Filed under: Famous Homes, Fun Stuff, Design, etc, News & Trends, Celebrity Homes
Obama and Phil Boerner in apartment, Phil Boerner '84
It's always annoying to get mail from your home's previous tenants. But can you imagine if those letters were addressed to Barack Obama? The next residents of a New York City apartment at 42 West 109th St, Apartment 3E might find themselves scrawling "Forward to: WHITE HOUSE" since the President shared the space with a roommate back in 1981.
The Upper West Side apartment -- which borders on the slightly less tony Morningside Heights neighborhood -- is only blocks away from another cultural landmark: Tom's Restaurant, where the Seinfeld gang famously talked about nothing for hours on end. (And where Obama frequently ate breakfast with former roommate Phil Boerner.)
Listed for $1,850 a month, the two-bedroom is advertised as having hardwood floors, exposed brick, a marble bathroom, high ceilings and big windows: All the favorite buzzwords for New York City realtors. That's the sell now, but back in 1981, the ad was quite different when placed by Boerner:
SUBLET AVAILABLE: Three-room railroad flat, third floor, West 109th Street. Near Columbia University. Ideal for roommates who do not need privacy, reliable heat or steady hot water. Kitchen modest, but take out available, including New York bagels for only a quarter.
It's worth noting that despite the downfalls (Obama supposedly left the apartment because the of the less-than-ideal heat situation), the place certainly sounds nicer than the Yorkville apartment he moved into afterward, described in Dreams From My Father as "Small, with slanting floors and irregular heat and a buzzer downstairs that didn't work, so that visitors had to call ahead from a pay phone at the corner gas station."
If you think that the nearly-$2,000 pricetag is too much, think again. The apartment's broker, Dalila Bella of CitiHabitats, has been fielding calls non-stop. "I've gotten about 20 people who want to see the apartment -- I don't know if they just want to tour it, or if they actually want to live in it, but either way is fine," she told us by phone. "It's a pretty small place, about 600 square-feet, and it's amazing to see that Obama went from living in such a small space to doing such big things. Being an immigrant myself, from Algeria, seeing that is pretty inspiring," she continued, also saying that she didn't expect to feel so impressed by the apartment until she was actually in there.
Small space, huh? Wonder if Obama would have tried any of the tricks that architect Gary Chang did with his 300-square-foot apartment? And we're sure he would have benefited from our debunking of these 5 small space myths. Perhaps now that his old digs are on the market, he's feeling nostalgic and wishing to get the White House in on the small house movement.
Tell us -- is a famous former tenant enough to make you want to move in?
Now spill: What about you?
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