Real Estate

Worth a TriBeCa

Judy Kuhn

Judy Kuhn (photo by Elizabeth Lippman)

THE RIGHT NOTES: Longtime TriBeCa resident Judy Kuhn bought this 3,000-square-foot home in 1998 when it was just an empty space. She added three bedrooms, two bathrooms and more while keeping many of the grand original details.

THE RIGHT NOTES: Longtime TriBeCa resident Judy Kuhn bought this 3,000-square-foot home in 1998 when it was just an empty space. She added three bedrooms, two bathrooms and more while keeping many of the grand original details. (photo by Elizabeth Lippman)

Longtime TriBeCa resident Judy Kuhn bought this 3,000-square-foot home in 1998 when it was just an empty space. She added three bedrooms, two bathrooms and more while keeping many of the grand original details.

Longtime TriBeCa resident Judy Kuhn bought this 3,000-square-foot home in 1998 when it was just an empty space. She added three bedrooms, two bathrooms and more while keeping many of the grand original details.

When actor/singer Judy Kuhn and her screenwriter husband, David Schwab, said they were going to live in a loft in TriBeCa, their friends were shocked. This was the gritty TriBeCa of 1988.

“I thought it was so cool,” says Kuhn (who recently starred in an acclaimed off-Broadway run of Stephen Sondheim’s “Passion”). “But they said, ‘You’re moving where? Are there supermarkets down there? Subways?’ ”

Kuhn and Schwab found a loft they loved on Varick Street and hung in while the neighborhood grew around them and families, stores and other services arrived. But after settling into the neighborhood and seeing it change, there was a problem.“The loft was small and not really dividable into rooms,” Kuhn says. “By the time my daughter Anna was born, we started looking for new space.”

They searched for years. Then they had a bit of luck. “One Sunday morning in 1998, my husband went to the deli to get the paper, and he came home and said, ‘There’s an apartment right around the corner that’s for sale.’ ”

More good luck: The owner didn’t want to use a broker. There was a sign with a phone number on the fire escape. “I got out my binoculars to read the number,” Kuhn says. “We called and they said, ‘Can you come over now?’ My husband went over. When he came home he said, ‘It’s the best space I’ve ever seen.’ ”

In the TriBeCa of that era, most ground floors and second floors were zoned for commercial use. The floor where the space was located had been offices, “but the tenant moved out just as the zoning laws were changed,” Kuhn explains. “So the owners of the building decided to sell the entire floor. No one had ever lived here. It was a big, empty space.”

They paid under $1 million for the whole floor. And what a floor! It’s in an 1889 landmark cast-iron building. It measures 3,000 square feet, with an additional 15-by-20-foot terrace.

The main space is huge — about 1,500 square feet — with an open kitchen, a dining area, a TV area and the “bike parking lot.” (The family has several bicycles.) There are also three bedrooms (one used as Kuhn’s office), another small office and two bathrooms. “We had to do everything from the walls in, because it was just an empty space,” Kuhn says. “We closed in May [1998] — and had a big party in the empty space — and moved in in February.”

They carved out the open kitchen, built bookcases, added the bedrooms, bathrooms and little office, created a pantry covered with Crayola chalkboard paint and restored the floors by pulling up layers of industrial plywood and carpet.

But some things didn’t require any improvement. The ceilings are 13 feet high. There’s a fireplace stocked with wood (though it doesn’t work) and seven cast-iron columns. And there are 16 big windows and downtown views.

As for the couple’s style? There’s furniture from flea markets and secondhand stores, including a dining table made out of old barn boards.

The Steinway piano is one of their special treasures. It’s been in Kuhn’s family since her great-great aunt bought it in 1912. It’s made of lush tiger mahogany, and the keys are real ivory.

And one of their couches has stories to tell. “My father-in-law was a psychoanalyst, and this was his couch,” she says.

There’s also an antique Putnam rolling ladder for the bookshelves. “It’s the only thing that was in this place when we bought it,” she says.

They still have remnants from their now 18-year-old daughter’s childhood. Her tricycle and a classic red wagon are on display.

And then there’s the gift that Kuhn calls “one of the most beautiful things anyone has ever given me.” It’s an antique Guerlain perfume bottle from the original set of “She Loves Me.” When Kuhn went into the show at the Roundabout, Barbara Cook, who originated the role, sent it to her with a note explaining that she wanted Kuhn to have it

Kuhn was nominated for a Tony for that part — she’s been nominated for three Tonys, three Drama Desk Awards and one Drama League Award — and now she’s preparing for “Fun Home,” a new musical based on Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel, scheduled to open in October. Meanwhile, she has a CD, “All This Happiness,” that was released this week — she’ll appear at 54 Below on June 10 and 12 to perform songs from the album. And the cast recording of “Passion” will be released in July.

But more than anything else, “I love being home,” Kuhn says. I love cooking, I love being with my family and having friends over. To me, those are the pleasures of life. That’s what this loft means to me.”

Judy Kuhn’s

favorite things

*A page of music for “Passion” that Stephen Sondheim signed: “To Judy, with thanks and admiration”

*A wooden and rattan chair Kuhn’s grandfather made

*Kuhn’s daughter’s childhood tricycle and red wagon

*The garden

*An antique Guerlain perfume bottle from the original set of “She Loves Me”

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