What a “DUMBO” of an idea!

At the corner of Pearl and Water Streets in New York, five contemporary four bedroom, three bath town houses with private parking, a garden and a roof terrace. The town houses feature 20′ (6 metres) parlour floor ceilings, fireplaces and sky lit rooms throughout. In addition, they are designed with energy efficient building systems and a high performance building envelope. All town houses were sold immediately.1

This project is in DUMBO, acronym of Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass, a neighbourhood in New York. Federico Rampini, who writes for “La Repubblica”, described it in this way: 2

“…it looks like a landscape of 19th or 20th century, but behind reddish walls and cast iron joists, there are artists’ ateliers in what is called Dumbo […] a neighborhood where artistic vitality competes with Greenwich Village, Soho and Tribeca. Even theater has two opposite faces: on the side we have historical Theaters of Broadway, which are always active, on the other side we have Bam (Brooklyn Academy of Music) and Saint Ann’s Theater, capable of attracting the best productions from London.” 3

This building is believe it or not, a town house. Four rooms, three bathrooms, private terrace and reserved parking, with Italian giant RiFRA contributing to the plan by working with the architects in creating much of the joinery and internal design aspects.4

It’s a nice project – but seriously, only in America would you call a piece of art with sensible and seemless design “DUMBO”!!