Welcome back to The Brokerbabble Glossary, where we take a word or a turn of phrase that seems to show up in an unreasonable number of listings and decipher its true meaning. If you have any ideas for us, send them to the tipline. Today's word: Contemporary.
"Contemporary living" is a very popular phrase in real estate listings, despite the fact that it basically makes no sense. 'Contemporary' means, in essence, the way things are done at the present time. A building that was constructed in the 1920s may not be contemporary, but the way that you would live in it still is. Right? It's not like you're going to be making bathtub gin and complaining about Warren G. Harding in your non-contemporary prewar apartment. "I can't wait to get a newer place so that I can finally begin living contemporarily" is not a thing that people say. Anyway, this place in Queens (above) has it right. Walls, windows, bed. This is how we live now.
From what we remember of high school math, geometry is basically a big word for shapes. What is a modern shape? A hexagon or something? Looking at the floorplan for this apartment, most of the shapes are rectangles, and we're pretty sure that the rectangle was invented at least thirty years ago.
Making bricks out of steel is definitely very contemporary. So is having a crappy backsplash behind the sink.
Hardwood flooring is something that started happening recently, right? Very contemporary.
· The Brokerbabble Glossary archives [Curbed NY]
· The Brokerbabble Glossary archives [Curbed National]
Loading comments...