Sculptor, photographer, documentary subject, and all-around eclectic gentleman Stuart Ross (nee Rosenthal) has tossed his equally eclectic Greenwich Village studio on the market. For $1.3 million, a buyer gets "400 square feet" worth of teeny-tiny walk-up; doing the math, though, results in a total of 223 square feet sans bathroom, so let's be generous and call it 300. More pertinent: the two-room curiosity comes with lighting and metalwork installations by Ross himself, plus the wood-covered kitchen features a beamed ceiling and walls made "with antique Redwood from a discarded Greenwich Village rooftop water tower." The bathroom, which isn't pictured, apparently has "reclaimed wood, stone and tile." But "reclaimed" could be a fancy word for trash; Ross is a known dumpster diver. Oh, it gets weirder.
The Village Voice profiled Ross in 2003, back when he was renting the apartment for $1,100/month. (Public records show he sold the place to one Charles Kerzer in 2002 for $255,000, and there's no indication he bought it back, yet both the brokerbabble and the Post name him as the seller, so there's some murkiness there. StreetEasy data for unit #RESD, its former label though it's now called #7, don't turn up any further information.)
In the Voice interview, he details the following madcap tidbits about the apartment:
There's a swing (which appears to still be present; look at the straps hanging from the kitchen ceiling). "Kick back. It's a very therapeutic motion," he told the reporter.
There's no stove. ("I threw out the stove. Why have decaying food with so many great restaurants around?")
"I'm a dumpster diver in the industry. I'm just a very big fan of red, red lights, red tinsel. I have things from my travels to Asia."
"I put two disco balls outside this window. This place gets no direct sun. From about 11 to three, if it's sunny, the light will hit the disco balls. I got the apartment six years ago [1997] through my friend's father in Queens. I was born and raised in Flushing."
"I would like to have an indoor amusement park, motors lifting you up. Oh, I've got so many ideas. I love projectiles and weapons. I have a desktop catapult where you can shoot little balls at the person next to you."
Luckily, there's no desktop catapult in the listing. Or projectiles. There is, however, a weapon of sorts leaning against the kitchen counter: a massive hammer.
In the building, two one-bedrooms on the market are going for $395,000 and $465,000, respectively, so the $1.3M pricetag seems a bit out of touch. Art-induced delusions, perhaps?
· Listing: 177 Thompson Street #7 [Sotheby's via StreetEasy]
· Art near the Park [NYP]
· Stuart Ross Photography [official]
· The Atmosphere Was Electric [Village Voice]
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