Because We Embrace Renovation

New York embraces reinvention. It's where an aristocrat becomes a cautionary tale (Edie Sedgwick), a mayor can become a bad film critic (Ed Koch), and where banks and firehouses transmogrify into condos. Most have had all traces of their origins stripped away-but there are always exceptions.

(Photo: From top: Jackie Lader; Michael Weber)

THE CHURCH
When a church turns into a condo, does an angel get its wings? This renovation of the former Trinity Lutheran Church on Degraw Street makes the most of the structure's bones, from the stained-glass windows to the rafters.