krulltime
November 11th, 2006, 01:10 AM
New Condos Inspired by Africa
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/11/12/realestate/12post.L.jpg
AFROCENTRIC DESIGN A rendering of the Kalahari condo complex, which is set to open in December 2007.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG
November 12, 2006
TUCKED between a rickety African market and a gleaming new luxury apartment building, the construction site on West 116th Street that will eventually be the Kalahari condominium complex is a kind of symbol for the social and economic forces shaping Harlem.
The building, set to open in December 2007, signals encroaching gentrification: bamboo flooring, glass-enclosed showers and an on-site gym will separate the building from the Martin Luther King Jr. Towers, a public housing project across the street.
But for all its bourgeois touches, the Kalahari also makes serious gestures toward an older Harlem.
Nearly half of the 249 condos planned for the $119 million building have been set aside for moderate-income buyers. A family of four with a household income of $63,800 to $131,165 would qualify for one of the subsidized units. StreetSquash, a nonprofit organization that provides Harlem children with academic tutoring and squash instruction, is to spend $9 million on a community center in the rear of the building. And an independent film center at the site, to be called My Image, will focus on Latino and African diaspora movies.
The developers — Full Spectrum of NY in Harlem, and L & M Equity Participants in Larchmont, N.Y. — have emphasized African-themed design for the structure, named after the desert in southern Africa.
The facade will be covered in decorations inspired by South African Ndebele tribal designs. Adinkra symbols, West African icons representing concepts like wisdom, unity and perseverance, will adorn the columns. And a sculpture by El Anatsui, a Ghanaian artist, is to hang in the lobby.
Carlton Brown, chief operating officer for Full Spectrum, said culturally appropriate design is important in a place like Harlem, which he calls the “intellectual center” of black America. “A lot of what has been built in what is sometimes called the Second Harlem Renaissance has not addressed the cultural elements,” he said.
Jack Travis, a cultural design consultant who worked with Fred Schwartz, the lead architect, on the African decorative flourishes, sees them as part of a search for an “Afrocentric” design.
“It is an environment,” he said. “It is a small urban plan. And it is in a black community, which begs, desperately, for a cultural identity of buildings and spaces that reflect the notions and intentions of the people in the community.”
But for all his enthusiasm, Mr. Travis acknowledges a certain irony in the appearance of Afrocentric design on a luxury condominium that represents, at least in part, a neighborhood’s gravitation beyond the means of blue-collar African-Americans.
The irony is not lost on the locals, either. John Nelson, 54, an unemployed construction worker walking past the building recently, said he had little use for the Kalahari and its African stylings. “They going to do that for what?” he asked. “To get black people to come in the apartments?”
“People in our category,” he said, “we can’t afford that.”
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/11/12/realestate/12post.L.jpg
AFROCENTRIC DESIGN A rendering of the Kalahari condo complex, which is set to open in December 2007.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG
November 12, 2006
TUCKED between a rickety African market and a gleaming new luxury apartment building, the construction site on West 116th Street that will eventually be the Kalahari condominium complex is a kind of symbol for the social and economic forces shaping Harlem.
The building, set to open in December 2007, signals encroaching gentrification: bamboo flooring, glass-enclosed showers and an on-site gym will separate the building from the Martin Luther King Jr. Towers, a public housing project across the street.
But for all its bourgeois touches, the Kalahari also makes serious gestures toward an older Harlem.
Nearly half of the 249 condos planned for the $119 million building have been set aside for moderate-income buyers. A family of four with a household income of $63,800 to $131,165 would qualify for one of the subsidized units. StreetSquash, a nonprofit organization that provides Harlem children with academic tutoring and squash instruction, is to spend $9 million on a community center in the rear of the building. And an independent film center at the site, to be called My Image, will focus on Latino and African diaspora movies.
The developers — Full Spectrum of NY in Harlem, and L & M Equity Participants in Larchmont, N.Y. — have emphasized African-themed design for the structure, named after the desert in southern Africa.
The facade will be covered in decorations inspired by South African Ndebele tribal designs. Adinkra symbols, West African icons representing concepts like wisdom, unity and perseverance, will adorn the columns. And a sculpture by El Anatsui, a Ghanaian artist, is to hang in the lobby.
Carlton Brown, chief operating officer for Full Spectrum, said culturally appropriate design is important in a place like Harlem, which he calls the “intellectual center” of black America. “A lot of what has been built in what is sometimes called the Second Harlem Renaissance has not addressed the cultural elements,” he said.
Jack Travis, a cultural design consultant who worked with Fred Schwartz, the lead architect, on the African decorative flourishes, sees them as part of a search for an “Afrocentric” design.
“It is an environment,” he said. “It is a small urban plan. And it is in a black community, which begs, desperately, for a cultural identity of buildings and spaces that reflect the notions and intentions of the people in the community.”
But for all his enthusiasm, Mr. Travis acknowledges a certain irony in the appearance of Afrocentric design on a luxury condominium that represents, at least in part, a neighborhood’s gravitation beyond the means of blue-collar African-Americans.
The irony is not lost on the locals, either. John Nelson, 54, an unemployed construction worker walking past the building recently, said he had little use for the Kalahari and its African stylings. “They going to do that for what?” he asked. “To get black people to come in the apartments?”
“People in our category,” he said, “we can’t afford that.”
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company