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A wealthy couple drew the wrath of their Manhattan neighbors with an ambitious $ 100 million project to install a basement swimming pool in a fully renovated double brownstone.
The American-Haitian jazz singer Malou Beauvoir and her husband Pierre Bastid, 64 years old and of French descent, of French origin and of Moroccan origin who made a fortune in the field of l & # 39; 39, energy, form the couple that is currently renovating 48-50 West 69th Street, reported the New York Times. Friday.
Operating under the guise of the Erzuli company, which owns the two buildings that are combined to form a mega-brownstone, the couple has until now remained mysterious to the perplexed and furious neighbors, who were pushed to the end by chaos.
This is only one example among others of the ultra-wealthy New York elite that is succeeding its way, to the annoyance and inconvenience of all others.
The work crews demolished just a few inches of frontage and began pounding a huge crater in the Manhattan bedrock in the normally quiet residential street.
Malou Beauvoir, an American-Haitian jazz singer, and her husband Pierre Bastid, a 64-year-old French-born Moroccan, are renovating 48-50 West 69th Street.
Erzuli bought for the first time 48 W. 69th in 2011 for $ 11.5 million, and the following year the front company bought the next No. 50 for $ 13 million.
Since then, work crews have demolished a facade just inches away and started pounding a huge crater in the Manhattan bedrock to install a basement pool.
The project was to be completed in December, but lasted all winter, and may not be completed before the end of the summer.
At the same time, neighbors told the Times their suffering because of the constant construction noise.
"The noise" is not loud enough, "said Nick Jordan, a philosophy professor at Queens College, 80, who has been living on the street at number 51 since 1971." Hell and chaos, it would be better. "
I hope to survive this. I can not, he says.
The two original brown stones are visible in 2017. The No. 48 is covered with plywood and the No. 50 on its right, with the gray facade.
The plans filed with the city show the original façade (left), an initial renovation plan (center) and the new plan (right).
The initial (left) and modified (right) plans indicate the additional underground level added to the plans.
Cutaway plans show original 2014 plans (left) and revised plans (right) with home theater, pool and yoga room
Beauvoir, who describes herself as a mambo, or voodoo priestess, apologized for the excessive noise in a statement made to the Times through her construction official.
"Pierre and I deeply regret the inconvenience to the neighborhood, despite our efforts to limit it from the beginning," said Beauvoir. "Unfortunately, we have all experienced the unpleasant aspects of construction and the unpredictability of the process."
Yet, while the construction project has fallen behind, the couple of jetsetting has not been found, as their future neighbors are suffering.
"They should live here for a week and listen to the construction of their home," said 69th Street Block Association President Eileen Vazquez.
& # 39; I am like & # 39; Look, you have all this money and you can build the house of your dreams and it is fabulous, but you have not considered anyone else, "she said.
Vazquez has installed a decibel counter on her cell phone that she often consults.
Beauvoir, who describes herself as a mambo, or voodoo priestess, apologized for the excessive noise in a statement to the Times through the intermediary of her construction official.
Deborah Brown, retired editor of House and Garden and House Beautiful, who lives at number 42, is now carrying $ 400 Bose blockers around her apartment.
She also got a prescription tranquilizer, Trazodone, for her miniature poodle Dorian Gray, with instructions on the bottle: "An oral tablet up to three times a day as needed to calm down during construction."
Locals say the Duane Reade, located nearby, is perpetually sold with ear plugs.
Some neighbors told The Times that they had already been forced to move at great expense and distress.
Gabrielle Fink, a 36-year-old violinist, spent $ 5,000 traveling, citing frayed nerves and health problems from rock dust.
Tamar Gongadze, whose apartment on the third floor looks directly over the pit, also fled the area, unable to carry out its judicial work at home amid the din.
Neighbors mock the fact that their discomfort is the price of luxury of someone else.
The plans of the house show an underground theater and recording studio, a Jacuzzi and a sauna, "floating elliptical stairs" and a wall of sculptures depicting trees, animals and birds.
"It's not like they're building an orphanage," said Andrew Resnick, musical director of "The Cher Show," whose apartment overlooks the building.
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