Newest Amenity in Residential High-Rises: Custom-Curated Art Collections

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The New York Sun

When Kayla Silberberg and her husband, Martin, decided to trade in their condominium in Riverdale for one in Manhattan, they knew they wanted easy access to public transportation and a stall shower.

What they didn’t expect to find was a built-in art collection.

But when they walked into the sales office for the 249-unit Kalahari condominium building on 116th Street and spied “Man Cloth II” by El Anatsui, an African artist whose work is included in the permanent collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, they were hooked.

“It was lovely,” said Ms. Silberberg, a former art teacher who with her husband has amassed a collection of African and Japanese art over the years. “It was certainly a draw.”

The couple purchased a three-bedroom apartment at the Kalahari, and Ms. Silberberg is aiming for a spot on the committee that manages the building’s art.

The Kalahari’s collection, assembled by curator Cheryl Riley with a budget of some $500,000, is a far cry from the cookie-cutter landscape paintings that were once ubiquitous in the lobbies of New York apartment buildings. Custom-curated art collections have begun appearing recently in residential high-rises, as condominiums seek to stand out from the pack of amenity-laden developments sprouting up all over the city. Aiming to attract wealthy buyers, developers are tapping into the increasing popularity of contemporary art, which has accompanied the high-grossing art sales of the past few years.

“Art before was important to a very small group, a very sophisticated group,” said Pola Bamberg, the project manager at 650 Sixth Avenue, a Chelsea luxury conversion that doubles as a contemporary art gallery. But recently, she said, “art just became part of everything. We’re giving people the opportunity to express that.”

It’s not uncommon for upscale apartment buildings to display a valuable sculpture or two. But custom-curated collections historically have been rare because they are expensive and time-consuming to create, a partner at the United American Land development company, Albert Laboz, said. The firm recently unveiled SoHo Mews, a collection of luxury lofts, townhouses, and penthouses. The nonprofit Art Production Fund will operate a gallery on the bottom floor of the development, curate a permanent art collection for it, and provide art-consulting services for residents.

“The budget for an art collection is luxury for a developer that could easily get slashed out,” Mr. Laboz said. “That’s usually the first thing to go.”

Also, unlike a washer-dryer or Boffi kitchen, a custom-curated art collection won’t guarantee higher prices. “If there’s a lot of expensive art in the building, it’s not going to increase your cost per square foot,” he said.

But the number of condominiums in the city has risen dramatically in the past few years, and developers appear to be hoping that art will help them lure wealthy, sophisticated buyers with something worth more than granite counter tops: status.

“Art is an elite status symbol,” an associate professor of marketing at New York University, Justin Kruger, said. “In addition to being physically appealing, it gives a sense of status that maybe goes above and beyond what they can achieve from the location.”

The works that Ms. Riley chose for the Kalahari range from established artists like Mr. Anatsui to emerging artists, and will be thematically related to the building’s sub-Saharan Africa-inspired aesthetic and its Harlem location, Walter Edwards, the chief executive officer of Full Spectrum NY, which developed the project, said.

“Anyone can do four walls. We’re developing a lifestyle,” he said.

As for the SoHo Mews, the developer hopes that many of the condo owners will be art collectors, Mr. Laboz said. “It’s a high-net-worth demographic,” he said. “It was the market we were looking to target.”

SoHo Mews also is in talks with Deitch Projects to commission a piece specifically for the building, and it has a partnership with the New Museum that offers residents free memberships, private tours, and invitations to openings.

The robust art market of recent years, in which living artists have fetched astronomical prices for their work, has heightened awareness of contemporary art, Ms. Riley said, broadening its appeal to a wider audience.

“It has reached the masses,” she said. “It’s not some dead person from Europe — there’s a real connection to people’s lives.”

The Kalahari is the first apartment building Ms. Riley has curated a collection for, she said, and the project challenging because the works must appeal to residents with varying backgrounds, political persuasions, and knowledge of art history. “You want it to make you think, but you don’t want it to be confrontational,” she said of the works she chose.

At the newly constructed Time Warner Center, which contains One Central Park Luxury Condominiums and the Residences at the Mandarin Oriental New York, visitors often snap pictures of Fernando Botero’s sculptures of a rotund Adam and Eve, the general manager of the property, David Froelke, said.

In addition to the statues, which are part of the Time Warner Center’s permanent collection, Millennia Fine Art has an office on the fourth floor of the center and curates rotating exhibits throughout the space. Building residents get special invitations to twice-monthly openings.

“If you look at our customers — very sophisticated world travelers, executives — it matches with people who purchase fine art,” Mr. Froelke said. The exhibits are “an extra perk they have of living here.”


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