BASICALLY, I WAS STARING at a brick wall for seven years,” architect Alexander Gorlin says of the Upper East Side rental he’d moved into after his divorce—a refuge he thought would be temporary until inertia set in. Finally, a year and a half ago, he set out to shake that off and find a place to buy, preferably one from which he could walk to work and ideally—though he was pretty sure he couldn’t afford it—in the West Village.
He found this “hidden jewel,” an apartment that hadn’t been touched in 30 years, back when it had been victim of an ill-conceived renovation. “It was not only a wreck,” Gorlin recalls, “but the owner had encroached onto the view with closets and a Murphy bed and dropped ceilings so that it was extremely off-putting. Unless you were an architect who could see past the excrescence.”
Continue reading your story on the app
Continue reading your story in the magazine
Torrey Peters Goes There
The author’s debut novel, Detransition, Baby, wades into two of the most vulnerable questions for trans women.
The System: Zak Cheney-Rice
The Never-ending Coup Against Black America - Historically, “recovery” tends to look a lot like betrayal.
The Group Portrait: A Beleaguered White House Press Corps
Four years of history, day after day after day.
Prom King
With a huge Netflix deal and the power to green-light just about anything, Ryan Murphy has become the ultimate insider. And his work is suffering.
Schlock to Remember
If you can’t wait to relive last year, Netflix has a special for you.
Leave the World Behind
Shacked up in the suburbs of Kansas City, indie singer-songwriters Katie Crutchfield and Kevin Morby are making some of their best work.
Extremely Online: Craig Jenkins
Clubhouse Is Close to Becoming Our New Internet Wasteland - If you love mess, you won’t be disappointed.
A 1915 Crown Heights House That's Only On Its Third Owners
After living all over the world, Thomas Gensemer and Gabe Brotman settled down in a Brooklyn place with “a bit of an English feel to it.”
220 minutes with … Sarah McBride
Strolling Wilmington with Delaware’s history-making new state senator.
Total Boomer
A bumper crop of albums made for contemplating mortality.