Camila Crazut, Formerly of Spivak Architects | Central Park West in New York City | Who's Afraid of the Cooperative
Courtesy of Spivak Architects
Who’s Afraid of the Cooperative
Today I sit down with Camila Crazut, former architect and interior designer for Spivak Architects. Camila and I discuss her Central Park West project located in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, the benefits and challenges of projects in a cooperative structure, and the good & bad of client and designer relationships.
Located in an upper class residential area, the Central Park West building is a pre-war, 11 storey building in a family-oriented neighborhood. Camila goes into detail about how the scope of the renovation is centered around its relation to Central Park and how they incorporate millwork throughout the design.
This particular project is located inside of a cooperative structure, which brings its own challenges for architects and designers. Camila talks us through the challenges she faced when renovating in this space, as well as the benefits to working with family-owned vs. commercial residences.
Lastly, Camila discusses how a budget affects the outcome of a project and the importance of designers and clients working together to form a relationship of trust and respect in order to accomplish the goals of each project.
Tune in to this episode to learn more about cooperative structures and find out what qualities you should seek in your next designer.
“How do we create these cheerful displays without spending a ton of money on furniture or on high end light fixtures? So it was the way that we use the colors, it was the way that we use the graphics, all those nonprofits with jobs that I did, the designs that I did, we use a lot of graphics, that it was just painted a lot of color, but it was just paint, and then make this face more welcoming, more cheerful, as I said, and it’s fun to try to find those resources to be in budget and to achieve something beautiful. Sometimes we have these crazy ideas, and we realize, okay, no, this is too expensive, but maybe, maybe we can do it this way, and it’s less expensive, or with these materials, or with these finishes, and we’re gonna get a nice result and a good result without blowing the budget.”
Courtesy of Spivak Architects
About Camila Crazut
Camila Crazut is an architect and interior designer and the Director of Interior Design at Linear Scape, a New York City design firm. Previously, she was a Senior Interior Designer at Spivak Architects and an Interior Designer at McKinley Design and TPG Architecture. She is a graduate of the Pratt Institute and Universidad Central de Venezuela.
Episode Timestamps
2:26 – A brief overview of the cooperative: why it was created and why it remains
6:26 – You did your training in architecture in Venezuela and your training in interior design in the United States. What were the differences in how you were taught in those two places?
8:03 – Many of our listeners are actually from outside New York City and we want to give them a perspective of Manhattan. Could you talk to us about the Upper West Side, the neighborhood where this project is located, and the building itself?
9:34 – Could you walk us through the scope of the apartment renovation?
11:28 – Are your past projects one of the most common ways that your firm gets new projects?
14:58 – Looking back, what would you say are some of the biggest challenges you faced in the design process and then executing that design?
18:05 – What do you think makes a good client?
25:35 – How can you tell the difference between a good client and a bad client?
27:16 – I'm curious, I want to hear what you think about low end projects and can those projects also be interesting? Are those clients interesting too?
Additional Resources
Connect with Camila Crazut:
LinkedIn (Camila Crazut)
LinkedIn (Spivak Architects)
Spivak Architects
Courtesy of Spivak Architects
About your host:
Atif Qadir is the Founder & CEO of Commonplace, a technology company making it easy for commercial real estate professionals to find and use the $100B of real estate incentives given out every year in the US.
His work has been covered by Technology Review, The Real Deal, Commercial Observer, and Propmodo. He’s also a frequent speaker on the future of buildings and cities on popular industry podcasts and at conferences, including this past year at the Commercial Observer National DEI Conference, Yale AREA Conference, Columbia Real Estate Symposium, Open Data Week NYC and Austin Design Week.
About Commonplace
Commonplace is a founding sponsor of American Building. It is a 100% minority-owned, real estate technology company founded in 2020 to make financing social impact development projects across the US easier. It is funded by venture capital investors Hometeam Ventures, Park West Asset Management, New York Ventures and Shadow Ventures.
About Michael Graves
The world-famous design firm Michael Graves is also a founding sponsor of American Building. Its namesake, the iconoclastic designer Michael Graves, FAIA was a fierce advocate for people-centric design. His work defines a generation of American architecture and includes the Portland Building, the Humana Building and the Denver Public Library. The 1st season of American Building was filmed live at The Warehouse, his historic home in Princeton, New Jersey:
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