Manhattan framed by the tall windows inside Benny's home at Port Imperial. — From inside 24 Ave · Manhattan beyond the windows

A Benny Doro Collection Story · New York

The View
from 24 Ave

Life at Port Imperial, West New York, New Jersey

For thirteen years, Manhattan filled nearly thirty feet of windows. The apartment filled with food, music, friends—and the Yankees.

West New York, New Jersey 34 photographs Narration · 3:15

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01 Editorial context

Across the Hudson

A front-row seat to New York—and a home built for living.

At 24 Ave at Port Imperial, the Manhattan skyline was not a poster or a postcard. It was the wall. Nearly thirty feet of windows faced the Hudson, changing with the hour, the weather and the season.

But the view was only the beginning. This was where friends gathered, people ate, recordings were made, businesses were imagined and conversations ran late. The television stayed mostly quiet unless the Yankees or Rangers were playing.

Benny loved the place because it held both sides of his New York life: the intensity of the city across the river and enough room to cook, create, think and bring people together.

What was it?

A riverfront home and creative command centre overlooking Manhattan.

Why did it matter?

Food, music, business and friendship all shared the same room.

What remains?

The photographs preserve the view. Benny’s voice preserves the life inside it.

02 First-person memory

Authoritative narration · 3:15

Listen to Benny

The View from 24 AveIn Benny’s own voice

0:003:15

Benny’s supplied recording is preserved unchanged. It is the authoritative first-person account of the home and the people who filled it.

Full transcription

In Benny’s words

24 Avenue at Port Imperial, West New York, New Jersey, was my home for a long time. And it was a magical place for me. I did a lot of stuff there, right from cooking thousands of recipes and shooting them for my website, to recording songs for fun, with friends, for business, for movies, for albums—all kinds of stuff.

And I built a place that was my command centre, a place I could enjoy watching Yankee games, taking care of business in the morning on my desk before I would go to the office, make some great food, feed the neighbours, and just stare out into the city—which was my, basically, call it my art.

If you look through those windows in these photos, you can see in the daytime the city, and you can see it put on its jewellery at night. There was nothing like it. And there’s only a small piece of land that sits right across from Midtown for only a certain amount of length. I got lucky, and I got the perfect apartment. I stared right across the street to just close to 42nd Street. Down to the right, you could see 34th, which was the Empire State Building. I could see it right from, right on my funky couch there, which I think I got from West Elm, actually, in New York City.

Yeah, just everything there was all me, all the time. My studio, the lights that I used—you can see. I got this place around 2001, I think it was, and I thought, “What am I going to do with this place?” And I just did exactly what my mind told me to do. I took care of the design. I took care of the lighting. Everybody loved to come over because my place was like an amusement park. There were always good drinks, crazy food, music, lots of flat-screen TVs, lots of Yankee games happening all the time, music stuff, conversation. As you can see, it was a warm sweat of that place at night.

And I’m very grateful to have had the time there that I did. It’s a different place now. When I was there, there were only two or three of these developments. Now it’s a jungle, and there are dozens of them. I don’t even know how people survive on that two-lane road called River Road, which was pretty desolate when I was there. Nobody was on it. And it was a little right-hand turn to get to the Lincoln Tunnel, which I went through just about every day.

But coming home, I opened the door, walked down a short hallway, and you would see this grandiose view of Manhattan and the 30-foot ceilings, which you can see in a photo there. And every time, if I was in a bad mood or I had a tough day, it wasn’t tough anymore. I was just grateful for that. And back then, you know, a little cocktail too never hurt.

Anyways, enjoy the photos. If you’re one of the lucky people who got to come there, I hope you enjoy these memories.