Standing on a Rooftop in Manhattan, a Couple Saw Their Future

Rossilynne and Shane Culgan signed a lease for their New York apartment from their kitchen in Pittsburgh, Pa. “We rented it sight unseen,” Ms. Culgan said.

That is technically true but not entirely accurate.

They carried the idea of moving to the city as far back as they can remember. “We have both always dreamed of living in New York,” Ms. Culgan said.

There were several visits, including the summer of 2018 when the couple found themselves on the rooftop bar of their hotel. “It was a lovely night,” recalled Mr. Culgan. He took out his phone and snapped pictures of the crowded Manhattan skyline surrounding him.

“As I was looking around, one building stood out immediately,” he recalled. It was a steel high-rise, shaped like contorted pyramid. “It just stood out among the typical glass box skyscrapers around it. I said, ‘Can you imagine living in a building that looks like that? It’s such a cool design.’”

But moving to New York really was just an idea. “Each time we visited,” he recalled, “we’d say, ‘We really want to move here,’ but then we’d go back to Pittsburgh and back into the thick of everyday life and it was an idea that just vanished.”