Five New York | Karim Rashid

THE OPPORTUNITY Welcome to the East Harlem neighborhood - one of the most promising real estate areas in New York, which over the last few years has proven a worthwhile and wise investment. In the heart of what is one of New York city's most bustling neighborhoods, HAP is building a unique Karim Rashid designed signature project that will include an 8 story building, containing 20 apartments. The HAP Five project is situated in one of New York City's hottest up and coming areas. The project is located in close proximity to CUNY’s brand new Hunter College Silberman School of Social Work, which relocated to the neighborhood in 2011 and created an entirely new category of business opportunities for a choice audience of 5,000 students attending the school and looking to rent nearby. Current New York City real estate market fundamentals make this investment offer a very attractive one. Number of newly built apartment projects in NY is significantly lower that past years and showing as much as 70% decrease in building new apartments in the city. Year over year numbers show a steady increase in prices of apartments in East Harlem. In terms of renting the apartments, latest industry figures show a very high demand for apartments in NYC with an occupancy rate of approximately 99.6% coupled by an unprecedented, all time high rent rates across the board in Manhattan. Demand is high, offer of new projects is low and rents are high. All in all this is the right time and the right place to make a smart investment. THE SURROUNDINGS HAP is proud to present the launch of the prestigious, new and unique HAP Five project. The project will be located in one of Manhattan’s hottest real estate investment spots and one of the most happening, rejuvenated and attractive areas in New York City for more than a decade - East Harlem. East Harlem, or ‘El Barrio’ as it’s known to many, has evolved over the years into an eclectic, colorful, multi-cultural mosaic, with a distinctive Italian, Latin American and African-American cultural flavor. Huge public sector investment in the area has created a pull of private sector investment, leading to the rediscovery of the neighborhood and transforming it into an arena of bustling trendy creativity, attracting both a hip young demographic as well as business people. The HAP Five project’s proximity to Hunter College - the largest college in the City University of New York (CUNY) - and to the Triborough Bridge and the FDR Highway, have made it a highly desirable neighborhood for students, young families, entrepreneurs, business people and investors. THE NEIGHBORHOOD Young, buzzing, multi-hued, sexy, hip-hop and full of life. That’s the legendary ‘Spanish Harlem’, the inspiration of countless songs. It’s the Harlem of theaters and colorful clubs like the Apollo Theater and the Lennox Club, of African-American soul food restaurants and gospel Baptist churches. This is a neighborhood constructed on layers upon layers of a glorious past and an ever developing present. Harlem is now experiencing one of the greatest periods of transformation in its history. The huge investments of Rudolf Giuliani, New York City’s former mayor, are evident in every corner: renovated houses and buildings, streets that have enjoyed major facelifts, excellent schools, resident security, cleanliness and economic development. It’s plain to see that real estate investors have pounced upon the real estate opportunities, already goldmines. Restaurants, cafés and numerous Italian fashion houses have also opened in the neighborhood. Celebrity diners like Al Pacino and Robert De Niro appear regularly among the clientele of restaurants such as RAO’s, Patsy’s Pizzeria and the Red Rooster, where you may have to book months ahead to get a table. “Today luxury can be defined as democratic and technorganic, that luxury is not any more about diamonds, chandeliers, marble, but instead about our new casual age, that luxury is about lightness, affordability, flexibility, that luxury is about being inspired, having new and original human experiences, about having greater pleasure with less materiality, mentally and physically! Daylight is essential to positive thinking and your well being. Light increases the production of serotonin as we all know is very necessary. Also every time I design spaces I think about the light firstly, especially daylight and blackout. I always look for ways to maximize the light you have: skylights, enlarged windows, roof windows, bouncing light from one room to another, transparent or translucent glass walls to bring light into all the diverse rooms of the home, using mirrors, etc." "For this new Kondo for HAP New York, I want to create a building that uses light and color to provide the luxury of well being to its inhabitants.” ‘PLEASANT KONDO’ "329 Pleasant Avenue stands out as a strong play of light, color and modular geometry. It is important to me that the result of my work, and my collaboration with a client, manifest into something that will connect with the user, and sustain relationships with the consumer. Beautifying the world, and creating well designed, provocative, stimulating yet calming products is the impetus for everything I embark on. Here, we used the balcony as a design feature to generate dynamic play and variety along the facade of the building. The colored glass railing gives character and playfulness to the facade while producing beautifully colored light that penetrates into the living space behind. Each unit receives this large, yet intimate space that extends the senses beyond the interior, making the apartment feel bigger and brighter than it actually is. Due to the dynamic shift of the geometric play along the facade, each balcony partition is formed at a skew from the floor below. By offsetting this connection of alternating connecting balconies above and to one side, we are left with strong angular “S” geometry that is further detailed with beautiful pattern work. This pattern allows light and shade to play through the form and converts the enclosure into a soft, permeable trellis. In the interior, we’ve maximized the use of open space by concentrating the programmatic infrastructure (Kitchens & Closets) into compressed areas that delimit space but do not obstruct it from natural light. This allows for light to travel deep into the space and keep the apartments bright and well lit. We also worked hard to ensure modularity. For example, all kitchen units are all identical throughout the building. The idea of modularity and the economy of the repetitive unit is exercised to the maximum through the building. Every unit gets its own piece of land and so our entry corridor provides a strong design for an open urban garden. Color is one of the most beautiful phenomena of our existence. Color is life and for me, color is a way of dealing with and touching our emotions, our psyche, and our spiritual being. Some colors are strong, some are soft, - what is important is the specific hue or tint or saturation of each color and how they work together. Color can be used well or poorly but no one should be afraid of color. It is spiritual euphoria." Karim