Artist Sheila Schwid has lived in the same West Village apartment for more than five decades. If that sounds like a New York miracle, it is. She spent most of those years as a wife and a mother, but now she’s spending her time as the artist she moved in to be in 1970. Now 91 years old, she maintains a studio in the apartment’s expansive lower level that used to house her kids’ bedrooms.

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Schwid resides in one of the 384 apartments in the former industrial building-turned-affordable housing community known as Westbeth Artists Housing. More commonly referred to as simply Westbeth and designed by architect Richard Meier, it has occupied a distinctive space in New York City’s cultural landscape since it was conceptualized by Roger Stevens, the first chairman of the National Council of the Arts (later known as the National Endowment for the Arts), and Jacob Kaplan in the late 1960s.

Originally created to be a haven of creative expression and cultural vitality, Westbeth is now a maze of walkers, chairlifts and busy social workers. The New York City landmark qualifies as a naturally occurring retirement community. Many of the building’s original tenants still live there; they’re in their seventies, eighties and nineties and comprise about 60 percent of Westbeth’s current residents.

One of those residents is Schwid. Though she is diminutive in stature, her energy and personal style belie her nonagenarian status—especially her cropped honey-blonde hair, green Keds and coat hanger........

© Observer