Construction Maison

If R.A. Long were to step inside the Monticello Hotel today , he would find it looking much like it did when he was busy founding the city of Longview in 1923. The historic hotel , the first major building to rise in the new town, is nearing the end of a multimillion- dollar renovation . It is packed with turn-of-the-century antiques and old paintings. The ceiling plasterwork of its Crystal Ballroom, long covered by a drop ceiling, is fully restored, and the arched ceiling is again flanked by plaster columns. Mr. Long would find plenty of new features, too: a red-hued “speakeasy” with burgundy wood bar , crystal chandeliers, a stage for performers and dozens of newly-renovated apartments in the second and third floors. Ten months after purchasing the iconic property for $2.8 million, the new owners are celebrating the complete remodel of the Crystal Ballroom and progress in other areas of the hotel’s renovation with a Prohibition- era themed party Friday night . The sold-out party is e...

More prosaically, co-living can simply mean roommates and common rooms, like a dorm. For some developers, it’s a form of adaptive reuse: many co-living sites, like WeLive at 110 Wall Street , are leased, in this case from the landlord of what once was an office building, drained of its tenants by Hurricane Sandy. Slide Show Adventures in Co-Living Credit Photographs by Andrew White for The New York Times There are still co-living evangelists, like Brad Hargreaves of Common, who has promised that “the genuine and organic relationships our members build with each other,” as he wrote in a post for Medium, would not be tainted by allowing journalists to sleep over at Common properties (though they were welcome to tour). With over $23 million in financing, Common now operates in five cities, including out of eight houses in New York City. Some co-living ventures have collapsed under the weight of their ideals, like the utopian Pure House , started by Ryan Fix, now 42, in his Williamsburg l...