For the past half century, 190 Bowery has been a legend. The six-story, 72-room former bank building on the fringes of SoHo looked like a war zone on the outside, crumbling and covered in graffiti. And the inside, the home of a photographer with insane real estate luck—well—nobody really knew what was inside.
Until now.
Animal New York editor Bucky Turco
recently spent three days inside 190 Bowery in a crazy attempt to capture the bohemian paradise before the building's new owner shredded its historic interior. The former owner, street photography icon Jay Maisel, had bought the building for $102,000 way back in 1966 when the Bowery
was still a bit of a cesspool. But after spending decades saying no to money-hungry developers—after 190 Bowery served as Roy Lichtenstein's studio and its walls as Keith Haring's canvas—Maisel finally sold the 35,000-square-foot building for a cool $55 million. Now, the historic building will blend in
with the rest of its recently gentrified surroundings.
