Friday, April 8, 2011 Bond Street: Old world character meets new urban thrills on city's hottest street BY JASON SHEFTELL Two blocks long from Broadway to the Bowery, cobblestone Bond St. has blossomed into the top street to live, visit, eat, shop and just amble in all of New York City. Will Smith, Ricky Martin, Liev Schreiber and artist Chuck Close call it home. So do Lobel Modern furniture gallery, model agency One Management, an art bookstore, a women s shoe store, fashion stores Rogan and Daryl K., an upscale nail salon, a scrap metal distributor, a plumbing supply company, and three avant-garde theater groups. Bond St. has a perfume and chocolate company named after it. Many stores use its name, including the street s newest retail resident, the message-oriented downtown T-shirt company E.Vil, which calls its retail component 666 Bond. A couple who had their first date on the street even named their first child after it, with son Graydon having the middle name Bond. But what s best about this street are the architecture and eateries. More than any other New York thoroughfare, there is more to gawk at, admire, drink and eat across the street from each other than anywhere else around. Unlike SoHo s Spring St., it s never that crowded. Unlike Bedford Ave. or North Sixth St., there are few hipsters. Hotelier Ian Schrager s 40 Bond condominium, by architect Herzog and de Meuron, still anchors the street, pulling in design-loving tourists and amateur photographers drawn to its green-glass mullions and graffiti gate, and thin gold double-height entryway. Even in moonlight, the building shines like silver. Two-bedroom apartments here can go for more than $4 million. There is more to Bond than number 40. Across the street, 25 Bond is an edifice of stone squares that some say reminds them of how a loft building would have looked in ancient Greece. Down a bit, 48 Bond, by architect Deborah Berke, is a flat stone surface with windows angled out. A newcomer, 41 Bond, now covered in scaffolding, has a bluestone façade to echo the street s past and a back-of-house where each full-floor apartment gets a 50-foot wall of glass.
Real estate values on the street continue to skyrocket. Three days ago, a four-bedroom at 50 Bond went on the market for $8.5 million. A $15 million-plus 6,441-square-foot penthouse just went into contract at 48 Bond. At 50 Bond, a 2,000-square-foot classic loft is on the market for $2.495 million. For as long as I can remember, this street has always attracted creative types and artists, says Corcoran broker Larry Carty, who specializes in selling high- design, unique downtown apartments. The Smile 26 Bond St., thesmilenyc.com Restaurants really got this street going. Il Buco and Bond St. made this street a nighttime destination spot that attracted the arty money types. NoHo Star brought them in for brunch. People were living on Broadway then, but after the first developer came in at 57 Bond, it was only a matter of time before the street exploded into the residential success it is now. Here s a look at the people, places and buildings that make this little street a cultural, culinary and architectural giant. In an underground basement at 26 Bond, The Smile, a cafe/restaurant, might be the unspoken conscience of the street in its latest form. Owned by Carlos Quirarte and Matt Kliegman, it s humble, easy, affordable, slightly hidden, engaging and unpretentious. A great equalizer where no one looks or acts famous, the Smile s design is as stripped-down as its attitude. With raw brick, iron and concrete, most from the early 1800s building, the decor at the Smile is conducive to breakfast, lunch and dinner. Toothpaste, pillows and sunglasses are for sale, making the place as much urban general store as low-key hot spot. We just wanted to make it a place where our friends would hang out, says Quirarte, who can be found with Kliegman at one of the Smile s wooden tables almost every day. Since starting The Smile, the partners opened the ballroom at the Jane Hotel on Jane St. and will soon open The Westway, a nightspot on Clarkson off West St., in a former topless bar. Just like here, there is something about leaving parts of old New York as it is, says Kliegman. People should look up more, especially on Bond St. There is less grit here than on Bleecker or Great Jones, but the architecture has examples of almost every different New York period in the last few hundred years. Fashionable brands E.Vil is the latest brand to find the street. Located at 666 Broadway with an entry on Bond, the T-shirt and fashion brand uses sequins and sayings created by Aimee David, the company s founder, to decorate the colorful designs. Selling worldwide through a strong Internet mail-
distribution setup, E.Vil adds some heart and soul and rock n roll to Bond St. Changing window installations and T-shirt sayings (one proclaims, I want to be sedated, from the Ramones classic) give the white-walled store a sense of humor and rebellion. These phrases are about empowerment and meant to start conversation, says David, whose nickname, Queen of E.Vil, is comic when compared to her happy-go-lightly self. The goal of the brand is to bring people together, and this location will help that. Bond St. is a perfect place to build a brand. Other brands have done it successfully. The perfume company Bond St. No. 9 has three stores, with the flagship at 9 Bond St. Its specialty is manufacturing female, male and unisex scents inspired by NYC neighborhoods. It s sold all over the world, making Bond St. a worldrenowned brand. Architecture and celebrities What comes first, the A-list names or the A-class buildings? In this case, it was the names. Artist Chuck Close has had a painter s studio on the street for decades. His new home at 48 Bond is down the street from his old lair. Actor and native New Yorker Liev Schreiber has lived in a Bond loft for more than 15 years. Recently, Will Smith rented a home on the street. Night and day, paparazzi race around with lenses out. The doormen are trained to deal with gawkers and trespassers. At 25 Bond, they ask you kindly to leave before getting stern. Still, it s the streetscape that creates magic. I love the rhythm of the old buildings, says 48 Bond architect Deborah Berke. I used that to take advantage of the fabulous Southern light and do a modern riff on a classic loft building with big, uniform windows and a strong facade. We wanted it to have integrity. 41 Bond Developers aren t surprised at the residential explosion. DDG Partners will unveil the street s latest architectural gem at 41 Bond. Scaffolding is scheduled to come off the bluestone façade in mid-to-late May. Full-floor lofts marketed by Corcoran Sunshine will have 50 feet of floor-toceiling windows fronting the living rooms, some of which slide open. The architecture on the street, modern and traditional, influenced the project s design. The entire street is that rare combination of old and new New York, says DDG principal Joe McMillan. Over the years, almost every type of architecture was built here. We wanted to continue that tradition of great design. With the bluestone, we kept the front façade in line with the old structures. The back is all glass, and as modern as you can get. Baby Bond Graydon Bond Wolfe was born last month, on March 8. His parents. Scott and Alexis, met on a blind date at Bond St. Scott chose the restaurant because it was his favorite sushi spot in New York City. The date went well, and Scott calls their connection the Bond formed between us on Bond St. They go back often, and of course every year on their anniversary. When they found out they were having a boy, they considered many names but none stuck. Then one day walking around the city, it hit him.
Like a brick hitting my head, it came to me, and I said to Alexis, what about Graydon Bond Wolfe? says Scott. At first, Alexis looked at me like I was a tad nuts, as I knew she was associating the name with James Bond. I told her, hear me out. I then told her that the first place we met and fell in love was Bond St. It was there that we secured the BOND that is still so strong today between us. She agreed. Their child s middle name became Bond. I love that Bond St. will always be a part of our life, says Alexis. It is quintessential New York, and while hopefully we will always live in the city, we know that wherever we end up, we will always have a piece of the city with us. And that Graydon will always know the story and exact location of how and where his parents met. One Management 42 Bond St., onemanagement.com Scott Lipps, owner of this top modeling agency who reps Helena Christenson, Claudia Schiffer, Barr Rafael and Eva Hertzigova, knows how to spot neighborhoods as much as he does beauty. He moved to Bond St. from SoHo four years ago. It s important for us to be in cutting-edge neighborhoods, and SoHo was starting to feel crowded and old, says Lipps, who brands his clients as much as he promotes and books them. This street was a little raw, but that works. The girls like it. I can t have people say to me, Where are you? and act like we re not in the right neighborhood. In this business, image is everything and Bond St. is all about downtown esthetic. Now Lipps uses the Smile as his unofficial office, and his clients add a glamour and beauty to the street s daytime life that few venues in the world enjoy. It never hurts a street to have a modeling agency, he says, smiling. Bond St. 6 Bond St., Bondstreetrestaurant.com A downtown institution with a branch in Miami, Bond St. feels as if it s been on the street forever. Opened in 1998, the restaurant drew the downtown and uptown crowd, including socialites, celebrities, poets and musicians. Madonna ate there constantly. Lauren Hutton couldn t stay away. Co-owner Jonathan Morr says it was more about the food than the place, but the address helped. From day one, we wanted the place to be about amazing food, and that s why people come, says Morr, who lives nearby on Lafayette St. There wasn t much there when we opened but the street, and there really wasn t any reason to walk through it then. But it has a mystique. That s one reason I wanted the name of the street in our name. Everyone had heard of the street, but not many people had been there. The name worked, but the street and restaurant, according to Morr, are more than just a destination.
Ian Schrager s 40 Bond In the rundown of the city s slew of new residential buildings from renowned architects, this one wins hands down. Wider than it is tall with a slim entryway that feels like a pathway to the Wizard of a different Oz, the building is the high-flying flag for the street s international appeal. The faucets, doorknobs, graffiti gate and elevators covered wall to wall (and ceiling) in hardwood make it a must-own for anyone with taste. Day and night, people stop on the street to take photos of it. Architecture classes still hold lectures outside of it. It hasn t for one second seemed tired or out of place. Standing in front of it today, four years after it opened, it still feels like this building is a gift to New York. Bond No. 9, at multiple locations, NYC, was leased by Faith Hope Consolo and Joseph Aquino of Prudential Douglas Elliman's Retail Group.