Inside Andrew Zuckerman and Niki Bergen’s Exuberant Manhattan Home

Louetta R. Clark 3 weeks ago

Step off the elevator into Niki Bergen and Andrew Zuckerman’s Manhattan apartment, and you’re instantly blitzed with images from nature—nature like you’ve never seen it before. At the far end of the hall, a nine-foot-tall grizzly bear rises up on its hind legs, locking eyes with you. Nearby, a ghostly snowy owl spreads its wings, frozen in mid-flight. Then there’s the expanse of floral wallpaper, arrayed with fanciful cannonball and Pride of Burma blooms.

This wild kingdom makes quite a first impression, and it continues throughout the 3,300-square-foot loft that the couple share with their three children in Chelsea. Everything is a thoughtful expression of personal and professional passions, explains Zuckerman, a photographer and filmmaker whose work explores the intersections of nature, culture, and technology. Captured in ultra–high resolution, against stark white backdrops, his celebrated images of flora and fauna have a hyperreal quality that’s “not quite pure, not quite

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If you will hammer, Habitat for Humanity can help you build a low-cost house in Miami

Louetta R. Clark 3 weeks ago

Melissa Jones, a single mom with four kids, has a good job at a major corporation. But like growing numbers of Miamians, she has struggled with rising rent — and forget about hoping to ever own a home. Or so she thought.

But then she was turned on to Habitat for Humanity, the nonprofit renowned for its hard-nosed “sweat equity” approach to getting low-income families into new homes of their own. These are high-quality houses with low prices, in part because they’re sawed and hammered together by a squad of volunteers and the homeowners themselves.

And so one warm morning last week, Jones found herself on her knees gluing dark wood laminate to the floors of what will soon be her new Habitat home in the south Miami-Dade neighborhood of Goulds. That’s after she spent much of the previous nine days helping to nail down the roof, put up drywall,

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Joey Laurenti’s Home Is All About the Power of Personal Style

Louetta R. Clark 4 weeks ago

“I’m drawn to a lot of colors and textures, and I love objects and art,” says Joey Laurenti, CEO of fashion label Sies Marjan. “Mixing those things together is important to me, because it feels intuitive. It’s not dictated by anything other than what I like.” When Joey moved into this address in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park neighborhood four years ago, everything had worked out for the best. He was searching for a prewar apartment in this specific area to share with his boyfriend, Shane, a doctor, and this one checked that coveted box with two bedrooms and bathrooms. It had the bones and it had the space, but when it came to Joey’s discerning eye, it certainly didn’t have the style.

<div class="caption"> “The living room overlooks a garden, which is really pretty in the summertime,” Joey says. “The green ceiling <a href="https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/painting-tips-paint-color-ideas?mbid=synd_yahoo_rss" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:paint" class="link rapid-noclick-resp">paint</a> was meant to complement all that greenery outside. I didn’t tell my partner that I was doing it at the time, because I didn’t think he’d go for it, but he loves it.” </div>
“The living room overlooks a garden, which is really pretty in the summertime,” Joey says. “The green ceiling paint was meant to complement all that greenery outside.
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A Week In Portland, OR, On A $51,450 Salary

Louetta R. Clark 4 weeks ago

Welcome to Money Diaries, where we’re tackling what might be the last taboo facing modern working women: money. We’re asking millennials how they spend their hard-earned money during a seven-day period — and we’re tracking every last dollar.

Today: a Social Media Coordinator who makes $51,450 per year and spends some of her money this week on an Alison Roman cookbook.

Occupation: Social Media Coordinator
Industry: Fitness
Age: 25
Location: Portland, Oregon
Salary: $51,450
Net Worth: $61,450
Debt: $5,811.57
Paycheck Amount (2x/month): $1,459.48
Pronouns: She/Her

Monthly Expenses
Rent: $653.52 (My boyfriend and I rent a two-bedroom, two-bathroom house. We split rent in proportion to our incomes (I pay 35%, he pays 65%). However, he is on my health insurance, so that gets subtracted from the total amount I would pay for rent.)
Student Loans: $200
Car: $200 (My boyfriend bought a used SmartCar in cash for me. I pay

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