It will rain. It needs to be open for city code – all bedrooms need fresh air, holdover from the tenement era.
These wide plate conversions are dystopian indeed. I understand there is a real market appetite for them, but this seems to be a regression in terms of living standards. Individual apartment buildings really have no business having over a thousand units. These are not suitable long-term alternatives to actual wide scale development-- we need more Battery Park Cities and Stuytowns IMO.
At nearby 222 Broadway, they are renting out ‘studios with three home offices’- as in, three not-to-code internal bedrooms with no windows, thus giving the 3-6 occupants of this floorplan a single small window onto Fulton street as their only source of light or air. Cruise ship accommodations for almost 10k a month. These developments are becoming parodies of themselves
It’s plausible that these are definitely windows of units. This building has a very large footprint. Having windows in corridors isn’t necessarily a requirement, as bpc mentioned above, having operable windows (windows in general) is for residential habitable spaces. This isn’t uncommon of the other conversions mentioned above to have windows in the light well facing other units. Its just awkward more than anything, but they are definitely units.
LOL that is so silly, I feel like a section of the building should have been cut out (U- shape) if they were planning on having “courtyard” facing units.
The apartment windows in that shaft will not have any privacy; everyone can look directly into the apartment across that narrow light shaft.
The only way to get both daylight and daytime privacy is a ‘sheer shade’. The only problem with that is the sheer shades are See-Through during the evening when the lights are on in the apartment.
The ‘scrim effect’ is not commonly understood: which makes for some stealthy viewing into your neighbors apartment at night.
Grok AI question -
What is the Scrim or Screen Effect on sheer window curtains/shades/blinds?
How the Scrim/Screen Effect Works in Window Coverings
Daytime Privacy (Seeing Out, Not In):
The Setup: During the day, sunlight outside is significantly brighter than the ambient light inside your home.
The Physics: Outdoor sunlight hits the sheer fabric or mesh weave and reflects off the threads toward anyone looking in from the outside. This reflected light washes out their view, making the shade or drape appear solid/opaque.
Inside View: Because light levels indoors are lower, you can comfortably see through the gaps in the fabric mesh to the brightly lit outdoors, similar to looking through sunglasses.
Nighttime Reversal (The Privacy Trade-off):
The Setup: At night, the lighting condition reverses—the interior lights are bright, while it is dark outside.
The Result: The scrim effect flips. People standing outside in the dark can clearly see through the sheer fabric into your illuminated room, while people inside looking out see only the lit fabric or a mirror-like reflection.
END AI QUOTE.
