Sunday, May 20, 2007

Long Island City, Queens, May 2007


Yesterday I went out to Queens to visit the "Maison Tropicale," a mid-century kit house designed by Jean Prouve for use by French colonials in Africa. It's on exhibit near the Queensboro Bridge prior to being auctioned by Christie's.

I've always liked mid-century design, and this is an interesting structure - a basic metal box with wood floors and these terrific little blue-glass porthole windows. I'm not sure how comfortable it would be in the heat of equatorial Africa, but it's visually pretty great.


Apparently only a handful of them were ever made, and Christie's expects the house to fetch $4 million at auction on June 5. Anyone need a vacation house?

Today is the AIDS Walk, for which I have been assembling a team of coworkers for the last several weeks. I wound up raising about $1,250, which made me pretty happy. More about that tomorrow!
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7 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 20, 2007 at 2:26 PM

    Congratulations on earning so much money for such a great cause! And you are already proud generous and tolerant. Your fortune was completely accurate!

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  2. AnonymousMay 20, 2007 at 3:23 PM

    Congratulations Steve.

    That is an interesting house. I am a few million short of being able to get a bid in.

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  3. AnonymousMay 20, 2007 at 6:53 PM

    Congrats Steve.
    Nice pics, I have to see this place.

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  4. AnonymousMay 20, 2007 at 9:13 PM

    This structure looks termite proof--I learned (while doing fundraising for Habitat for Humanity) that they use a lot of cement block and metal construction because they want the homes to last --hurricanes, termites--the comfort level might be slightly compromised, though, especially when people are used to a certain design and native materials.

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  5. AnonymousMay 20, 2007 at 9:16 PM

    ps I think 15 habitat houses could fit into this one pictured. I am always amazed by a family of 4 living in a 10x10 space.

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  6. AnonymousMay 21, 2007 at 12:30 AM

    I never thought about the termite connection, Ched -- that could indeed be the reason for all the metal. In terms of size, this house is actually very small, if you count only the interior space. But when it was purchased by the owner in Congo, many people were living in it.

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  7. AnonymousMay 21, 2007 at 11:19 AM

    $4million, blimus. Some property prices in london are like that - sickening really.

    well done on your sponsorship.

    and - like Reya said!

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