The Greenwich
125 Greenwich Street, New York, NY 10006
This week’s building was brought to my attention by Kerstin Heitzke, a fellow building enthusiast & friend, who got the inside scoop (she saw a tik tok) about a fire that happened here on Wednesday. On March 20th around 9:30 am, the FDNY responded to a big ol cloud of black smoke coming from the top of 125 Greenwich Street. Luckily there is a fire department ~200 feet away from this building so they were able to contain the fire in about 30 minutes. A piece of construction equipment is believed to have started this fire. Luckily there were no injuries, but the construction workers ran down the stairs from as high as the 69th floor! Leg day baby!!! Tbh… a big cloud of black smoke coming from a tall building just a block away from the World Trade Center… not a good look!
it’s giving….. nvm
“The Greenwich” (tbh I think they named it that so people would think this is located in Greenwich Village but it is nowhere near there) is yet another boring glass building that took a decade to make. I’m not saying that adding gargoyles would make these buildings be made faster but I’m not not saying that. This 912 ft structure was designed by Rafael Viñoly, a Uruguayan-born architect whose firm is responsible for the matchstick building (which I hate with a burning passion that tbh I don’t even want to get into rn). I find it kind of interesting that they’ve designed a building that looks like a cigarette (432 park ave) and now one that looks like a vape. Fascinating.
Anyways, construction on this building first started back in 2014 and was paused in 2019 due to 1) not enough people buying apartments and 2) them running out of money (broke behavior). They managed to get a $313 million loan (I truly cannot think of a better use for that money) last year to finish construction and are set to have people start moving in this summer.
Rafael Viñoly passed away at 78 last year. Thank god he wasn’t around to see his building on fire. …Or did he start the fire from the great beyond as a way of saying, “hey I regret designing this boring ass building that cost an exuberant amount of money”? There’s a lot to speculate on here.
Apartments in the building are currently being marketed from between $1.15 million for a studio to $6.15 million for a 3-bedroom. Um hey? $1.15 mil for a 400 sqft studio? No fucking thanks. Hey but don’t worry, for that price you can go burn your eyes out in the saltwater lap pool. Other amenities include a spa, a fitness center, and a private club with views of the city. I know, I know, I’m giving big hater vibes right now. It’s giving “how you gonna hate from outside the club when you can’t even get in?”
What I really don’t understand about these ultra-expensive high-rise apartments is that they often open out to undesirable streets. This one in particular opens up to a grey landscape of nothingness. The street outside this building is devoid of any real personality or charm (there’s ONE exception, I will get to it later). It’s mostly a place for tourists to spend their money and to walk around really slowly. There’s a hot dog truck (the guy who works there is actually pretty nice), a stall with 800 variations of New York hats, and a “park” ( a concrete slab with a few chairs scattered about) that has its gates closed most of the time. Now that I type all that out…… it could be a vibe.
I just couldn’t imagine dropping multi mils on an apartment just to be forced to walk around with POORS as soon as I leave my building. (omg calm down! I’m joking! I meant to say “the financially challenged”) My theory is that if you spend that much on an apartment you must also have a driver. At least that’s my hope? Guys, I’m such an empath that I can’t even help but worry about the ultra-rich, ugh gross.
investigative journalist, Kerstin, on the scene
Fun Facts
The interior designer for this project, MAWD, has designed several super yachts. There’s a joke here about how they are the right amount of out of touch to be designing this apartment building for the mega-rich, but I’m too tired to find it.
The one exception to this street being pretty boring is the historic Irish pub, O’Hara’s. This pub reopened 7 months after 9/11 and served as a place of comfort for the ground zero workers and all of those affected by the attacks. Now, the walls are covered in embroidery patches from people’s fire, police, paramedic, and military uniforms. The story of it is very beautiful and I encourage you to read about it (here).
It was my husband’s birthday on Tuesday!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY PARKER!!!!!
Guys I’m so pooped from the move, but I love our new place! After approximately 20 seconds of consideration, I will not be writing about the building I live in. I will eventually be posting all of these to a blog on my website & it’s probably in my best interest to not post my address on the internet for anyone to see.
Anyway, see you next week!! Toodeloo!
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