Writing studio

Description

This spacious South Hill apartment sits inside an unassuming converted three-story barn that blossoms, once inside, into something like a writing studio, art gallery, and tree house all at once. It is the most spectacular home I have lived in: quiet, bright, clean, warm, and peaceful, with a soaring cathedral ceiling, an open loft, a dozen windows, and views filled with trees, sunrises, and sunsets. The apartment has the feeling of a private retreat while remaining wonderfully close to downtown Ithaca, trails, Ithaca College, and Cornell. The heart of the apartment is the large open living-dining-kitchen space, lined with windows and opening onto a small balcony. The light changes beautifully throughout the day, and the space is filled with books, art, and design objects I make, collect, and exhibit. It feels less like a conventional rental and more like a lived-in creative environment: a tree-house gallery for reading, writing, thinking, cooking, gathering, resting, and looking out at the trees. The master bedroom is an open loft overlooking the main space. I write upstairs at a desk in the loft, looking down into the living area and out through the wall of windows. It is a generous, airy, reflective place to sleep and work, especially for someone who wants a home that supports writing, study, design, or creative focus. Off the main space are two additional bedrooms, which straddle a full bathroom with a tub and bidet. The large second bedroom includes a desk and a large wall that can serve beautifully as a design wall, planning wall, bulletin board, research board, or project surface. It would work well as a second bedroom, guest room, office, studio, or focused workroom. The smaller cathedral bedroom is a studio-gym gem: compact but special, with its own sense of vertical space and retreat. It includes a writing desk, a flip sofa bed, an exercise machine, and images that can serve as meditation mandalas, helping transport one’s mindbody into a calmer, more reflective state. It could be used as a guest room, workout room, meditation room, small studio, or hybrid creative-health space. Near the ground-floor entrance are a laundry room and a second full bathroom, making the apartment practical as well as beautiful. The layout offers both openness and separation: an expansive shared central space, a lofted master bedroom, two flexible side rooms, two full bathrooms, laundry, and multiple zones for working, resting, exercising, reading, or creating. The location on South Hill is one of the apartment’s great pleasures. It is a 7-minute walk downhill to the Ithaca Commons, with restaurants, cafés, shops, music, events, and downtown life. In the other direction, it is about 3 minutes up Hudson Street to the South Hill Recreation Trail, a lovely route for walking, running, biking, and clearing the mind. It is about 12 minutes up Giles Street to the Six Mile Creek Wildflower Preserve, with some of Ithaca’s most beautiful nearby woods and water. Ithaca College is about 15 minutes up Hudson Street, and Cornell is about a 40-minute walk across the gorge bridge and up East Hill. The apartment would be especially good for a writer, artist, designer, scholar, professor, graduate student, visiting academic, consultant, or anyone seeking a peaceful, inspiring Ithaca base. It is close enough to downtown to feel connected, close enough to trails and preserves to feel restorative, and high enough on South Hill to feel lifted above the daily noise. It offers a rare combination: quiet retreat, creative workspace, natural light, architectural character, and walkable access to town, campus, and nature. A car may also be available to rent, potentially with campus parking access.