08-07-2025
Lorna Simpson's Brooklyn Art Studio Is On the Market
When Lorna Simpson couldn't find the right spot for her Brooklyn art studio, she did what many artists in New York City often can only dream of doing: She had one built from the ground up.
Ms. Simpson, renowned for her photographs and multimedia work, and her then-husband, the artist James Casebere, commissioned the British architect David Adjaye to design a building at 208 Vanderbilt Avenue in the Fort Greene neighborhood where a one-story garage previously stood. (It was one of Mr. Adjaye's first projects in the United States.)
'I could not find something that I liked that felt spacious and that did not feel like a tight traditional townhouse domestic space with limited free-wall space,' Ms. Simpson said in an email.
The four-story, 22-foot-wide structure, which Mr. Adjaye called 'Pitch Black,' is clad in polypropylene panels on the front and side facades, while the back portion is mostly glass. Ms. Simpson created many of her works there, but today the building, which was completed in 2006, is mainly used for archiving and storage, as well as entertaining and hosting guests. Several years ago, Ms. Simpson moved her primary studio to a larger, leased commercial space nearby.
Now she's putting the Vanderbilt Avenue building on the market with an asking price of $6.5 million, according to the broker, Leslie Marshall of the Corcoran Group, who is listing it with her colleague Nick Hovsepian. Annual property taxes are $12,161.
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