Halstead Property

Ruth Yeskel
Westside Office
Tel: (212) 381-2303
ryeskel@halstead.com

1 6 Million Apartment In The Heights

When it comes to this $1,695,000 apartment, calling it ‘eccentric’ may be an understatement.

This four-bedroom, three-bathroom, $1.6 million apartment is found in the Riviera, a building originally constructed to house the wealthy in the city, with all the amenities one would find in the country. The unit may be unusual in Washington Heights, purely by its numbers. But its interior feels like another era and land entirely – though it’s not clear which time and place.

Much of the furniture in the living room? Egyptian. The statue of a head? The Ming Dynasty. The lampshade: from Morocco. The hand-carved columns separating the living room from the formal dining room: from Malta. A mirror: from Austria.

Dr. Trisha Rossi, the owner of the apartment, said that almost all the furnishings in the apartment she collected during her travels around the world.

But the décor is not simply a hodgepodge of objects from widely divergent places and cultures. Much of the artwork and furnishings are blended together and placed in combinations that blur the lines between where one cultural artifact ends and another begins.

The large, intricately painted wooden plate on the ceiling is from Tahiti. A lampshade from China hangs under it. The wooden plate and ceiling lamp appear to be all one piece.

“It’s an over the top kind of apartment, but I guess I’m an over the top kind of person,” said Dr. Rossi.

Indeed, Dr. Rossi has put $350,000 into the renovations of the apartment, custom designing it to her particular tastes.

Dr. Rossi’s appetite for pieces from around the world may come from her extensive travels.

Dr. Rossi recounted having a personal health crisis. When she didn’t like what the doctors told her, she decided to travel the world looking for alternative remedies. Dr. Rossi said she returned healed, and decided to become a Naturopathic Doctor.

Enter, the dining room.

On the wall is a painting of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, who built the Taj Mahal for his wife’s burial. As Dr. Rossi tells it, the emperor loved his wife passionately. She had 13 children and wanted no more, but the emperor convinced her to have another. She died in the childbirth of their 14th child. As the story goes, no one was allowed to smile in the kingdom for the next two years. Dr. Rossi said the emperor is her love icon.

Stroll to the kitchen and you are in the room that Dr. Rossi said played a big role in her decision to buy the apartment. At 240 square feet, the kitchen is large by any New York City standard.

Dr. Rossi said she decided to move uptown when Donald Trump constructed an apartment building blocking her view from her Upper West Side apartment. She wanted more space, and considered moving to Westchester, but decided on an apartment in the Riviera.

Almost predictably at the end of this decadent tour, the master bedroom has both a Jacuzzi bathroom and a large walk-in closet.

Outside the window, down below, sits the Beaux Arts building housing the Hispanic Society of America. The inscription in the side of the building reads “Art Remains the One Way Possible of Speaking Truth.”

Most of the apartment is highly manicured and styled, with a level of spotlessness and organization that rivals a first class hotel. However, in the bedroom, one personal touch stands out. A paper world map is plastered to the wall. A smattering of pins stick out from the map, presumably touching each place Dr. Rossi’s journey has brought her.

The apartment is in the Riviera at 790 Riverside Drive. For more information, contact Ruth Yeskel of Halstead Property at 212-381-2303.

Wednesday, September 08, 2010