A 16-Foot-Wide Triplex Is Cleverly Reconfigured to Feel Extra Spacious

An affordable Manhattan triplex might seem the stuff of real estate fantasy. That’s why attorney René Roupinian jumped on the apartment she now calls home when she first saw it in the mid-aughts—despite the fact that the square footage of its three combined levels was less than that of some studios. "It was so different from anything I had seen. It felt really spacious because of the high ceilings, and it had exposed brick on both sides," René recalls. "I just said, ‘Oh my god, I love this apartment.’"