featured this week on Brick Underground by Leah Hochbaum Rosner

The best thing about this $429,000 top-floor one-bedroom at 140 West 71st Street in Lincoln Square is that it’s south-facing, “so it’s going to get a lot of light,” says architect Anjie Cho. Also, she notes that the prewar building, the Danielle, allows owners to sublet their units without any residency requirements—a rarity for a co-op.

That said, the apartment definitely has a few issues, most notably “the weird wavy column on the wall in the living room,” says Cho, mentioning that she supposes it might be some sort of drain. “It could be hard to work with.”

Here’s what she’d do to deal with that peculiar pole, as well as the rest of this outdated Upper West Side residence that she calls “a major major fixer-upper.” Her recommendations:

The living room (pictured above)

The first thing Cho would do is make sure the electrical system is up-to-date. If it isn't, an overhaul is in order since “it could be quite old,” given that the building dates back to the 1920s. And if you are required to get it up to code, you’ll need a permit, which, she says, "could be costly.” But it’ll be worth the expense, removing the danger of the system shorting out when you want to plug in your hair dryer, for example, or worse. Safety is, after all, paramount.

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