18 PARK
You can’t beat a Los Angelino when it comes to positive attitude. That’s what you experience when you listen to Annie Steinhaus talk about her new home, where she lives with husband Adam and daughter Cameron.
“It’s an awesome, very new building with a beautiful lobby and great amenities,” Annie says. “It has a great gym, which I haven’t used yet. That’s my New Year’s resolution. It also has a cute playroom for our three-year-old daughter.”
I remember when the building was an empty lot, so I watched with curiosity as 18 Park’s luxury rentals started to take shape at the entrance to Liberty Harbor Marina.
It’s a great location, right at the Marin Boulevard light rail station and not far from Surf City, the ferry, Zeppelin Hall, the Brew Shot, Club Barks, Refresh Dry Cleaners, Liberty Mart, and the Tilted Kilt. In the retail space below is the Boys and Girls Club, a second Downtown Pharmacy, and on the corner, B 18 Coffee Kitchen.
Annie has a glitzy job working in advertising for Wired Magazine. Adam is in finance. They both commute to New York City. “We have easy access to the city by ferry or PATH,” Annie says.
They love the eatery options. “We’re taking advantage of the hot chefs and the good food, all the bars and restaurants on Grove Street. We go to a good new food place every night. We haven’t had one bad bite of food since we moved here.”
Their two-bedroom, two-bath on the ninth floor features contemporary décor with a color scheme of black, white, and red, and huge windows with stunning views of the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline. Nothing can prepare you for what you see when you walk into their apartment—unobstructed views from every window, looking way off to the Verrazano Bridge and to the east, the Freedom Tower. Victor and I were there in late afternoon and could just imagine what it looked like when it’s dark, and the harbor and the city are ablaze with light.
When Hurricane Sandy wiped out their ground-floor apartment in Hoboken, the family decided to head for the ’burbs because “that’s what we thought we were supposed to do,” Annie says. “We were so bored after three years, we wanted to get back to city living.”
“Nobody came to visit us in the ’burbs,” she says. “Now city friends hang out, and a lot of people are following us out here.”
“I couldn’t be more excited,” she says. “There’s so much to do here, like the many festivals. Jersey City has become a thriving metropolis. The city is constantly evolving.”
They’re really looking forward to this fall’s Jersey City Art & Studio Tour, so they can see local art and soak up the cultural scene. “We’re always open to looking at new artwork,” Annie says.
They also take Cameron to Liberty Science Center on Saturdays. She goes to school at Key Element on Grove and Morgan. Annie wants to meet other JC moms and become active in the community. “A whole new world has opened for our daughter,” Annie says.
If they decide to buy, they’ll definitely buy in Jersey City. But, Annie says, “This is my first home in Jersey City, and I’m obsessed with it.”
149 PACIFIC AVE.
Occasionally, you’ll come across a place in town that is just so Jersey City. That’s how I felt when I visited Stuart Metrick’s home in the Lafayette hood. It doesn’t look like much on the outside, and that’s the idea. It’s tucked into a derelict stretch of rundown warehouses and empty lots.
A 1930s-era brick box, it used to house the Lafayette Amvets Post 33, and that’s just what it looks like. The lot has a driveway, storage container, and a large backyard bounded by a corrugated steel fence.
This is not a house for sissies. Metrick, CEO of 1st Precinct Security by day, is a musician and artist who “loves old wood and old metal” and is a genius at transforming one utilitarian object into another. Example? A horseradish grater becomes a wall sconce. Of course. Why didn’t I think of that?
The house is jam-packed with his industrial artistry—innovative creations that don’t scream, “Here I am!” Rather, part of the fun is finding them, like a kid with a puzzle book, searching for the monkey in the jungle.
Metrick, a Jersey City native, and his late wife, Michelle, who was an interior designer, completely converted the space, while still letting you know that you’re in a former men’s club.
To the left of the back entrance is a walk-up kitchen with a huge industrial stove. You can just envision the old guys with pots of spaghetti sauce bubbling on the heavy burners. But Stuart has added his signature touches, like a wood vise that now doubles as a paper-towel holder.
He removed the commercial carpeting, the 1950s paneling and suspended acoustic tile ceiling, and painted the concrete floor. In the ceiling, which now has beautiful exposed beams, you can still see the duct that sucked cigar smoke out of the building.
A giant, and I mean giant, bookcase separates the living room from a smaller room, where Stuart and his son keep their instruments, for Sunday jams. On the walls are lots of banjos, which serve as art objects.
The handmade, cherry-wood bookcase is worth $40,000, but Stuart bought it up for $5,000, dismantled it, packed it in a truck, and put it back together. The shelves are loaded with things he and his wife collected, artworks, liquor bottles, and a huge collection of vinyl. Dylan, singing a “Hard Rain,” spins on the turntable.
From Maine, Stuart has a “chain” made from cork-lined bottle caps, not rubber, which is what they’re made from now.
A seasoned dumpster diver, Stuart salvaged an oak door that had probably been in the main branch of the Jersey City Public Library.
On the door to his bedroom is the handle from an old meat locker.
Stuart is the proprietor of Pacific Flea, a market that he runs from April through October in his yard. “Enthusiasm is building,” he says.
“My wife and I spent 40 years traveling in New England and New Hampshire,” Stuart says. “Treasure hunting is in my blood. I repurpose stuff.”
That might be the understatement of the century.—Kate Rounds