The Air We Breathe

In 1991, I moved from my tiny ground-floor studio in the West Village to a less-tiny walk-up tenement on the Upper East Side. I was not too fond of going uptown because my entire life was downtown, but I couldn’t resist taking over my sister’s lease for her $ 950-a-month full-floor railroad apartment.?

The commute sucked - but compared to the shoebox I came from, the space was luxurious and needed.?

My new neighbor downstairs was Myra, my sister’s best friend. She attended chef school by day and worked in her apartment-turned-cooking lab by night. I was the beneficiary of all her delicious prototypes/experiments, and she was the beneficiary of my round-the-clock saxophone practice. I got the better deal, for sure.?

That summer, my good friend Ross visited me in New York and brought one of his “get rich quick” schemes.?

The Green Screen.?

A revolutionary mask that resembled a heavy-duty surgical mask that could be worn over your mouth and nose. The Green Screen would filter the air’s pollutants and protect your lungs. “This will make us both enough money just to play music,” he said. “Worth a shot,” I responded.?

That night, we went to sleep. Ross dreamed about playing with Al Jarreau, and I slept on the futon near the vent in our kitchen. The same vent that ducted air fed directly from Myra’s kitchen. Our landlord, Lenny, never bothered with an exhaust fan on the roof. We essentially breathed the same recirculating air.?

That night, at around 3 am, I was awoken by a rancid garlic smell. A toxic concoction went bad, spewing from the vent into my apartment connected to Myra’s lab. Myra was up to something. The food she created may have tasted good, but that night's smell was nasty.?

After several failed attempts to block the vent with Saran Wrap, Scotch tape, and miscellaneous clothing, I realized this vent couldn’t be closed. So…..I had one remaining option.?

The Green Screen.?

The look on Ross’ face in the morning when he discovered me asleep wearing the mask was priceless.?

“It works,” I said.?

But the Green Screen never sold. Luck and timing are responsible for 95% of success, and Ross was undoubtedly unluckily years ahead of his time. Back then, Pandemics and smoke from fires were the only things we saw in Sci-Fi movies. Rollerblading while holding onto the back of a city bus and breathing in the fumes was run off the mill. It was the late 80’s.?

Many years later, I was attending a client meeting with the architect and developer of a new project and suggested we look to the future of sustainable and environmental design. I urged them to build a building that was LEED-certified and included air humidification and filtration systems.?

“People won’t pay for something they can’t see,” the money man said, and they vetoed my idea. Sadly, he was right. Our buyers valued statutory marble in the bathroom more than clean air in their bedrooms. He made a lot of money on that project.?

Things are different now.?

This past week, NYC had a dose of harmful smoke from the fires in Canada. Friends (including Ross) contacted me from across the globe, concerned about my safety and health. “It looks like an apocalypse,” he said.?

“Yep. It sure does”, I responded.?

“I wish I had saved one of your Green Screens or lived in one of the new buildings designed with a MERV 15 air filtration system that buyers pay a premium for.?

Lenny’s building on Second Avenue and its three neighbors is being demolished and replaced by a luxury condo. If the developer wants to sell it for a premium, he must engineer it with suitable air filters.?

We’ve come a long way.?

Side Bar.?

The engineers at Dyson recently launched a new product called “The Dyson Zone,” which is noise canceling. These high-fidelity over-ear headphones simultaneously deliver immersive sound to the ears and purify airflow to the nose and mouth. Go figure.

Let's do this-

Shaun