Beastie Boy-cum-townhouse designer Michael "Mike D" Diamond is the subject of a New York Times feature, which paints his newfound passion for Brooklyn townhouse design as being somewhere between a hobby and a hobby that you also make money off of. Diamond's newest project — not the first house that he has helped design, but the first such house that he will not be living in — which he undertook along with his wife, director Tamra Davis, and their architect friends John and Jill Bouratoglou, is a single-family at 242 Pacific Street in Boerum Hill asking $4.98 million.
It's unclear what Diamond's and Davis's specific contributions to the design were — Davis told reporter Matt Chaban that, "I'm the one interested in function, and he's all about form," and Jill Bouratoglou credited Diamond with having "a real sense of rhythm, you could say, and I think we worked to express that in the facade." Diamond, who is neither a trained architect nor an interior designer (though his mother was one), explains that, "You just get together with your friends, and it doesn't even feel like work." Yeah. There might be a reason it feels that way.
· A Mellower Beastie Boy Is Adding Home Building to the Mix [NYT]
· Let's Not Forget That Mike D Has Been Rich Since Day One [Gothamist]
· Beastie Boy Mike D Designs Brooklyn Townhouses Now [Curbed]