The Manhattan Times

Four people, four floors, one home

by Daniel P. Bader

Not many people can say they moved to the neighborhood because of actress Marcia Gay Harden. But when Jon Paul Buchmeyer, an employee at magazine giant Conde Nast, mentioned to the actress that he was looking to buy a building, the star of “Mona Lisa Smile” and “Space Cowboys” insisted he use her Harlem brownstone as a base when looking for a place.

“We were looking at mainly Harlem,” Buchmeyer said. “It was way too expensive. Then I saw this place and said: ‘What is Washington Heights?’”

It was 2005, the height of the housing boom, but when Bunchmeyer saw the four-story W. 183rd Street brownstone, tucked in between Broadway and Wadsworth Avenue, he jumped at it.

He said his long-time friend and roommate Angela Landon and his partner Juan Pablo Chavez Salas – both of whom were buying into the building with him – were shocked.

“They were like: ‘you haven’t even looked at the place yet,” Buchmeyer recalled.

In total four people, all former Lower East Siders, share the four, one-bedroom apartments in the renovated brownstone.

Even though the two couples have separate spaces, the atmosphere is familial, and the doors are rarely closed.

Landon and her boyfriend Jim Pisano have converted the top two floors into their home, with Buchmeyer and Chavez Salas sharing the bottom two floors.

“This was the perfect set up for us, we didn’t want to deal with tenants,” Buchmeyer said.

“This was actually the basement,” Landon said, gesturing into Buchmeyer and Chavez Salas’ kitchen.

The prior owners had done a gut renovation, removing the stoop that had led to the original first floor, and made the gated basement entrance the front door. Where Buchmeyer was now chopping carrots for dinner in his kitchen used to be the oil boiler room before the building was converted to gas.

Off the kitchen and down the hall in the “railroad” style layout is the dining room that leads to a quaint back yard with a fireplace.

The second floor off the shared stairwell and above the kitchen is a study. To the rear of the building, above the dining room, is the couple’s bedroom.

On the third and fourth floors is the living space for Landon and Pisano, who both work at networking giant Cisco Systems.

“This gets great light during the day,” Landon said, gesturing out the front window, which includes a partial view of the George Washington Bridge.

Each floor has a bathroom. The one on the third floor was converted into a shared laundry room/kitchenette and, with the pull-out sofa bed, serves as a spare bedroom for Landon and Pisano. The fourth floor has a bedroom, bathroom with a skylight and another living area.

Since Landon and Pisano make customer calls all over the region, Washington Heights was strategically located, with easy access to New Jersey and Long Island by car plus relatively affordable parking.

Landon said the arrangement is an “informal” co-op. There is a shared bank account and she, as treasurer, pays the bills. Buchmeyer is the super. He deals with the city and the myriad codes the group must abide by as building owners.

For example, the brownstone is equipped with a sprinkler system and a fire escape. The city requires a building to have one or the other, but as Buchmeyer found out during a visit from the city, if you have both, each has to be up to code.

For the new building owners, that meant signage near the shut off valve, and a big red bucket – they’re not sure for what.

Pisano is sort of the representative of the group. He has attended community board meetings and police precinct meetings. Chavez Salas, a trained chef, is the house cook.

Because there is so much space, and each couple can retreat to its respective floors, the four residents don’t really get on each other’s nerves. Pisano said he has more room now than when he lived in an apartment on his own.

“I went from 350 square feet to 750 per floor,” he said.

They’re not stuck in the building either – each has options if the living arrangements stop working.

Landon said if either couple decided to leave or if one of them lost a job, they could easily use any of the floors as a rented apartment for extra income.

“There are just so many options,” Landon said.