O2 - Issue 2 - (Page 58)

[SNAPSHOTS] MEET THE NEIGHBORS There are hundreds of stories in Riverhouse. These are four of them. By Jen Renzi KARA AND FABIO DA SILVA SHORTLY AFTER RETURNING FROM A SIX-WEEK TRIP TO SÃO PAOLO, KARA AND Fabio Da Silva will settle into Riverhouse with their infant son Joaquin and pup Bianca. Besides the view of the Irish Hunger Memorial, the couple favors the blissfully short commute from their new home. Fabio will be just across the street from his World Financial Center office, where he works for Merrill Lynch. Meanwhile, Kara’s HQ is the couple’s three-bedroom apartment, from which she’ll be juggling new motherhood with a startup importing Brazilian fashion labels. The parenthood-induced desire for increased square footage and outdoor space motivated the Da Silvas’ relocation. “We love South Street Seaport, where we live now, but it doesn’t have much greenery,” Kara explains. The couple caught wind of Riverhouse and promptly fell for everything from the building’s environmental stance to the stellar reputation of nearby public schools. “It’s perfect for where our life is right now,” she adds. “We love the indoor playground and pool, as well as the access to the lawns and courtyards. Battery Park City is like a fabulous suburb within the city; you feel like you can escape from the craziness, and still get pretty much everything you need.” Including, perhaps, a spouse: Kara and Fabio actually met in the neighborhood, at a church near the Staten Island ferry terminal. “It’s much better to tell your parents that you met a great guy at church than to say, ‘I found him in a bar!’” It sounds like the in-laws approved. “We have grandparents visiting all the time, so that extra bedroom is huge,” Kara says. “When they come, they stay for, like, three weeks.” BALDEV DUGGAL IMAGE IS EVERYTHING FOR BALDEV DUGGAL. HIS RENOWNED GRAPHICservices company, Duggal, outputs arresting large-scale images for clients ranging from fashion houses to bus-shelter advertisers. “Since photographs can be completely manipulated, this business is no longer about content,” he says. “It’s presentation that sets you apart.” Although Duggal’s days are spent on surface matters like ink quality and color balance, his home life is all about decompressing, eating well, and relaxing with loved ones. Similarly substantive concerns inspired his pending relocation from Turtle Bay to Riverhouse: “Moving was a lifestyle decision. I work long hours and go home late, and I wasn’t very excited about First Avenue and 48th Street at 10 o’clock on a weeknight. In Battery Park City, there’s so much going on—and there’s always a fresh breeze. It’s the best of both worlds.” “I did a double-take when I saw the building,” Duggal says of first happening across Riverhouse. “It was the only one that had a curve— everything else is so boxy.” He called the sales office for a hard-hat tour and was smitten: “It was the only place I looked at.” The impulse, of course, was well-informed. Duggal took a shine to the kitchens’ high-tech ventilation (“I cook lots of Indian”) and the allaround lofty proportions: “[My] 1720s Edwardian bed is over 9 feet tall, so the 10-foot ceilings were critical,” he laughs. But the elegant, Earthfriendly design was perhaps the main draw for the entrepreneur, who recently launched a green division of his own. “David Rockwell did an amazing job. The design is a visual treat yet functional. And it helps save the environment, which is a beautiful thing.” PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREW KIST 58 [ O2GREENMAGAZINE.COM ] http://O2GREENMAGAZINE.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of O2 - Issue 2

O2 - Issue 2 Contents Letter Freshpicks Itinerary The Hunt Flight O2 Outer Beauty Fuel 4 Thought Health Tech One to Watch Great Outdoors Features Future Focus Musings

O2 - Issue 2

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.