The 50-Foot Commute - NYTimes.com
to set up shop in your pajamas. Windowless rooms that in the past might have been used as bedrooms — though not legally — are now advertised straight out as offices in older conversions, many of them former commercial buildings in the financial district. And some new construction floor plans now include rooms designed from scratch as offices.
“The world is not on a 9-to-5 calendar,” said Susan de França, the president of Related Sales, which next month will start selling condominiums at One MiMa Tower on West 42nd Street. Of the 151 condos, 22 have areas labeled as home offices. They have windows and are large enough to be legal bedrooms, but Ms. de França’s team decided to sell them as offices: “We’re designating them as home offices because that’s appealing to our buyers,” she said.
Similarly, in eight of the two-bedroom apartments at L Haus, a Long Island City condo, a small windowed room that could be a legal bedroom is designated as a home office. Only one has been released to the market: No. 4H, which has 1,432 square feet of space and is priced at $920,000.
At the Industry, another new condo in Long Island City, 11 of the 76 apartments have spaces designated as home offices. Apartments have white oak flooring and gray oak cabinets, and the building offers a landscaped roof terrace. Units with home offices start at $525,000; No. 6F, a model unit with one of the two-bedrooms furnished as a spacious office, is selling for $829,500.
Home offices are in 21 apartments at the Sheffield, built in 1978 but renovated over the past six years, with sales beginning last year. Four of these are for sale. Unit 56D, a 1,498-square-foot two-bedroom listed at $2.95 million, has an office nook off the living room that receives plenty of light from the floor-to-ceiling windows.
In Unit 42S, price tag $1.345 million, one of the three bedrooms has been configured as an office, with a wraparound desk and open shelving — and, as a bonus, a close-up view of the Hearst building. Unit 51Q1, $1.405 million, is an 875-square-foot one-bedroom with a windowless office area off the living/dining area.
Mercedes House at 555 West 53rd Street, developed by Two Trees Management Company and designed by Enrique Norten, offers five rental apartments with home offices, in inside corners of the Z-shaped building, where a legal bedroom wasn’t possible. The one-bedrooms with home offices start at $3,600 a month, and two-bedrooms start at $3,900.
David Walentas, the founder and principal of Two Trees, said that home offices were more prevalent in residential conversions in Dumbo, which his company was instrumental in developing. “You have these deep windowless spaces that are ideal for home offices,” Mr. Walentas said. “A lot of people work at home and use them.”
For example, at Gair 2, a building in Dumbo that Two Trees also developed, 34 of 106 units are one-bedrooms with home offices, starting at $2,900 per month.
And at Griffin Court, a new development at 454 West 54th Street, 42 of the 95 units have “dens” — nooks with open doorways that are often used as home offices, said Kenneth Horn, the president of Alchemy Properties, the developer of Griffin Court.
The dens are near bathrooms, making the space even more useful. And many of the units also offer terraces that look out onto a private courtyard. The dens were included to attract buyers looking for more space without the added cost of an extra bedroom.
“We wanted to keep as many units below a million as possible,” Mr. Horn said. “We decided that the ones with the dens would be more salable than your straight twos.”
Keith Wang and Katherine Sayn-Wittgenstein bought their three-bedroom penthouse near Gramercy Park in 2007 for the sun that streamed in from the enormous skylight over the living room and kitchen, and for the roof deck that stretched for more than 1,000 square feet.
The couple were buying a place to live, and didn’t realize that the apartment, at 233 East 17th Street, would become their office
Had to share this article with you about home offices. I was just thinking today that I need to redesign my living room to incorporate a great office space. As you see more and more buildings are doing this whether in the living room or bedroom. Do you have a home office. Did you specially design it?
