For Peter Madden, taking the role of executive director of Westbeth, the storied artists housing community in the West Village, came from his appreciation for art as much as his housing industry experience.
Madden joins Westbeth with more than 20 years of experience in the housing industry. But when asked about what drew him to the only affordable housing complex devoted exclusively to artists, he cited one of his first jobs in New York City working at the Knitting Factory, a beloved indie music venue.
“Being in New York and being an artist can really be at odds with each other because of the cost of living here,” Madden said. “The core mission of Westbeth combines two things I feel very passionately about, which is keeping housing affordable, but also this affinity among all the residents, that they all are all artists, which provides a really amazing value to the city.”
The landmarked institution, which provides 383 affordable apartments for working artists, opened in 1970 after it was converted from a vacant Bell Laboratories building. Now it has become a sought-after institution among aging artists or those seeking to raise families.
With studio rents starting at under $1,000 and two- and three-bedrooms generally under $2,000, artists who get accepted into the building generally don’t leave until the end of their lives. Around 10 percent of the people who live here have lived here since 1970, in addition to a new generation of residents – many of whom are raising young families.
“You see lots of little kids around here now. At the same time, you see folks with walkers and who are older, but who are living independent lives and take the elevator down and walk to the grocery store,” he said.
In his new role, Madden will be responsible for overseeing major capital improvement projects that require special historical landmarks approval, as well as arts programming in their public spaces. He said that in the near future he’s planning to start the process of implementing some major fiscal upgrades to the complex, including replacing the roofs, façade and windows, some of which are a hundred years old.
This is where Madden’s housing expertise should come in handy. For years he worked in the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development and then at Joint Ownership Entity NYC, an organization that was created to build financial support for low-income rental housing managed by non-profit community development corporations.
In his brief stint as director, Madden said that he’s already been amazed by the sense of community and the creative output of the residents. On a recent Friday night, he stayed after work and went to a gallery opening, before walking 250 feet into the community room to go to a free concert.
“That really sort of drove home for me what a kind of unique special place this is,” he said.
At this risk of sounding cheesy, he said, it’s an honor to oversee the complex’s legacy. “It’s really exciting to be working on a major renovation to make sure that this continues to be an asset for the West Village and for the city at large for decades to come.”
