ModernSpaces In The Press

Boro Magazine - Living Feng Shui

January 05, 2012

Teaming up with developer Vantage Partners, Long Island City’s Modern Spaces hopes to use their latest residential venture to provide the neighborhood with a new sense of ethereal balance.
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The recently donned Vista Court, located at 4415 Purves street, will be built from the ground up adhering to the strict customs of China’s traditional feng shui principles.
To your typical New Yorker, such a system may seem a bit of an esoteric indulgence, but according to Modern Spaces’ Eric Benaim, feng shui has become increasingly important to would-be residents in recent years. “A lot of our clients over the last year and a half have been taking feng shui into account when looking for a place to live,” Benaim said. “Whether it’s that they want a south facing unit, or they don’t like the way a door opens to another door, we’ve learned a lot of this stuff over the last 18 months.”
Feng shui, which translates roughly to “windwater”, is a system of Chinese geomancy that is intended to help individuals achieve positive “qi”, also known as life-force and/or “energy”. The system takes into account both an individual’s physical location as well as a set of polarity rules intended to keep the traditional Yin and Yang model in proper balance. In order to iron out any potential kinks, Modern Spaces has hired a feng shui consultant to oversee the erection of the building from the ground up. As a result, amongst other features, the building will include a yoga studio, an all glass facade,
and a full-featured roof deck. Put all of this together and Benaim believes you’ve got a perfect confluence of the old and the new in terms of residential architecture. While feng shui itself is thousands of years old, he points out that Vista Court will provide LIC residents, be they yoga enthusiasts or your typical NYC busy-body, with a new, comparatively peaceful alternative to homogenous Manhattan luxury buildings.
“It’s a rather novel idea,” he said. “It’s a very serene way to live.”