Envy Apartment

Axl Rose (Photo: File photo) Pressed onto the record this week about the surge in calls across the nation to take down statues of Confederate leaders, Vice President Mike Pence played it sufficiently vague in the name of more is better. Pence, saying he was uneasy about any effort to “erase parts of our history just in the name of some contemporary political cause,” made his case Tuesday morning on “Fox & Friends” that “we ought to have been building more monuments.” The rationale, via Indiana’s former governor: “We ought to be celebrating the men and women who've helped our nation move toward a more perfect union and tell the whole story of America.” Given the context, with Jefferson Davis and Gen. Robert E. Lee as the baseline of a nation moving toward a more perfect union, Pence offers some awfully broad parameters here. THROWBACK: The day Axl Rose came to town BANGERT: Monument to Confederates remains in Lafayette's Greenbush Cemetery BANGERT: If only there was a way...

For the first time in 40 years, Detroit’s famed Lafayette Park has a new addition. Designed by Detroit- based McIntosh Poris Associates , DuCharme Place is a 185- unit apartment community comprised of four midrise buildings. Adding to the Mies van der Rohe–designed historic district, the new development plays liberally with many of Mies’s original concepts. The long history of Lafayette Park includes the “slum” clearing urban renewal of postwar urban centers , the rise of modernist housing blocks in the U.S., and the realization of one of Mies’s largest housing projects . The first projects to be completed in the development were the Mies- designed Pavilion Apartments and a series of townhouses that are most often associated with the neighborhood. After those initial buildings, a handful of architects, including Gunnar Birkerts and John Macsai, added a school, shopping center, and more housing, with the last major project finishing in 1967. Ludwig Hilberseimer, Alfred Caldwell,...

This brownstone triplex at 304 Lafayette Avenue in Clinton Hill is the perfect rental for an avid cook with deep pockets. The circa 1873 Italianate brownstone last sold in 2009 and clearly underwent a significant renovation with culinary creation in mind. The rear of the parlor floor has been transformed into a fantasy kitchen. The owner installed not one but two Miele ovens and, perhaps for the luxury of never having to put away a dish, added two Bosch dishwashers. The ovens are complimented by a six- burner Wolf range . The kitchen also features a built-in deep fryer and steamer, two sinks (one on the counter and one on the island), and a garbage disposal. A sliding library ladder gives access to upper cabinets. All the waste generated from cooking six-course meals will be easily crushed by the home’s built-in trash compactor. Even the landscaped garden, accessed via a deck off the kitchen and shared with other tenants, is equipped with the Rolls Royce of grills — a Big Green Egg. ...

Purdue University freshman Brandon Wolter waits at a bus stop outside Blackbird Farms Apartments on Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2017. Wolter is one of 240 students who were placed in Blackbird apartments due to overflow in on- campus residential halls . (Photo: Meghan Holden/Journal & Courier) WEST LAFAYETTE , Ind. — Brandon Wolter 's living situation is unlike that of most Purdue University freshmen who choose to live in residential housing. Rather than sleeping in a cramped dorm room, Wolter shares a spacious two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment with three other freshmen.  The residence comes with amenities one would expect in a luxury apartment, such as a balcony, a full kitchen with a dishwasher, a washer and dryer, and free parking. There's also a pool and fitness center across the street. The catch? He lives about two miles outside campus and is a 10- minute bus ride  away from the thousands of other freshmen living in the dorms. "The worst part is planning ahead,...

For a particular New Yorker, the sort who rues having missed out on the city’s cobblestone past, Colonnade Row is a distinct architectural marvel . The Greek Revival rowhouses were completed in 1833 and are known for their imposing Corinthian columns . But they were also a stage on which the birth of Manhattan’s gilded era played out, a period when no one dared host a ball the same night as Alva Vanderbilt, and the city itself didn’t extend much past Great Jones Street . Photo Credit New- York Historical Society , via Getty Images They were built for families like the Vanderbilts and the Astors — indeed, John Jacob Astor was among the first residents — and the group was originally named La Grange Terrace , after an estate of the Marquis de Lafayette . What remained of the facade was among the first structures protected by the Landmarks Preservation Commission . In the landscape of contemporary New York, however, Colonnade Row offers other quirks. While crusty old bars and last-of-...

At the ribbon cutting this month for the Wesley Village affordable housing complex in Garden Grove, Laura Archuleta couldn ’t resist referencing Joni Mitchell ’s 1970 environmental protest “Big Yellow Taxi.” Built on underused land that’s part of the Garden Grove United Methodist Church campus on Main Street, Wesley Village offered Archuleta , president of the nonprofit community organization Jamboree Housing Corp ., a chance to riff on one of Mitchell’s most famous lyrics. Where Mitchell sang “They paved paradise/And put up a parking lot,” Archuleta told about 300 people packed into the steamy church sanctuary on a hot afternoon that “Today we are going to learn how a group of dedicated organizations and individuals re-purposed a parking lot and put up a paradise.” Then she and others who spoke, including a single mom with six children who now reside at Wesley Village , told how the project became reality through a unique collaboration that involved the church, Jamboree and other...