NY Post Celebrates Westbeth’s 50th Anniversary

Karen Santry in her Westbeth studio. Photo: Stephen Yang

Manhattan’s one-of-a-kind artists’ sanctuary thrives on low rents and lofty ideals
By Zoe Rosenberg May 14, 2020 |New York Post

“In a city as squeezed for affordable living space as New York, Westbeth Artists Housing is practically utopic.

The rent-stabilized complex in the West Village, a Bell Laboratories facility turned into hundreds of apartments, celebrates its 50th birthday this month.

Many of the community’s original tenants remain, and with rents for a live-work studio in the building maxing at about $1,200 per month — $1,900 less than the median rent for a studio in the neighborhood, according to StreetEasy — who could blame them?

But residents of Westbeth have found more than cut-rate rents among the 383 lofts designed by a young Richard Meier. Their Hudson River-facing community is a stronghold of creative output and unyielding spirit in a neighborhood that’s now at odds, at least financially, with the reality of being a working artist in New York.”

Read entire article HERE

The article features photos (including some of apartments) and interviews with artists Karen Santry, Pele Bauch, Roger Braimon, and Jack Dowling, and Ellen Salpeter, with mentions and links to Louna Vargas-Decker live streamed concerts and Gayle Kirschenbaum’s photo exhibition.