[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-535533351.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tArtist Robert Rauschenberg hosted lively parties in the late 1960s at his New York townhouse. Artists and engineers bunked in, the artist\u2019s turtle Rocky charmed visitors, and Rauschenberg created some key works in his studio there. That property may soon give way to luxury rentals and boutique condominiums.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThe five-story, 92,000-square-foot NoHo town house, which dates to the early 19th century, has been in the hands of the artist and his foundation since 1965. But development at an adjacent lot may threaten the building\u2019s integrity, so 381 Lafayette Street is on the market with New York real estate firm Newmark.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe property could be leased as-is to another user or converted to luxury rentals or boutique condominiums in one of the most desirable neighborhoods in Manhattan,\u201d says Newmark. The building is in the center of the lively New York University neighborhood, and just a few feet from the famed art\/architecture\/engieeering school the Cooper Union. It\u2019s also just a few blocks from Washington Square Park to the west and, to the south, the New Museum.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tA spokesperson for the foundation told Artnet News<\/em> that it is \u201cexploring a range of options\u201d in response to the coming redevelopment of an adjacent parking lot at 375 Lafayette, possible future home of a 19-story residential building designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. \u201cIf construction moves forward, the project will have a significant impact on the integrity, functionality, and day-to-day operations of our building,\u201d said the spokesperson. The foundation may move, said the spokesperson, but is also \u201cconducting a series of assessments to fully understand the scope and long-term implications of the proposed development.\u201d The property also includes over 25,000 square feet of air rights, says Newmark, providing the potential for more income in light of the adjacent development.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe house was built as a family home; a Stephens family were its first known owners, according to the foundation\u2019s website. They sold it in 1890 to the Mission of the Immaculate Virgin for the Protection of Homeless and Destitute Children, which put it to use as a home for orphaned newsboys. The mission added the present facade and expanded the building, including with a chapel on the rear that still partially stands. The mission remained until 1965, when the artist bought the property.<\/p>\n \n\tUntil 1970, when he moved to Captiva, Florida, he used 381 Lafayette Street as his primary living quarters and workplace and a site for hosting parties. Artists often stayed there, including Mel Bochner, Brice Marden, Yvonne Rainer, and Dorothea Rockburne, and, in reference to Rauschenberg\u2019s given name, it was playfully referred to as \u201cMilton\u2019s Hilton.\u201d It served as an unofficial boardinghouse for participants in Rauschenberg\u2019s Experiments in Art and Technology (EAT) initiative, which brought together artists and engineers. After the Florida move, it remained his New York base of operations, and after his death in 2008, it passed to his foundation.<\/p>\n \n\tThe organization seems to have bad luck in terms of the sustainability of its real estate holdings. I reported for Artnet <\/em>in 2025 that the organization had put 22 acres of its Captiva Island property on the market, citing \u201cincreasingly challenging environmental conditions.\u201d Locals sought to protect the land, which had long housed a storied artist residency program, from development, but in the end the foundation sold it to the South Seas resort for $45 million, to the dismay of many.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/robert-rauschenberg-foundation-new-york-headquarters-sale-1234794514\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-535533351.jpg?w=1024″] Artist Robert Rauschenberg hosted lively parties in the late 1960s at his New York townhouse. Artists and engineers bunked in, the artist\u2019s turtle Rocky charmed visitors, and Rauschenberg created some key works in his studio there. That property may soon give way to luxury rentals and boutique condominiums.\u00a0 The five-story, 92,000-square-foot NoHo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2083355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2083355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083355\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2083355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2083355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2083355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}