I — Light
Every residence is metered room by room across one full day at equinox. Hours of direct sun are recorded to the minute and bound into the dossier. If the light disappoints, we decline the listing.
Novex is a brokerage of nine people in three cities. We list a few residences each year — only those we would keep ourselves. Before we accept a listing, we measure its light, its quiet, and the truth of its papers. What follows is the current portfolio, complete.
Residence I — Manhattan
The last hour over the Park.
A duplex at 969 Fifth Avenue, tenth and eleventh floors. Dusk, from the south terrace.
Twelve rooms in a 1927 limestone cooperative by Rosario Candela. The drawing room rises through both floors behind a Calacatta chimney breast; the stair is original, walnut on bronze. Forty-one feet of terrace run along the parapet, facing south over the treeline.
We metered the apartment at equinox. The drawing room holds direct sun from ten past two until the light goes; in the evening the west windows take it low, off the Park. The Empire State Building keeps the middle distance, lit.
The light calendar — 40.78° N
Evening light enters the drawing room from the west. In June the golden hour begins at 7:49 and the sun sets at 8:30; in December, 3:47 and 4:31. Each arc is one month of afternoons, drawn to the minute; the gold is the last hour.
The particulars
| Address | 969 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side |
|---|---|
| Floors | Tenth and eleventh |
| Rooms | Twelve |
| Bedrooms | Four |
| Baths | Four, one half |
| Interior | 4,860 sq ft |
| Terrace | 41 ft, along the parapet, south |
| Exposures | South, west, east |
| Evening room | Drawing room, west |
| Ask | $12,400,000 |
II
Six hours east, the same sun.
Residence II — Paris
Evening on the quai.
A pied-à-terre on the Quai de Béthune, Île Saint-Louis. Seven in the evening, the window open.
Five rooms on the third floor of a 1642 hôtel particulier, remade in the nineteenth century. Chevron oak, boiserie, a Louis XV chimney in Carrara. The salon’s three windows open over the plane trees to the Seine.
The light arrives late here and stays. Paris sits far north — in June the sun holds until three minutes to ten. It comes down the river from the west and crosses the salon ceiling, which is why the mirrors hang where they do.
The light calendar — 48.85° N
Evening light enters the salon from the west, along the river. In June the golden hour begins at 9:07 and the sun sets at 9:57; in December, 4:00 and 4:56. The step in the arcs is the clock changing, not the sun.
The particulars
| Address | Quai de Béthune, Paris IVe |
|---|---|
| Floor | Third |
| Rooms | Five |
| Bedrooms | Two |
| Baths | Two |
| Interior | 118 m² |
| Balcony | Wrought iron, six metres |
| Exposures | Southwest, over the Seine |
| Evening room | Salon, west |
| Ask | €4,150,000 |
III
South, over the mountains, to the water.
Residence III — Lake Como
The lake keeps the morning.
A villa on the water at Laglio. First light, the mist still on the lake.
Fourteen rooms behind a pale ochre facade, built in 1907 for a Milanese silk family and never divided. A vaulted loggia runs the water side of the house; the garden steps down to a private dock, where a 1962 Riva lies on her lines. She conveys.
The sun clears the eastern ridge just after eight and the mist is gone by nine. In the evening the loggia takes the last of it off the water, southwest — the hour the lake goes to copper and dinner is set outside.
The light calendar — 45.99° N
Evening light enters the loggia from the southwest, off the water. In June the golden hour begins at 8:31 and the sun sets at 9:17; in December, 3:50 and 4:40. The mountains take a few minutes more; the arithmetic is the sky’s.
The particulars
| Address | Via Regina, Laglio, Lago di Como |
|---|---|
| Built | 1907, one family since |
| Rooms | Fourteen |
| Bedrooms | Six |
| Baths | Five |
| Interior | 640 m² |
| Garden | 0.4 hectare, to the waterline |
| Dock | Private, with the Riva |
| Exposures | Southwest, over the lake |
| Ask | €18,500,000 |
The Novex standard
Three measurements, before we say yes.
II — Quiet
We measure twice: two in the morning on a Tuesday, six in the evening on a Friday. Windows shut, a residence must hold below 32 decibels. All three of ours do.
III — Provenance
Title, works and permissions traced to the first stone. Every intervention documented, every drawing archived. You buy what the paper says you buy.
Correspondence
Request a private viewing.
One question at a time, as a letter should be.
Or write directly: viewings@novexrealty.com