New York City has long proved a fertile stomping ground for AD. The magazine has devoted scores of pages and sometimes entire issues to the Big Apple, documenting the grand and the gritty, the traditional and the unconventional: penthouses, town houses, industrial lofts, elegant apartments, and unrenovated artists’ studios alike. Each of these quintessentially urban spaces is ultimately a backdrop for the main attraction—New Yorkers themselves, the denizens of that great melting pot of talented, idiosyncratic humanity.
In the wake of a pandemic that has dealt a particularly brutal blow to our beloved city, the editors agreed that visits to some committed locals in their exceptional habitats might provide a bit of escapism and inspiration. Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, an oncologist and Pulitzer Prize–winning author, opens his family’s Chelsea loft to us and writes poetically about resilience and healing. Artsy CMO Everette Taylor, a recent transplant from L.A., shares his impressive collection of works by Black artists and says, “I want to show little Black and brown kids that having a life filled with art is very much attainable.” Of Bushwick, the Brooklyn neighborhood he now calls home, Cuban-American artist Jorge Pardo notes, “I’m an immigrant, and this was an immigrant community I really liked. It’s Latin, with people selling food on the street and little cell-phone-fixing stores.”
The owners of a spectacular Tribeca penthouse (their AD100 interior designer, Monique Gibson, declares “this apartment had the best view of the city I had ever seen”) have the wise last word: “While things seem challenging, when we look out at night and see the lights come on—at the Empire State Building, at the Freedom Tower, in buildings up and down the city—you’re reminded that it is still New York. It is strong and it will be back.” AD agrees.
—Amy Astley, Editor in Chief, @amyastley
