Sustainability Guided Every Decision at this Town House Remodel in Harlem

David Alan Basche and Alysia Reiner are actors that split their time between New York and Los Angeles, where they each work on films and television (he currently appears on The Exes, she has a recurring role as Fig on Orange Is the New Black). In 2005 the pair purchased a dilapidated, abandoned town house in Harlem, empty save for a lot of debris and a generous sprinkling of crack pipes. "We gutted it and did all the exterior repairs first for about six months, then the interior," David recalls. "Builder Nick Moons and architect Hannah Purdy were involved from day one, and they came up with the concept of dividing the space into two different long, rectangular halves on each floor—one side in slate, where we would walk, cook, and store things, and the other in bamboo, where we would sleep, work, and play. Anytime Alysia and I were not filming or on stage we were intimately involved with the renovation process."