It’s always cool to see the unique, weird, grand, odd, creepy, old, new, plain, packed (for your sake I’ll stop) abodes of others. From apartments to yachts, houses that aren’t our own are curious oddities. Heck, it’s half the reason things like the Travel Channel and Architectural Digest even exist.

photo by nhanusek

I’m not sure if it’s a sense of jealousy, maybe envy, although not pejorative, when we see huge, rising marble walls and huge, never-ending pools that seemingly run off cliffs, but what about in the other direction?

Like our own Alissa Fleck examined, what about the apartments of those who are on the other side of the spectrum and employ walls where others do windows?

Here’s a quick look at a few New Yorkers who live in 500 sq ft or less:

- Felice Cohen – UWS – 90 ft. sq.

Cohen’s Upper West Side collected quite a bit of fame after AOL wrote an article on her tiny “microstudio” in April 2011. As a professional designer, Cohen put her natural skill set to the test when she endeavored to purchase the $700/month apartment, and seems to have fared well.

- A guy named Luke Tyler – Hell’s Kitchen – 78 ft. sq.

I’m partial to Luke’s rather than Cohen’s, if only for the minimalist design to match the size (though he doesn’t really have a choice).

Shown on Apartment Therapy, Luke’s apartment employs a pull-out couch that serves as his bed, a mini-fridge under his desk, and a standard A/C whose wraith is inescapable.

According to MSNBC, his apartment runs $800/mo.

Only problem, there’s no bathroom, but I’m sure he has room for a bucket (kidding) (also not kidding).

- Jordan – Brooklyn – 460 ft. sq.

Winner of the Apartment Therapy “Small Cool” contest, where contestants submit their sub-1,000 ft. sq. apartments, Jordan’s apartment has much more room than either Luke or Felice does, but does a great job with what he has.

Fortunate enough to have a lot of light, a sweet couch, and a bathroom(!), Jordan’s apartment looks extremely comfortable and homey.

- The Prokops – Morningside Heights – 175 ft. sq.

Do you cut the footage in half if two people live there? Or if there inhabitant cats? Zaarath and Christopher Prokop, as shown in an article in the New York Post, is a 16th-floor co-op that can only be accessed by a staircase from the 15th floor with two windows and a queen-sized bed.

The Prokops bought their pad for $150,000 in 2009, according to the Post.

–Nick Gallinelli

Starting your kids on the right path at an early age is always a top concern for parents. So when parents decide to send their children to the Adults and Children in Trust program at St. John Divine, they can rest assured that Barbara Ciner will empower their children with the skills necessary to survive.

The 44-year-old teacher began her teaching career over a decade ago and has made it a point to teach with a deep understanding of each and every one of her students.

“The quality that sticks out most in my mind is her amazing ability to know the children in her class,” said Karin Kimbrough, whose two children were in Ciner’s class in Morningside Heights. “She would take the time to understand how each one learned, what motivated them to apply themselves and what issues they have.”

Kimbrough was floored by her assessment and how well Ciner understood the children—how she got to know her sons’ habits better than Kimbrough herself did. Ciner even gave Kimbrough some pointers that she still uses with her children today—well past pre-school.

“In a way, the children are who they are going to be,” Ciner said. “They have their own personality, likes and dislikes. All I want to do is give them the confidence and strength to be successful.”

Every morning, Ciner walks her classroom to make sure that each child has their own space and their own outlet for creativity.

“I make sure the blocks are attractive for children who like to build and that every child has a place where they can interact and thrive,” Ciner said.

The teacher said she’s honored to receive a Blackboard Award and is thrilled by the outpouring of support from parents.
“It gave me chills,” Ciner said. “I’m having an out-of-body experience right now. I don’t like the spotlight.”
However, she makes sure each child has their own spotlight in order to thrive and develop in her classroom, a fact many parents appreciate.

“I learned to respect and care about Ms. Barbara because she profoundly cared and respected the little minds she was shaping,” said Janet Hernandez. “Ms. Barbara effectively prepared my [4-year-old] daughter and our preschoolers for the difficult process of entering into some of the most competitive kindergarten programs throughout the city, both private and public.”

Ciner is constantly trying to improve and follows the philosophy of avoiding rigidity in order to maximize the learning of her pupils.

“I am now motivated to keep things fresh and to keep being a student of life,” Ciner said. “When I was 13, my grandmother wrote a note in my yearbook which said, ‘Lend your mind to learning and your heart to understanding.’”
It’s a philosophy that she strongly abides by and hopes to pass on to each and every student she encounters.

That’s why I cruised uptown to Morningside Castle for the Enchantment Under the Sea party, designed to replicate a senior prom from 1955. Thanks to being a freak in high school, I never went to my own prom— now I could finally twist the night away.

For those of you who’ve never been, Dances of Vice is a peripatetic costume ball for those who love elegant vintage wear and music from the past. This was their fourth anniversary, and welcoming us all in a mint taffeta dress was Shien Lee, elegant creator of the regular nightlife event that attracts vintage wear aficionados with a love for the past.

“How in the world did you get this great venue?” I asked her. The Gothic-style “castle” belongs to Union Theological Seminary, so enchantment was definitely in the air. As I walked in, Matthew Piazzi and the Debonairs were playing some atmospheric 1950s swing music.

The title Enchantment Under the Sea was lifted from the famous scene in Back to the Future in which Marty McFly’s parents exchange their first kiss while he plays Hendrix riffs and smashes his guitar for the stupefied bobbysocker teens. The blue-and-white-streamer-festooned room looked like it was peopled by the cast of Mad Men clad in brocaded party frocks, gloves, wide ties, sharkskin suits and twirling girls flung around by their dates.

DJ Michael T looked snazzy as a hep cat in cream suspenders, pink-and-white striped shirt and blond rockabilly ‘do. “Hey, lady in orange!” I called after a willowy, bespectacled woman mounting the staircase wearing a sherbet-colored dress so lovely I just had to take a picture. I discovered it was party thrower Larisa Fuchs, the Miss Scorpio of the Gemini & Scorpio events.

As the dreamy night came to a close, I ran into Remi Pann, an acquaintance who was heading over to Long Island City for Night Swimming at The Palms, a bash held in dumpster pools with party entrepreneur Kevin Balktick. And they had wheels!

But before we could burn some rubber, we were off to a rocky start.

“The tire’s flat!” he exclaimed. After waiting for AAA to show up, I decided to buzz off. Unlike my tortured prom years, I suddenly realized I didn’t need a partner to boogie. I had nothing to lose. I’d go dancing with myself.

The Landmark Preservation Commission spoke with property owners in Morningside Heights about a potential historic district in the area Monday, Sept. 20, at Riverside Church

This is a crucial but informal part of the landmark designation process, similar to a recent meeting of property owners about preserving West End Avenue buildings.

Walter South, who heads the Morningside Heights Historic District Committee, was miffed that the Landmarks Preservation Commission never notified the local community board on which he serves. Still, South was nonetheless pleased the commission was moving forward on a proposal he has pursued since 1996.

“We have a number of institutions in the area that have been expanding and insisting they need more space for so-called academic purposes,” South said, making a thinly veiled swipe at Columbia University.

Columbia already demolished brownstones on West 115th Street between Amsterdam Avenue and Morningside Drive.

Another threat to the unique architecture of Morningside Heights buildings are owners that strip off ornamentation rather than make repairs, South argued.

“The area is losing a lot of its architectural distinction,” South said. “Cornices have been removed from buildings.”

The Landmark Preservation Commission will talk to property owners in Morningside Heights about a potential historic district in the area Monday Sept. 20.

This is a crucial but informal part of the landmark designation process, similar to a recent meeting of property owners about preserving West End Avenue buildings.

Walter South, who heads the Morningside Heights Historic District Committee, was miffed that the Landmarks Preservation Commission never notified the local community board on which he serves. Still, South was nonetheless pleased the commission was moving forward on a proposal he has pursued since 1996.

“We have a number of institutions in the area that have been expanding and insisting they need more space for so-called academic purposes,” South said, making a thinly veiled swipe at Columbia University.

Columbia already demolished brownstones on West 115th Street between Amsterdam Avenue and Morningside Drive.

Another threat to the unique architecture of Morningside Heights buildings are owners that strip off ornamentation rather than make repairs, South argued.

“The area is losing a lot of its architectural distinction,” South said. “Cornices have been removed from buildings.”

The Sept. 20 meeting will start at 6 p.m. at the Riverside Church, Room 10-T on the 91 Claremont Avenue entrance.

After an inexplicable hiatus, the Dosa cart is back in Morningside Heights, but in a new incarnation. The bigger, spiffier cart touts a tantalizing list of vegetarian Southern Indian staples—from varieties of dosa and uttapam to flavored rice, aloo tikki, samosas and exotic drinks like tamarind and guava.

The jaunty owner and I have a little game going. I ask him for the enticing lemon or coconut rice dishes, and he laughs and says, “Tomorrow. Tomorrow.” An Indian Columbia graduate spoke to the owner in Tamil and confided to me that the cart was so like ones in India, in which the “whole universe” is advertised and yet only some dishes are really available at any one time.

However, uttapam are available—with onion, cheese, masala potatoes and spices, or vegetables ($5). Uttapam is a bright white pancake made with urad dal and fermented rice, the latter giving it a light, bubbly texture. Ingredients are cooked into it, not layered on top—except the fluffy, spicy turmeric-yellow potatoes of the masala version. Then the owner cuts it into four pizza slices, perfect for sharing on a hot summer evening. So far from Flushing or Curry Village in the East 20s, it’s wonderful to have access, again, to healthy, Southern Indian street food.
_

Vegenation
Vegetarian Indian Food Cart
Broadway (Betw. West 114th & 115th Sts.)
_
Got a snack attack to share?
Contact NBrand@aol.com

But a local group is still hoping it can get the city to intervene, or perhaps convince the university to change its plans.

The group, the Committee to Preserve the Morningside Brownstones, has been gathering information on the buildings’ history and significance to the neighborhood since the permits were awarded Nov. 30, and recently started to go public with its efforts.

“The only absolute protection is to designate them on the city level,” said Harry Schwartz, a member of the group who lives on Morningside Drive and West 115th Street.

The university has no immediate plans for the lot.

“It will be retained for future development,” said spokesperson Daniel Held.

Supporters of keeping the brownstones are now unsure of what Columbia will construct in the buildings’ footprint.

But that hasn’t kept neighbors from guessing.

“It could be a vast parking lot behind us with cars coming in all through the day, undergrad housing or something like a science research facility,” said Nancy Kricorian, an author and activist who has met with university officials about the demolition. “There are so many nightmare scenarios.”

Kricorian, whose bedroom window faces the parking lot that is next to these brownstones, says a new building would ruin the residential character of the neighborhood.

Other brownstone supporters, including Assembly Member Daniel O’Donnell, want Columbia to rehabilitate the buildings, now clad in black netting from little maintenance.

“The condition has clearly deteriorated since their ownership,” O’Donnell said. “There are many buildings across the city in much worse disrepair that are salvaged and revived to their original glory.”

In 2002, Columbia bought the brownstones, which were “dilapidated after years of neglect,” according to Held, the university’s spokesperson. “The university invested the funds necessary to prevent further deterioration and to protect the public.”

The city’s Landmark Preservation Commission has yet to schedule a hearing on the proposal to protect the area bounded by West 110th Street and Tiemann Place, from Morningside Park to Riverside Park—much to O’Donnell’s chagrin.

But going forward, O’Donnell wants to raise awareness of the historic nature of the brownstones and their importance to Morningside Heights’ character.

“I intend to bring these buildings to the attention of the mayor,” O’Donnell said, “and name the bulldozers after [landmarks commissioner] Rob Tierney and Michael Bloomberg.”