow architect named Bradley Horn to an 1898 town house in the Sugar Hill Historic District of Harlem, she gave her heart to another fireplace, one that sat buried in the wall in the front parlor and hadn’t worked for seven decades.
Ms. Berman didn’t care. She discovered a creamy cast-stone mantel at a showroom closeout sale, surrounded the hearth with a toasty slab of Breccia Imperiale marble, and never looked back.
“I don’t miss the fire,” Ms. Berman said. “And I love the look of the surround. It really anchors a room and give it focus.”
When it comes to the attractions of a particular house or apartment, there’s little mystery as to why space-starved New Yorkers are drawn to generous square footage, high ceilings and jaw-dropping views.
But over time, residents find less-obvious design elements unexpectedly alluring, not only faux fireplaces but also weirdly shaped alcoves, decommissioned dumbwaiters, Juliet balconies, claw-foot bathtubs, minuscule shelves carved into staircases, transoms atop doors, brass keyholes and vintage radiators. The list includes even more unlikely details, among them servants’ buttons, speaking tubes, original metal thermostats and shaving closets. (Most people don’t even know what a shaving closet is: a shallow alcove with a sink just large enough for a man to trim his whiskers.)
These mundane grace notes, which may seem to have little purpose beyond collecting dust, are sometimes the very things residents single out to explain why they are drawn to a particular space. On occasion, these homely accents even prove to be the selling point when it comes to closing a deal.
“I once had a client who said they decided to buy because of the servants’ call buttons on the floor of the dining room,” said Mike Lubin, a vice president and director of Brown Harris Stevens. “They just fell in love with them.”
The apartment in question, on the Upper West Side, was what is known as an Edwardian 5; these early-20th-century bachelor’s quarters included a living room, a dining room, a bedroom, a kitchen and a maid’s room for the person whose duties included serving dinner to the man of the house.
“I’ve also had people tell me they’re buying an apartment because of the original windows,” Mr. Lubin added. “Once a person said, ‘I really like the brass doorbell.’ ”
Whether the doorbell clinched the deal is unknown, but clearly it didn’t hurt.
Simeon Bankoff, who as executive director of the Historic District Council knows a thing or two about the allure of history, counts himself fortunate to have a window in the broom closet of his 1905 brick row house in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn. Not to mention an odd set of finials in a corner.
“These things just made us like the place more,” Mr. Bankoff said. “These details are like a beauty mark on a face. We like them for the same reason people liked follies. They’re small, cute and useless.”
Scholars and others who analyze why New Yorkers are so enamored of these accents invariably end up talking about the mysterious pull of the past.
“Even in the ‘20s and ‘30s, when people had central heating, it was a risk for developers to build without fireplaces,” said Sandy Isenstadt, an architectural historian and a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., who studies the significance of items like picture windows. “They weren’t functional, but they had symbolic value.”
Many of these touches perked up otherwise undistinguished living quarters — “like a brightly colored tie with a drab suit,” as Mr. Isenstadt put it — and he attributes the appeal of these accents in part to their individual, almost cozy scale. “A small window fit your face,” he said. “A shaving closet was made for use by one person at a time.”
Akiko Busch, an essayist who explored the significance of the domestic environment in a collection titled “Geography of Home: Writings on Where We Live,” calls the phenomenon “the usefulness of the useless.”
“Take the Juliet balcony,” Ms. Busch said. “Today, none of us have lives that make use of such a thing. But having such a balcony puts us in touch with people who did lead such lives. Momentarily, we’re someone else.
“These balconies, along with things like claw-foot tubs and old radiators — they’re not particularly functional, but they’re vestiges of the life of the apartment,” she added. “They resonate with history, with a sense of continuity. As Americans, we’re starved for that.”
Dexter Guerrieri, the president of Vandenberg, the Townhouse Experts, a Manhattan real estate firm that specializes in high-end properties, is acutely aware of the appeal of these small-scale details.
“I love those little things,” said Mr. Guerrieri, who has a particular fondness for the recessed brass lifts in the window sashes in his Brooklyn Heights town house. He also has a soft spot for the crystal doorknobs affixed to brass plates punctuated by small keyholes.
In the fact sheets that his office draws up to describe various properties, he makes a point of highlighting such accents. The description of a $5 million town house on West 90th Street notes that “under the historic side stoop there is a sealed storage room with an arched half-moon-shaped window facing the street.”
The description of a town house at 47 West 92nd Street cites “original brass knobs” on doors. A third fact sheet mentions “some truly Victorian curiosities, such as a system of dumbwaiters, maid’s bells and speaking tubes. ”
“I see people notice these things and smile,” Mr. Guerrieri said. “People are not always articulate about why they like them, but you see clients respond to these frills.”
And a purely decorative fireplace? “People will make a note of it and ask if it works,” he said. “But if I say no, they don’t seem to care. Because even if a fireplace works, many people don’t use it very often. It’s just too much trouble, with all that dust in your face.”
Such touches are typically found in prewar buildings, in part because cheaper construction costs encouraged developers to include embellishments. But they can also be seen in many of the houses that Mary Kay Gallagher, the president of a firm that bears her name, shows clients in Victorian Flatbush, Brooklyn.
“I see the eyes of potential buyers light up when they see these things,” Ms. Gallagher said. “Old radiators? People love them. Phone tubes? They say they’ll leave them where they are. Old brass gas extensions? They say that’s part of the charm.”
And abandoned fireplaces?
“They might add a couple of thousand dollars to the price,” Ms. Gallagher said. “They might even help you make a sale. People say they can put plants in them.”
The appeal of the faux fireplace, a powerful reminder of the traditional, comforting hearth, is particularly telling. For decades, one of the most sought-after items in New York apartments and town houses was what real estate advertisements shorthanded as the WBFP. The abbreviation conjured visions of a roaring wood fire on a chill winter’s night. Close your eyes, and you were practically a Pilgrim.
But when the WBFP began falling out of favor in the late 20th century, without missing a beat many people transferred their affections to faux alternatives — hearths that burned with gas and sometimes with nothing at all.
The fireplace resonates so powerfully that architects are occasionally asked to design nonworking fireplaces. Even the memory of a fireplace can add cachet. Many New York apartments have leftover mantelpieces. And far from finding them an eyesore, residents say that these fireplace “ghosts” remind them of a lost grandeur in residential living.
In a fast-changing city like New York, the appetite for signs of a vanished era may be especially strong.
“There are so many romantic notions surrounding what it’s like to live in New York,” said Mr. Lubin of Brown Harris Stevens. “It’s a dream come true, a sign that you’ve made it. That’s the appeal of little foyers that are so small, you can’t put a stick of furniture in them. They give people the sense that they’re living in a 10-room Park Avenue apartment.”
These details also remind people that they’re living in quarters that could have been occupied by characters out of Edith Wharton, even if it’s children who these days occupy most onetime servants’ rooms.
Along with attracting potential buyers and renters, architectural idiosyncrasies can also anchor existing residents. This is the case in the apartment in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, where Fran Leadon, an author of the 2010 edition of the AIA Guide to New York City, lives with his wife, Leigh Anderson, the author of the coming “Ultimate Game Book for Grownups.”
Old-fashioned transoms over the doors bring in light and air. And there’s more: “I have a pointless nook in the hallway made by a slanted wall that is actually my favorite part of the apartment,” Mr. Leadon said.
“I don’t know why it’s there, but I put a tall, skinny plant stand in the space and a little oil painting of Florida,” added Mr. Leadon, who grew up in the state. “It’s become kind of like a little Florida shrine.”
At times, inconvenience would seem to outweigh charm. Fitting shower curtains around an ancient claw-foot bathtub is a considerable challenge. A Juliet balcony has space for, at best, a few pots of geraniums. And let’s be honest: who needs a mothballed dumbwaiter?
Yet such touches are sometimes added as a happy afterthought. When Lon and Michelle Otremba were modernizing their Tudor-style house in Douglas Manor, Queens, they asked their architect, Kevin Wolfe, to conceal a new powder room behind a paneled wall in the billiard room. To open the door, guests pull an almost invisible lip of wood trim.
The room, born of necessity and a reminder of the secret spaces sometimes found in residences created many decades ago, is Ms. Otremba’s favorite part of the house.
“I wish it had a history,” she said. “But it’s totally charming. I think it’s just the fact that it’s a secret.”
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/realestate/04cov.html?pagewanted=all
Are you interested in buying a New York Brownstone? For more information on NY townhouses and New York City Brownstones for sale , contact Vandenberg — The Townhouse Experts TM. We specialize in townhouse realty.
New York City Brownstone. Sold!
Townhouse Realty
317 West 77th Street – New York Brownstone Contract Signed
41 West 84th Street- Manhattan Brownstone Contract Signed
105 Manhattan Avenue – New York City Townhouse Price Reduction
Nutopian Embassy! One White Street for Sale!
Click here for more pictures of this Manhattan Townhouse.
Upper West Side Townhouse. Open House Today!
Click here for more pictures of this Upper West Side Townhouse.
Manhattan Brownstone!
Deluxe Single-Family, Park Block Townhouse with Pool!
45 West 95th Street – $6,995,000
Click here for more pictures of this Manhattan brownstone.
New York Brownstone!
The ambiance of this house is crisp, bright and modern. The double-height family room is a clean white space naturally adorned by the vast sky visible through six gigantic panes of glass. Extraordinarily high ceilings in the parlour and third floors lend an airy brightness to the entire house. Original details such as box paneled walls, pressed tin ceilings, and oversized fireplaces blend seamlessly into the high standard of modern elegance that is the hallmark of this property. Generously equipped with two kitchens (both with Sub-Zero refrigerators), an extension-sized walk-in closet, and a convenient elevator, this New York brownstone is designed to accommodate your every desire.
Exquisite chandeliers and other light fixtures, as well as many of the window-hangings, will remain with the house. Central Park is only steps away. In short, among Manhattan brownstones for sale or rent, this jewel is a rare find.
For more information, contact Khatera Ahmad at 212.769.2900 ext. 219 or by email.
Click here for more pictures of this New York brownstone.
Townhouses for Sale! Vandenberg, Townhouse Realty: 163 West 81st Street
For more information on townhouses for sale and other New York City Brownstones for Sale
, contact Vandenberg — The Townhouse Experts TM. We specialize in townhouse realty.Townhouses for Sale! Vandenberg, townhouse realty: Price Reduction! 129 Manhattan Avenue
PRICE REDUCED: $2,290,000
NY Townhouses in Pop Culture: Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Holly Golightly’s brownstone at 169 East 71st Street
(Image courtesy amorecrush.blogspot.com)
For more information on townhouses for sale and other New York City Brownstones for Sale , contact Vandenberg — The Townhouse Experts TM. We specialize in townhouse realty.