The Real Deal New York

From the April issue: You might expect Karl Fischer, a Canadian architect who designs upscale residential buildings in trendy New York City neighborhoods such as Chelsea and Williamsburg, to live in an apartment decorated with designer furniture and fixtures. Think again. He lives in a small condominium complex on a quiet side street in Manhattan’s South Street Seaport neighborhood. Fashionably dressed, high-cheekboned residents drift in and out of the building on a weekday afternoon. But instead of a white-glove service lobby, the building’s entrance, next to a deli, is an anonymous glass door that opens onto a corridor leading to a courtyard with a Japanese-style rock garden with a stream of water running through it.