{"id":810604,"date":"2026-05-20T20:15:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T20:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/810604\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T20:15:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T20:15:26","slug":"roxanne-lowits-i-m-pei-kips-bay-penthouse-is-for-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/810604\/","title":{"rendered":"Roxanne Lowit\u2019s I.M. Pei Kips Bay Penthouse Is for Sale"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n Lowit loved the view from the apartment, which looks out on the U.N. and the East River.
\n Photo: DD Reps\n <\/p>\n

The fashion photographer Roxanne Lowit raised her daughter, Vanessa Contessa Salle, in a West Village artist-in-residence loft<\/a> where she had wrangled a $500-per-month 20-year lease. By 2000, the deal had expired and the owners wanted $10,000 a month. It was time to move on. She rented a place near the Javits Center but knew it was always going to be temporary. Lowit had by that point gained renown and better paychecks for her<\/a> intimate backstage candids of models and designers \u2014 an unguarded moment<\/a> with Kate Moss done up for the runway, Jean-Michel Basquiat sitting stone still<\/a> with his cigarette at the Palladium. She could buy something. It took more than a year of looking before she found the top-floor apartment in I.M. Pei\u2019s Kips Bay Towers, Salle tells me, but her mother knew it was right almost immediately. The spread of windows looking out onto the Manhattan skyline toward the East River brought in the perfect light \u2014 of course a photographer would fall in love. \u201cShe walked in, saw the view, and was like, This is the place,\u201d Salle says.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Lowit at the launch of her book Yves Saint Laurent in 1994.
\n Photo: John Lamparski\/Getty Images\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The mirrored cabinets allows the view to be seen from any angle in the apartment.
\n Photo: DD Reps\n <\/p>\n

Price: <\/strong>$1.55 million<\/p>\n

Specs: <\/strong>Two-bedroom, two-bath<\/p>\n

Extras: <\/strong>Building has private gardens, playground, and gym<\/p>\n

Ten-minute walking radius: <\/strong>AMC Kips Bay, Trader Joe\u2019s, Pio Pio<\/p>\n

Listed by: <\/strong>Marta Maletz and Carl Gambino, Compass<\/a><\/p>\n

Lowit bought the two-bedroom penthouse in the Brutalist tower<\/a> for just under $1 million in 2006 and spent the next 16 years, until her death in 2022<\/a>, between the apartment and a home upstate. She never tired of the view. \u201cWhether it was snowing, whether it was raining, whether it was sunrise, whether it was sunset, or it was nighttime and the light was sparkling,\u201d says Salle. In fact, before Lowit and her lifelong partner, John Granito, a handy MacGyver type, moved in, the pair renovated to maximize the windows. There were already a few mirrored panels on the walls near the windows, and Granito installed more all around the apartment. He also pulled back a wall to open up the living room space to more windows. The result is a sort of dizzying refraction of light and view in all directions.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Lowit in her apartment.
\n Photo: Courtesy of Vanessa Contessa Sall\u00e9\n <\/p>\n

Lowit used the apartment as a workspace, at one point renting a next-door studio apartment to use as an office. Salle, who worked for her mother at the time, recalled a bustling scene of employees, fellow artists, and agents: \u201cShe would always have her meetings at the apartment, anytime she had to entertain a potential client or anything like that. If we had castings for models, we would do it in the apartment.\u201d The floor-to-ceiling mirrored cabinets in the living room stored Lowit\u2019s archives, with more overflowing into her bedroom. \u201cShe had her closet area and then there was just \u2026 more prints,\u201d Salle remembers.<\/p>\n

Lowit loved to entertain, and Salle recalls a rotating cast of visitors, from Fran Drescher to Dianne Brill to an Italian prince, often enjoying takeout.\u00a0(\u201cShe wasn\u2019t a cook, as you might guess from the size of the refrigerator,\u201d Salle tells me with a laugh.) Lowit, through sheer force of personality and will, had brought a downtown mood to East 33rd Street. Even the opened-up living room made it feel more like an artist\u2019s loft. \u201cShe was really able to fulfill her dream,\u201d Salle says, \u201cof finding another spot that felt like home.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Lowit didn\u2019t cook, but the kitchen is still well appointed.
\n Photo: DD Reps\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The closets were overflowing with her archives.
\n Photo: DD Reps\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Lowit\u2019s coveted view.
\n Photo: DD Reps\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Granito redid all of the floors in the apartment before the couple moved in.
\n Photo: DD Reps\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The listing is on the top floor of I.M. Pei\u2019s Brutalist Kips Bay Towers.
\n Photo: DD Reps\n <\/p>\n

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