There’s a building in Manhattan’s Lower East Side that had intrigued me for a while because of its haunted look. The stone building shows evidence of a former glory – its Gilded Age stone design, now covered in graffiti; its elaborate architectural details, now rusted through and unkempt. Cornered by Spring Street on one side, #190 Bowery is located in a pretty cool neighbourhood amongst restaurant supply shops, the New Museum, cafes and restaurants.

Doorway

Lonely intercom

Let me put it this way – this is prime real estate yet the building looks abandoned. In a city as densely populated as New York City, where space is prized, how can such a gorgeous building be seemingly empty?

I hadn’t been the only one wondering; when I visited the space earlier this month to take some photos of the street art covering the ground level of the six-storey space (and as I discovered, its fascinating details), the homeless guys sitting in its vicinity were asking me this very question. I had no idea how to respond… and so after a bit of research, I discovered a very interesting story behind it all.

It would have helped if I had paid attention to a (now obvious) detail...

This building-on-Bowery was constructed in 1898. Originally, it existed as the Germania Bank in a neighbourhood that had been primarily made up of German working class.

By 1966, the bank was abandoned and up for sale. Enter artist and photographer Jay Maisel. In the market for a studio space, he was shown this building by broker, Jack Klein. In those days, Maisel was paying $125 a month for a 2,500-square-foot studio at 122 Second Avenue, though an unexpected $50 rent hike had been too much to fathom.

Klein convinced Maisel he could raise the money to buy the abandoned bank. That was the easy part. Then he moved in. The main floor was knee-deep in garbage and coated in soot. “I had to shovel shit against the tide,” says Maisel. He wasn’t getting a lot of support either; the Bowery was where people ended up, not where they aspired to live. “My parents cried,” he says. “Every single thing that can come out of a human body has been left on my doorstep. But it was more disgusting than dangerous. (NY Magazine.)

Maisel's name is right on the door...

An unused entrance

Today, Maisel, his wife and daughter continue to live in this expansive space – by themselves. Maisel claims the building contains 72 rooms over 35,000 square feet. These values are yet to be confirmed as Maisel doesn’t allow for agent walk-throughs nor real estate valuations. Here’s some food for thought though: in 1966, Maisel purchased the former bank for $102,000. In 2008, its value was estimated as being within the $30 to $70 million range. At this time, Maisel has no plans to sell.

Not having seen the building’s interior, I cannot speak for its space though I have read that much of it is dedicated to Maisel’s photo and art galleries, and workshop spaces. One can even take a week long photography workshop with the artist inside his home at a price of $5,000 (this includes full board). Hey, you’d be a step ahead of those brokers in sketching up a floor plan too.

The fourth floor, which Maisel once rented out to Roy Lichtenstein, is a work-in-progress. But there have been no major changes to the interior. It’s essentially unchanged from the Germania Bank that architect Robert Maynicke designed for the then-bourgeois neighborhood (it cost $200,000 to build). The original safe-deposit vault, still in the basement, is the size of a generous studio apartment; the marks on the main floor where the teller booths once stood are still clearly visible. (NY Mag)

Air conditioning is expensive, so Maisel makes his own shades to keep out the sun

The ground level of this building is available for rent. Interested? Go to: http://190thebowery.com/

Now, about those graffiti-covered walls… There’s a myriad of art found here: mosaics, paste ups, stickers, graffiti and stencils, all blended into a mash-up of street art (a different kind to Faile’s commissioned piece, directly up the street). I was interesting discovering works on all sides of the buildings stone exterior.

“We’re responsible for the sidewalks in front of our building… The city wants the exterior graffiti-free, but it’s impossible: 190 Bowery is a mecca for street artists”… Maisel tried scrubbing the building every week, but “it was like I was providing a fresh canvas for them.” Keith Haring used to cover the exterior in chalk babies, says Maisel, and that he liked, both for the spirit of the images and because they washed off so easily.

Alas – mystery solved! Neither haunted nor abandoned, for now all we can do is admire the building from the outside and wonder what will become of this gold mine, and its tenants, in the future.