Is this the smallest apartment in America? $800 a month 'shoebox studio' in Manhattan is just 78 square foot
By PAUL BENTLEY
Last updated at 9:01 PM on 5th August 2011
If you find your apartment a bit claustrophobic at times, spare a thought for this young New Yorker.
Architect Luke Clark Tyler designs grand houses for clients from his tiny 78 square foot shoebox apartment.
There is no space for a kitchen, or bathroom, and he had to build a bed from scratch because it is too narrow to fit full-sized ones inside.
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Tiny: Mr Tyler works from home, even though the apartment is so small
The smallest? Mr Tyler's place is perhaps the tiniest apartment in America
Handy: Mr Tyler likes having such a small place - so he can rest his feet on the walls
The bed doubles as a sofa - and as a storage unit for clothes and odds and ends.
With no kitchen, a microwave is hidden away with his shoes and a fridge is built into the desk at which he spends most of the day working.
He keeps toiletries in his closet and shares a bathroom with three other apartments.
Set in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen, the location couldn't be better, which might explain why Mr Tyler spends so much on so little space.
Proud: Mr Tyler shows off his closet/ toiletry cabinet/shoe rack/kitchen cuopboard
Crammed: The microwave sits next to the sneakers, beneath a printer, which is next to the cutlery and below his clothes
His rent is $800 a month, which is cheap for the area but extortionate considering the cost per square footage ratio.
The average rental price per square foot in a studio is $72 but Mr Tyler is paying almost twice as much at $123.07.
Mr Tyler, who downsized from a 96 square foot apartment, remains upbeat, seeing the apartment as conveniently snug, rather than constricting.
Clever: The self-made sofa doubles as a bed to save space
Ingenious: The sofa, which doubles as a bed, triples as a storage unit!
Inconvenient: If Mr Tyler want running water, he has to use the bathroom he shares
Location: The apartment is set in the heart of Hell's Kitchen in Manhattan
'I just use it as an excuse not to buy an Ottoman because... I can just prop my feet right up on the wall,' he said.
Mr Tyler, 27, keeps books, cutlery, plates, cleaning products, spices, a microwave, sneakers, clothes and his toothbrush in one small cupboard.
Despite the limited supply of space, he still has a 'man drawer'.
'Having lived in both the largest shelter in the South East as well as the largest slum in East Africa, I don’t think living small is a challenge,' he said.
'So we can call it anything; a room, a hallway, a live-in-closet, but to me it’s just home.'
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Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2022915/Is-smallest-apartment-America--800-month-shoebox-studio-Manhattan-just-78-sq-ft.html#ixzz1UDKxjnOn
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