Renovation at 190 Bowery is Underway [Photos]

190 Bowery has been quite the subject of conversation over the last few years, once rumors of renovation at the graffiti hotspot started. For decades it was owned by one person, photographer Jay Maisel, who rented it to artists like Roy Lichtenstein. Afterwards, it became a single-family house for Maisel and his family, the largest in New York City with 72 rooms.

With the sale of the building came an anti-gentrification street art piece created on the building, then an art show that opened up the building for the first time since 1966, and then much of the graffiti was buffed out on the facade. Renovation is underway and with the doors open, we took a peek inside the lobby of the former Germania Bank, a landmarked building.

The front entrance is significantly rehabilitated, with new wood on the doors, a new glass lunette window above the entryway, and the wrought iron gates have been cleaned up. The windows on the side facades look replaced or at least cleaned, with similar glass lunettes atop.

The interior is being worked on but currently looks pretty similar to what it did in the past:

Next, read more about the history of 190 Bowery.