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Who Bought Walter De Maria’s East Village Studio?
Sarah Cascone
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Who has purchased Walter De Maria’s New York City studio at 421 East 6th Street ? The building and the adjacent lot, 419 East 6th Street, were for sale through Cushman and Wakefield, but the property’s listing on Street Easy says the property is no longer available.
Rumors were swirling that the Brant Foundation was behind the sale, but a PR rep for the organization denied that there was any truth to the story. According to the Real Deal and EV Grieve, the studio was on the market for $25 million.
The four-story, 16,400 square foot building was built in 1920 to serve as a Con Edison substation. Before De Maria bought the building and the empty lot next door in 1980, it was being used as a photography studio. The artist, who died last summer at age 77, converted the property into a live-work space.
De Maria is best known for The Lightning Field (1977), 400 stainless steel poles planted in a one-by-one-mile grid in the New Mexican desert. The famously isolated piece can only be visited by six guests per day, each of whom must stay overnight in an isolated cabin.
The New York Times offered a photo slide show of the studio when the property’s impending sale was first announced.
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