--- title: Vin Diesel's Parents Still Live in the Artists' Commune He Grew Up In description: But his old stomping ground of the West Village was a lot grittier back then canonical: https://time.com/3761530/vin-diesel-parents-childhood-westbeth/ author: Belinda Luscombe article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-27T20:18:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T05:30:14.632Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Vin Diesel's Parents Still Live in the Artists' Commune He Grew Up In og:description: But his old stomping ground of the West Village was a lot grittier back then og:url: https://time.com/3761530/vin-diesel-parents-childhood-westbeth/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf23e2276e76a8c59/6987854c35ba6f72d0c07bda/vin-diesel-furious-7.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Furious-7-Vin-Diesel og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Vin Diesel's Parents Still Live in the Artists' Commune He Grew Up In twitter:description: But his old stomping ground of the West Village was a lot grittier back then twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf23e2276e76a8c59/6987854c35ba6f72d0c07bda/vin-diesel-furious-7.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Vin Diesel Spent His Childhood in an Artists’ Commune > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Belinda Luscombe](https://time.com/author/belinda-luscombe/)  ## Belinda Luscombe Editor at Large Mar 27, 2015 8:18 PM UTC  Dom (VIN DIESEL) returns with a vengeance in Furious 7\. Continuing the global exploits in the unstoppable franchise built on speed, James Wan directs this chapter of the hugely successful series. Dom (VIN DIESEL) returns with a vengeance in Furious 7\. Continuing the global exploits in the unstoppable franchise built on speed, James Wan directs this chapter of the hugely successful series.Scott Garfield—Universal  by [Belinda Luscombe](https://time.com/author/belinda-luscombe/)  ## Belinda Luscombe Editor at Large Mar 27, 2015 8:18 PM UTC For a guy whose career has been built on the impressive circumference of his biceps, speed of his drawl and pack of his punch, Vin Diesel’s childhood was surprisingly artistic. He grew up surrounded by painters, writers and performers in the first ever federally supported housing complex specifically for artists. [Westbeth](http://westbeth.org/), located in New York City’s West Village, is a cluster of old industrial buildings that formerly housed Bell Laboratories. The building has a quite a history: it was where the first talking movie, TV broadcast, and binary computer were demonstrated. But Bell Labs moved out and in 1970, was replaced by 383 units of loft-style affordable housing and studio space for artists designed by a young Richard Meier. To live in one of the apartments, potential residents had to prove they were both poor and working artists. (Their art was judged by a committee.) As a result, the place was crawling with creativity. The dance pioneer Merce Cunningham had studio space there, Miles Davis played at a friend’s apartment at Westbeth, and photographer Diane Arbus lived there—and, alas, died there, when she committed suicide in 1971. Mark Vincent, as Diesel was then known, grew up there with his twin brother Paul, because his stepfather (he never knew his biological dad) was an avant-garde theater director, who later worked in TV and film education. His mom, Diesel says, was an astrologer. “It was an artist community, everyone was expressing themselves,” says Diesel, who is [profiled in TIME](http://time.com/3759635/vin-diesel-self-help-guru/) this week. “Great painters, poets, sculptors, musicians and thespians all lived in this building. It was kind of a mecca for artists. What a magical place for a young artist to grow up in.” Other kids who grew up in the building remember Diesel, or Mark Vincent as he was then known, being the kind of brotherly big dog that he plays in the _Furious 7_, the latest in _The Fast and the Furious_ series. He would scurry around the former industrial complex with a gang of other little kids, getting into mischief. “He was definitely one of the ringleaders or alphas,” says Adam Davidson, a financial journalist who also grew up in the complex “I was younger and Mark would encourage us to go to parts of the building that were a little scary.” Not surprisingly, the place was fantastically progressive. Davidson remember being shocked when he got to college in the ’80s to discover interracial marriage and homosexuality were frowned on in some circles. Equally unsurprisingly, families who moved into the complex rarely moved out. The once-gritty industrial neighborhood is now one of Manhattan’s swankiest. 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