All articles by Dana Schulz

Dana is a writer and preservationist with a passion for all things New York.  After graduating from New York University with a BA in Urban Design & Architecture Studies, she worked at the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, where she planned the organization's public programs and wrote for their blog Off the Grid. In her free time, she leads walking tours about the social and cultural history of city neighborhoods. Follow her on Twitter @danaschulzNYC.
POLL: Will You Miss the MetroCard Swipe?
April 13, 2016

POLL: Will You Miss the MetroCard Swipe?

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The ye-olde MetroCard swipe has made national headlines in recent weeks, thanks to Hilary Clinton’s inability to get through the turnstile and Bernie Sanders’ belief that we’re still in the dark ages using subway tokens. The fact that these snafus are so attention-grabbing goes to show how intrinsic the simple act of swiping a MetroCard is […]

Amid Renovations, MoMA Will Close Architecture and Design Galleries

Endless House: Intersections of Art and Architecture (Jonathan Muzikar © 2015 The Museum of Modern Art)

April 13, 2016

Amid Renovations, MoMA Will Close Architecture and Design Galleries

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MoMA didn't make many friends in the architecture community when they razed the Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects-designed American Folk Art Museum to make way for their Diller Scofidio and Renfro-designed expansion, and now they might be even more alone on the playground thanks to an announcement that the renovation will close the institution's notable architecture and design galleries. The Architect's Newspaper reports that the Terrence Riley–designed third floor space that holds the design collection has already been disassembled to make way for a new exhibition, and the architecture gallery on the same floor will soon meet the same fate. This is rather shocking news considering MoMA was the first museum in the world to have a sustained department of architecture and design, one which, since the 1960s, has amassed a collection "of nearly 30,000 architectural models, works on paper, design objects, and interiors like the Frankfurt Kitchen."
More details ahead
Apply for 86 Affordable Apartments in Brownsville’s Prospect Plaza, Starting at $689/Month
April 13, 2016

Apply for 86 Affordable Apartments in Brownsville’s Prospect Plaza, Starting at $689/Month

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Through tools like rezonings, the city has been trying in recent years to increase affordable housing opportunities in lower-income Brooklyn neighborhoods like East New York and Brownsville, and the latter now has 86 brand new apartments available through the city's affordable housing lottery. The units are part of the much larger Prospect Plaza development by Dattner Architects, which altogether will transform a 4.5-acre site into 364 units of affordable and public housing, as well as a 22,000-square-foot supermarket, 12,000-square-foot community facility, and a rooftop greenhouse. The first batch of units to come online, located at 1740-1760 Prospect Place and 396 Saratoga Avenue, range from $689/month one-bedrooms to $1,181/month three-bedrooms for families earning between $24,995 and $63,060 annually. They'll feature "exquisitely finished kitchen and bathrooms," energy efficient appliances and fixtures, on-site laundry rooms, a fitness room, and parking for an additional fee.
Find out if you qualify
Keith Olbermann Lists Trump Palace Condo for $4M in Opposition to Presidential Candidate
April 12, 2016

Keith Olbermann Lists Trump Palace Condo for $4M in Opposition to Presidential Candidate

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CityRealty recently took a closer look at if and how Donald Trump’s divisive rhetoric is affecting his real estate empire. They found that, despite how polarizing he is a presidential candidate, it's unlikely that anything will change thanks to an established trust in his brand and the city's current supply and demand status. But there's at least one New Yorker who disagrees, and he's taken a bold step to prove it. The Wall Street Journal reports that liberal commentator Keith Olbermann has listed his Upper East Side condo in the Trump Palace for $3.9 million in opposition to the presidential candidate. Though he's taking a loss on the listing price (he bought the 40th floor pad for $4.2 million in 2007, near the height of the market), he said "I feel 20 pounds lighter since I left... If they had changed the name of it to something more positive like Ebola Palace I would have happily stayed."
But what does Mr. Trump have to say?
The Bronx’s Depression-Era Boxcar Village, Where Lodging Was $3/Month
April 12, 2016

The Bronx’s Depression-Era Boxcar Village, Where Lodging Was $3/Month

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When the Great Depression hit, homelessness exploded, leaving most cities ill prepared to house this growing population. As 6sqft previously reported, "Homeless people in large cities began to build their own houses out of found materials, and some even built more permanent structures from brick. Small shanty towns—later named Hoovervilles after President Hoover—began to spring up in vacant lots, public land and empty alleys." The largest such settlement was on Central Park's great lawn, but smaller Hoovervilles popped up elsewhere, especially in Inwood and the Bronx, where many working-class New Yorkers had moved to follow north the construction of the subway. At Spuyten Duyvil Road and 225th Street there was a Boxcar Village, a collection of 40 boxcars where rent was $3 a month to live four men to a car.
The full history, this way
Brooklyn’s Sleeper Neighborhoods Outpricing Dumbo; What Hunger Looks Like in NYC Today
April 12, 2016

Brooklyn’s Sleeper Neighborhoods Outpricing Dumbo; What Hunger Looks Like in NYC Today

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Though Dumbo usually comes in as Brooklyn’s most expensive area, median sale prices this quarter in the Columbia Street Waterfront District came in at number one, followed by Prospect Lefferts Gardens. [Brownstoner]  The MTA is testing out Flex-Gates, a sort of roll-up security gate, to prepare for another Superstorm Sandy. [Daily Intelligencer] This Brooklyn-based photojournalist is capturing […]

The Port Authority Paid $47.6M in 2015 to Cover Condé Nast’s Move to One WTC
April 12, 2016

The Port Authority Paid $47.6M in 2015 to Cover Condé Nast’s Move to One WTC

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Though the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey would like you to think it's been smooth sailing finding tenants for One World Trade Center, their spending habits say otherwise. As Crain's reported, more than a year after Condé Nast made the big move from 4 Times Square to One World Trade, the agency is still dropping $3 million a month to pay for the old lease. This deal came about in 2011 when the Port Authority offered the incentive to entice the media company to relocate amid floundering activity at the downtown tower. In 2015 alone, they spent $47.6 million, and the payments are expected to continue into 2019 (when the lease ends) unless building owner the Durst Organization can find a new tenant.
More details ahead
Did You Know the MTA Uses Pantone Colors to Distinguish Train Lines?
April 11, 2016

Did You Know the MTA Uses Pantone Colors to Distinguish Train Lines?

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It's likely that every subway rider can name the colors that mark each train line -- blue for the A, C, E, red for the 1, 2, 3. But did you know that these aren't just arbitrary hues pulled from some MTA Crayola box, but rather 10 Pantone® spot colors? Even E-Z Pass and the LIRR and Metro-North lines have their own specific colors. The color coding dates back to the mid '60s when the city was in an economic downturn and people were staying off the rundown, haphazardly organized subways. To give the system a fresh, user-friendly look, the Transit Authority turned to graphic design, then an up-and-coming profession. They hired Italian designer Massimo Vignelli and Dutch designer Bob Noorda, both of whom were proponents of the popular "Swiss" style that featured solid, bright colors, simplistic illustrations, typographic grids, and the sans-serif font Helvetica. The men combined these elements into the 364-page New York City Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual, forming the basis for the subway design we know today.
Find out more this way
VIDEO: Take an Aerial Tour of Prospect Park
April 11, 2016

VIDEO: Take an Aerial Tour of Prospect Park

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If this temperamental April weather has been keeping you from enjoying NYC's great outdoors, you can now visit Prospect Park from the comfort of your couch. Plus, you'll get to experience the 585-acre park like you never could on foot -- from the aerial view of a drone. As first noted by Curbed, "the creator is drone enthusiast Airtistry," and it features "both time-lapse and real-time photography." The video was taken on April 2nd, so though it's a bit gloomy, there are some cherry blossoms in bloom to brighten things up, and the fact that the background music is a remix of a-ha's "Take on Me" doesn't hurt either.
Watch the full video here
Weekly Highlights: Top Picks From the 6sqft Staff
April 9, 2016

Weekly Highlights: Top Picks From the 6sqft Staff

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Madonna Sues Upper West Side Co-Op Board Because Rules Don’t Apply to Her Screw Smiles Bring Happiness to Your Hardware and Polio Vaccines to Children in Need $8M Tribeca Penthouse Is a Downtown Dream With a Dramatic Staircase and Heavenly Sunsets Rafael Viñoly’s Meatpacking Building to Include World’s Largest Starbucks, See New Renderings UES Firehouse […]

Judge Gives the Go Ahead to Barry Diller’s Pier 55 Offshore Park
April 8, 2016

Judge Gives the Go Ahead to Barry Diller’s Pier 55 Offshore Park

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Billionaire media mogul (and husband to Diane von Furstenberg) Barry Diller just had a big victory in his road to constructing Pier 55, a $130 million futuristic park off 14th Street in Hudson River Park. As reported by the Post, the Manhattan Supreme Court dismissed a case against the development that claimed it could have a negative environmental impact, wiping out local species such as the American eel and shortnose sturgeon. Justice Joan Lobis, who noted she enjoys biking along the Hudson, said the project did go through the appropriate environmental review process, which found that it "would not cause significant adverse impacts on the aquatic habitat." Though the plaintiffs, the civic group known as the City Club of New York, have vowed to appeal the decision, construction is currently set to begin later this year.
More information ahead
POLL: Do You Prefer Starbucks Over the City’s New Cafes?
April 7, 2016

POLL: Do You Prefer Starbucks Over the City’s New Cafes?

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It was announced yesterday that Starbucks is opening its largest store in the world in the base of Rafael Viñoly’s forthcoming Meatpacking District building at 61 Ninth Avenue. The 20,000-square-foot facility will be a Roastery-branded store, “part of a push to bolster growth with larger locations that offer experiences to customers,” reports Crain’s. The decision may be due to the […]

You Can Now Investigate the Unseen Microbiology of the Gowanus Canal With the BK BioReactor
April 7, 2016

You Can Now Investigate the Unseen Microbiology of the Gowanus Canal With the BK BioReactor

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After all these years of jokes about catching syphilis or turning into a green mutant alien, it's hard to imagine the Gowanus Canal as a pollutant-free place, but beginning this year it will undergo dredging and sub-aquatic capping as part of the USEPA Superfund Cleanup plan. This also includes the Gowanus Canal Sponge Park, "an 18,000-square-foot public space that will be built with engineered soil to absorb (hence “sponge”) stormwater that would otherwise pollute the canal, as well as plants to break down toxins and floating wetlands," as 6sqft previously reported. But before the notoriously toxic canal turns into the Venice of Brooklyn, a group of microbiologists want to catalogue and draw attention to exactly what type of unseen organisms have accumulated over the past 150 years, as they feel it's important for work at other polluted urban environments. To do this, they've created the BK BioReactor, a roving watercraft that takes samples from 14 specific points along the canal. This data has been turned into a "mobile library," complete with an interactive map that shows which microorganisms are located where and how heavily distributed they are. For example, Atrazine, a herbicide affecting the hormonal system, is present in most of the sites, as is Epsilonproteobacteria, which inhabit the digestive tracks of animals.
See what else is lurking in the Gowanus Canal
Rafael Viñoly’s Meatpacking Building to Include World’s Largest Starbucks, See New Renderings
April 6, 2016

Rafael Viñoly’s Meatpacking Building to Include World’s Largest Starbucks, See New Renderings

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News broke back in May that a low-rise Rafael Viñoly-designed building was coming to the former site of Prince Lumber at 61 Ninth Avenue in the Meatpacking District. Until now, no design details have emerged for the nine-story office and retail building, but 6sqft has uncovered Viñoly's renderings, which show a stacked cube design with many terraces along its asymmetrical glass facade. The address also made headlines today because its base will hold the largest Starbucks store in the world. The 20,000-square-foot facility known as the Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room will be "part of a push to bolster growth with larger locations that offer experiences to customers," reports Crain's.
See more
The Last Day to Dine at the Iconic Four Seasons Is July 16th
April 6, 2016

The Last Day to Dine at the Iconic Four Seasons Is July 16th

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Despite its interior landmark status and role as the quintessential Midtown "power lunch" spot, the Four Seasons has been facing an uncertain future for the past year. In May, a small victory was had when the Landmarks Preservation Commission rejected Aby Rosen's plans to re-conceptualize the Philip Johnson-designed space, but it was short-lived, as Crain's now reports that the Four Seasons will close its doors on July 16th after serving New Yorkers since 1959. Rosen did not renew the lease and plans to replace the restaurant with what will be considered a more "hip" eatery. As the Post shares, of-the-moment restauranteurs Mario Carbone, Rich Torrisi, and Jeff Zalaznick (of the Major Food Group and trendy restaurants like Parm and Dirty French) signed to take over and partner with Rosen, who will increase the rent to $3 million a year.
The full story here
Lyft Is Struggling in NYC; Shake Shack Coming to Penn Station
April 6, 2016

Lyft Is Struggling in NYC; Shake Shack Coming to Penn Station

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This year’s Pritzker Prize winner, Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena, posted four of the firm’s low-cost “incremental” housing projects on the firm’s website for free download in order to help with the affordable housing crisis. [Dezeen] Vornado has given a 10-year lease to Shake Shack to open in its Penn Station retail corridor. [TRD] Frank Gehry reflects […]

UES Firehouse Studio That Andy Warhol Rented for $150/Month Is Now Listed for $10M
April 5, 2016

UES Firehouse Studio That Andy Warhol Rented for $150/Month Is Now Listed for $10M

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In 1959, just before his career was about to take off, Andy Warhol bought a townhouse at 1342 Lexington Avenue near 89th Street and moved in with his mother. "But after three years there, canvases had begun to fill the ground floor apartment, while Brillo boxes and Campbell’s soup cans were stacked to the ceilings," reports Blouin Art Info. So when a friend tipped him off to a vacant firehouse nearby at 159 East 87th Street, the pop artist saw an opportunity for his first official studio. He wrote a letter to the city and began paying $150/month for the two-story building with no heat or running water (h/t DNAinfo). It's here that Warhol is said to have created his famous "Death and Disaster" series from 1962-63, and now, more than five decades later, the property is on the market for $9,975,000.
Find out more this way
Track the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Cherry Blossoms; The Beards of Brooklyn
April 5, 2016

Track the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Cherry Blossoms; The Beards of Brooklyn

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See what it’s like to live in the world’s narrowest house. [Contemporist] The Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s “Cherrywatch” map gets updated daily showing the bloom state of the cherry trees and what species they are. [Untapped] Explaining the Federal architectural style. [Off the Grid] This week’s New Yorker cover titled “Take the L Train” shows two bearded […]

City Council May Bring Back Mansion Tax to Fund Social Programs
April 5, 2016

City Council May Bring Back Mansion Tax to Fund Social Programs

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The idea of a mansion tax -- an increased tax on those who buy seven-figure residential properties -- has been floated around for the past couple years. Last year, Mayor de Blasio put forth a proposal that would add a one percent tax for sales over $1.75 million and a 1.5 percent tax for sales over $5 million. As 6sqft reported, he estimated the plan could have brought in "an extra $200 million a year in tax revenue, money that would be allocated to affordable housing programs," but it was ultimately rejected by lawmakers in Albany. In response to the Mayor's preliminary 2017 budget, the City Council is now looking to revive this proposal, but use the increased revenue to fund programs for youth, immigrants, and women, reports the Wall Street Journal. Coupled with a tax on carried interest for some investment managers, they predict the taxes could create an additional $410 million for the city.
More details here
MTA Takes Steps to Open 7 Train Station at 10th Avenue
April 4, 2016

MTA Takes Steps to Open 7 Train Station at 10th Avenue

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Last month, the Port Authority of of New York and New Jersey officially launched a design competition for a new bus terminal, which could cost up to $10 billion and require the use of eminent domain. A new Port Authority Bus Terminal aims to accommodate tens of thousands of additional riders, many of whom will then need to connect to a subway line. To accommodate all these potential new riders, the MTA is looking to revive its past plan of building a 7 train station at 10th Avenue and 41st Street, reports Crain's, which could cost up to $1 billion.
Find out more
Live in a Boutique Harlem Building for $839/Month, Lottery Launches for 71 East 110th Street
April 4, 2016

Live in a Boutique Harlem Building for $839/Month, Lottery Launches for 71 East 110th Street

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The Lovina House, located at 71 East 110th Street in East Harlem, recently opened as a boutique rental building with 14 contemporary, loft-like apartments. Three of these units are now available through the city's affordable housing lottery. This includes a $839/month studio for a single person earning between $28,766 and $36,300 annually, and two $1,089/month one-bedrooms for households with incomes between $37,338 and $52,020, depending on family size.
More info on the building and lottery
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