Gallery banking on new midtown home.For 25 years, Portraits, Inc. was located at 985 Park Avenue. When the building was sold for redevelopment last year, Marian MacKinney, president of Portraits, feared that the gallery would not be able to find another suitable location. The traditional Upper East Side townhouse town·house or town house n. 1. A residence in a city. 2. A row house, especially a fashionable one. location seemed to be the perfect setting for Portraits, the country's most respected portrait gallery that has been creating museum-quality commissions for presidents, governors, senators, religious leaders and their families since 1942. She hired a team from Grubb & Ellis New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , Inc., including Vin Carrega, Daniel Conway and Robert Yaffato to search for a new location. After nearly a year, the team came up with a creative alternative: the Banco Popular Building at 7 West 51st Street. In 2002, Daniel Conway had led the conversion of 7 West 51st Street from the Banco Popular New York Headquarters into a boutique office building. He felt that the special mix of qualities offered by the competitively priced, newly renovated, smaller building would trump the fact that what he was showing Portraits was the third floor of a Midtown mid·town n. A central portion of a city, between uptown and downtown. midtown Noun US & Canad the centre of a town office building; not a tradition ground floor Madison Avenue Madison Avenue, celebrated street of Manhattan, borough of New York City. It runs from Madison Square (23d St.) to the Madison Bridge over the Harlem River (138th St.). In the 1940s and 50s, some of the major U.S. gallery. Architect Doug Muir overcame the traditional office setting by designing a sophisticated townhouse look filled with English antiques and comfortable armchairs. Although a large retail sign was not an option for at 7 West 51st Street, an oil painting of Banco Popular's founder is being commissioned to hang in the building lobby. Ms. MacKinney reflected, "We had felt that our Park Avenue address was ideal, but Daniel helped us change our mindset mind·set or mind-set n. 1. A fixed mental attitude or disposition that predetermines a person's responses to and interpretations of situations. 2. An inclination or a habit. . Now we are perceived to be thinking outside of the box. All our clients love the accessibility of midtown; particularly those coming from Wall Street. And, being off the street has given us the opportunity to modernize mod·ern·ize v. mo·dern·ized, mo·dern·iz·ing, mo·dern·iz·es v.tr. To make modern in appearance, style, or character; update. v.intr. To accept or adopt modern ways, ideas, or style. and rethink re·think tr. & intr.v. re·thought , re·think·ing, re·thinks To reconsider (something) or to involve oneself in reconsideration. re our business model." |
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