The New York Times-20080124-Filling the Void of a Vanished Window With Plants and Assorted Scenery

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Filling the Void of a Vanished Window With Plants and Assorted Scenery

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WITH so much condo construction in big cities in the last few years, some people are losing the light they had grown accustomed to.

David Kulick, a landscape designer, and his partner, Michael Salitan, an ear, nose and throat surgeon, were living in a large loft on Mercer Street in SoHo whose four north-facing windows offered views of street life and a glimpse of the Chrysler Building.

Three years ago those windows were bricked up during the construction of a new building next door. In a single day the windows were gone, their views vanishing brick by brick.

It was like Edgar Allan Poe's 'Black Cat,' said Mr. Kulick.

What had been windows had become four brick recesses, three in the living room, one in the bathroom, each measuring 5 1/2 feet high by 4 feet wide and 12 inches deep. Although the apartment still had views south and west, the occupants missed the look of the windows.

Mr. Kulick transformed the recesses into display boxes with glass shelves, to hold orchids, ferns and photographs. He put lighting fixtures at the tops, left, for illumination and plant growth. The plants are Mr. Kulick's, and the photographs are Dr. Salitan's.

Mr. Kulick chose compact fluorescent bulbs for each box, because, he said, they don't generate a lot of heat, and they simulate daylight for plants. In each box, he installed two Agrosun 125 watt compact fluorescent bulbs ($60 each) in a Hydrofarm Compact Fluorescent Grow Light fixture ($100).

The bulbs last more than a year, burning 15 hours a day, Mr. Kulick said. An electrician hard-wired the fixtures to a timer, which is set so that the lights keep the same schedule as the loft's occupants, blinking awake at 8 a.m. and out at 11 p.m.

[Illustration]PHOTO (PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVID KULICK)