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.

February 2, 2017

Design proposal for the Statue of Liberty Museum ‘points’ to social injustice in real time

By Dana Schulz

Though plans were approved in November for the $70 million FXFOWLE-designed Statue of Liberty Museum, Archasm recently launched a speculative design competition for the site. Titled "LIBERTY MUSEUM NEW YORK: Freedom to the people," the timely contest sought proposals that focused on civil and social justice, and ArchDaily now brings us the winning design from EUS+ Architects' Jungwoo Ji, Folio's Bosuk Hur, and Iowa State University student Suk Lee. The Korean designers were inspired by candlelight marches against social injustice in their home country and created an architectural landscape of water droplet-shaped modules that respond to global issues in real time. When a tweet about "dire events" is sent to the museum, the modules receive an electronic signal and moves to point toward the geographic location mentioned.
More looks and details on the design ahead

Architecture And Design

February 1, 2017

Westminster Dog Show now welcoming cats; Data says you should buy a house on February 7th

By Dana Schulz

Can Juno be the labor-friendly alternative to Uber? [Curbed] For its “Meet the Breeds” event this year, the Westminster Dog Show will welcome cats for the first time. [USA Today] Food carts might also be required to post health department letter grades. [NYDN] In February, the average home sells for 6.1 percent less than the rest of the year; […]

Uncategorized

Extell reveals renderings of new Central Park West condo tower

Rendering of 36 West 66th Street via Extell (L); Approved zoning diagram via NYC DOB (R)

February 1, 2017

Extell reveals renderings of new Central Park West condo tower

By Dana Schulz

Though Extell is best known for sky-high mega-developments like One57, the Central Park Tower, and One Manhattan Square, they've also been taking on some slightly smaller residential projects, gobbling up swaths of real estate in the upper Midtown area. Their latest venture is a partnership with Megalith Capital Management to build a new condo tower near Central Park West. Located at 36 West 66th Street, the 292-foot, mid-block building will replace three small office buildings and the synagogue of Congregation Habonim. The latter will be incorporated into the new design, for which CityRealty has uncovered the first rendering and updated details.
READ MORE

February 1, 2017

The history of Little Syria and an immigrant community’s lasting legacy

By Dana Schulz

In the light of Donald Trump's ban on Syrian refugees, 6sqft decided to take a look back at Little Syria. From the late 1880s to the 1940s, the area directly south of the World Trade Center centered along Washington Street held the nation's first and largest Arabic settlement. The bustling community was full of Turkish coffee houses, pastry shops, smoking parlors, dry goods merchants, and silk stores, but the Immigration Act of 1924 (which put limits on the number of immigrants allowed to enter the U.S. from a given country and altogether banned Asians and Arabs) followed by the start of construction on the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel in 1940, caused this rich enclave to disappear. And though few vestiges remain today, there's currently an exhibit on Little Syria at the Metropolitan College of New York, and the Department of Parks and Recreation is building a new park to commemorate the literary figures associated with the historic immigrant community.
The full history and details on the new developments

History

February 1, 2017

In just a month, Second Avenue Subway eases congestion on the Lexington Avenue line by 11 percent

By Dana Schulz

When the Second Avenue Subway opened on the first of the year, it changed the lives of many commuters, namely those living in Yorkville on the Upper East Side who had long walks to the 4/5/6 trains and then faced their notoriously tight cars and frequent delays. But those New Yorkers who still rely on the Lexington Avenue line have also gotten some relief: According to a New York Times analysis of MTA data, on an average January weekday, ridership fell by about 11 percent, or 88,000 trips, between 110th Street and Grand Central, undoubtedly a direct effect of the Second Avenue line's average ridership of 140,000.
More facts and figures

Transit

January 31, 2017

NYC lost thousands of parking spots as daily bike ridership increased 80 percent in five years

By Dana Schulz

The NYC Department of Transportation has released its new "Cycling in the City" report, which examines how frequently New Yorkers use bikes as a mode of transportation and how that frequency has changed over time. In 2016, there were 14 million Citi Bike trips taken, a whopping 40 percent more than the previous year. And in terms of general bike riding, the DOT found that daily cycling grew 80 percent from 2010 to 2015, with 450,000 cycling trips made on a typical day in New York. But what has this meant for drivers? Less parking, thanks to the the city's 1,000+ miles of bike lanes. NY1 reports that in Manhattan alone, 2,300 parking spots south of 125th Street were lost in recent years to bike lanes and bike-sharing stations.
READ MORE

January 31, 2017

Sagaponack, Tribeca among nation’s priciest zip codes; Trump transfers NYC properties into trust

By Dana Schulz

The Hamptons’ Sagaponack community is the most expensive zip code in the country. Tribeca zip codes take spots 3, 6, and 12. [Business Insider] From the Studio Museum’s “Black Cowboys” exhibit to a Green-Wood Cemetery trolley tour, here are 14 ways to celebrate Black History Month in NYC. [Untapped] Donald Trump has transferred 71 NYC properties, […]

Uncategorized

January 31, 2017

Extell buying former Carnegie Deli site

By Dana Schulz

Yesterday, workers removed the iconic neon sign outside Carnegie Deli, but the final nail in the coffin comes from the news that mega-developer Extell is buying the pastrami mecca's former home on a block where they already own two other sites. The Post got word that Gary Barnett's firm will close on a deal as soon as today for the six-story building at 854 Seventh Avenue. The 79-year-old deli closed on December 31st, but in 2015, Extell paid $9.1 million to owner Marian Harper Levine for their air rights.
Find out more

Real Estate Trends

January 30, 2017

Jersey City makes list of 10 fastest gentrifying cities; Ikea’s complex furniture-naming system

By Dana Schulz

Gotham West Market’s outpost at The Ashland is officially open, bringing 16,000 square feet of food hall deliciousness to Fort Greene. [Metro] A new report based on home values and census data says that Charleston is the fastest gentrifying city in the nation. Jersey City is the eighth. [Curbed] The city brings in roughly $2 million a […]

Uncategorized

January 30, 2017

Pier 55 offshore park may be flatter than originally proposed

By Dana Schulz

Despite the fact that the 535 concrete piles that will support the planned undulating base of the Pier 55 offshore park have already been erected, the Hudson River Park Trust is now looking towards a flatter design. The Architect's Newspaper obtained a copy of a permit modification request that the group submitted to the Army Corps of Engineers that reduces the park's overall size slightly from 2.7 to 2.4 acres and replaces many of the hollow pentagonal pots that would have sat on top of the columns with "a flat structural base sandwiches between the piles and the landscaping."
Find out the reason for the major change

Architecture And Design

Reality star Olivia Palermo buys $3M DUMBO pad; Elton John bringing ‘Devil Wears Prada’ to Broadway

By Dana Schulz

Donald Trump the interior decorator. [Elle Decor] Reality star and fashionista Olivia Palermo, along with her hubby, German model Johannes Huebl, bought a $3 million apartment in DUMBO’s Clocktower Building. [LL NYC] Harvard will offer free online architecture classes. [Curbed] Elton John has previously worked on “The Lion King” and “Aida,” and he’ll now help […]

Uncategorized

January 27, 2017

City says Cuomo’s ‘Affordable New York’ plan would cost an extra $820M

By Dana Schulz

Governor Cuomo recently announced that his revised version of the city's 421-a tax exemption program would officially be moving forward. He said the initiative, dubbed "Affordable New York," would create 2,500 new affordable housing units per year, but a new study from the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development says this will come at a cost. As Politico reports, Cuomo's changes to the program would cost NYC an additional $820 million over 10 years if approved by the state Legislature, $82 million a year more than Mayor de Blasio's proposed 421-a overhaul in 2015.
READ MORE

January 27, 2017

Lottery opens for 40 affordable units across Central Harlem, starting at $822/month

By Dana Schulz

Second to the Bronx, Central Harlem has seen perhaps the most new affordable housing opportunities in the city. The latest is a 40-unit lottery spread across four buildings near Jackie Robinson Park--304 West 152nd Street, 232 West 149th Street, 2797 Frederick Douglass Boulevard, and 2472 Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard. The units are available to those earning 50 or 60 percent of the area media income and range from $822/month studios to $1,371/month four-bedrooms.
Find out more

Affordable Housing

January 26, 2017

Rem Koolhaas’ Gramercy condo reveals interior renderings, launches sales

By Dana Schulz

Right before the new year, the highly anticipated condo from Toll Brothers City Living at 121 East 22nd Street in Gramercy reached its full height, providing the first real views of its glassy facade and chiseled corner that resembles a giant crystal. And what makes the structure even more special is the fact that it's the first NYC project from Pritzker Prize-winning Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas's firm the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA).CityRealty now tells us that sales have officially begun, currently ranging from $1.5 million, 761-square-foot one-bedrooms to $4.7 million,2,402-square-foot three-bedrooms, and along with the launch comes the first set of interior renderings and some fresh looks at the exterior and amenity spaces.
More details and all the renderings

January 26, 2017

Living on Queen’s Broad Channel island; $41M allocated for New York cultural and arts organizations

By Dana Schulz

After 9/11, Donald Trump argued that his skyscraper at 40 Wall Street was the tallest downtown, just one example of how he “can’t admit simple facts.” [NYP] The mile-long Broad Channel, a small island off Queens, is home to fewer than 3,000 New Yorkers. Here’s what it’s like living there post Hurricane Sandy. [Refinery29] SL […]

Uncategorized

January 26, 2017

NYU announces $500M expansion of Downtown Brooklyn tech campus

By Dana Schulz

In 2012, NYU signed a 99-year lease for the Downtown Brooklyn building at 370 Jay Street, a former MTA headquarters. Two years later, the University opened its Tandon School of Engineering in the neighborhood, and now that 5,212 students are enrolled, NYU is moving ahead with a $500 million renovation, restoration, and expansion of the Jay Street building, adding 500,000 square feet of space for areas of study such as computer coding, video game design, and digital forensics. The Daily News first shared the news, and they report that the new facility will open this coming summer, in time to welcome students for the Fall semester.
More views and details

New Developments

January 26, 2017

Travel + Leisure dubs ‘NoLo’ NYC’s next trendy neighborhood

By Dana Schulz

DoBro (Downtown Brooklyn), MiMa (Midtown Manhattan), Hellsea (Hell's Kitchen meets Chelsea), BoCoCa (Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens)--typically we blame brokers and real estate marketers for inventing outlandish neighborhood acronyms as a way to make their listings and developments seem unique and in uncharted territory. But this time, the writers over at Travel + Leisure have decided to try their hand at the name game, dubbing "NoLo" the next trendy 'hood. "There's no cooler neighborhood mashup," they say, than "the parts of Soho where Nolita bumps against the Lower East Side." Here you'll find "a community of restaurants, shops, cafes and drinking spots that exude the city's cutting edge style."
READ MORE

Uncategorized

Rendering of 86 Fleet Place via Goldstein, Hill & West (L); Construction as of October 2016, via CityRealty

January 26, 2017

Live in John Catsimatidis’ curvy Downtown Brooklyn rental tower from $833/month

By Dana Schulz

Way back in 1982, the CEO and owner of Red Apple Group, John Catsimatidis (you may know him better as the billionaire owner of Gristedes or for his failed Republican run in the last mayoral election) paid $500,000 for a 2.5-acre, four-block site in Downtown Brooklyn, on the western edge of Fort Greene. Thirty-five years later, construction is wrapping up on the final, and by far the tallest, of the four-tower development. The curving glass building at 86 Fleet Place was designed by Goldstein, Hill & West and will rise 32 stories/350 feet and house 440 rentals, 29 of which are set aside as affordable and have just come online through the city's affordable housing lottery. They range from $833/month studios to $1,247/month three-bedrooms and are available for those earning 45 to 60 percent of the area media income.
Find out if you qualify here

January 25, 2017

Extell’s One Manhattan Square reaches halfway point and gets its glassy skin

By Dana Schulz

Despite the rapid influx of new development that's popping up in the controversial Two Bridges area, the Chinatown-meets-Lower East Side neighborhood's first project, One Manhattan Square, still reigns as the tallest. In fact, when it reaches its full 823-foot height, Extell's 80-story condo at 252 South Street will have the highest rooftop between downtown and Midtown Manhattan. Now that sales have commenced, CityRealty paid the construction site a visit, noticing that the double-slab tower is already more than 30 stories tall and has begun to receive its reflective glass skin.
More views ahead

January 25, 2017

EPA says Gowanus Canal cleanup will proceed; get your romantic proposal on a city WiFi kiosk

By Dana Schulz

If you pop the question between now and early next month, your proposal can be featured on one of the city’s LinkNYC Wi-Fi kiosks on Valentine’s Day. [EV Grieve] And if you’re feeling more vindictive than romantic, you can name a cockroach at the Bronx Zoo after your ex. [Gothamist] As part of de Blasio’s 10-year capital […]

Uncategorized

De Blasio to spend $384M renovating old city-owned office buildings

Downtown Brooklyn’s 345 Adams Street

January 25, 2017

De Blasio to spend $384M renovating old city-owned office buildings

By Dana Schulz

Despite "a backdrop of uncertainty," as he put it, Mayor de Blasio yesterday unveiled an $89.4 billion, 10-year capital plan that includes school construction, public housing repairs, paving roads, and a new NYPD training center. It also sets aside $384.2 million to renovate and rehabilitate aging, city-owned buildings. Commercial Observer tells us that the bulk of this allotment, $94.5 million, would go towards 345 Adams Street in Downtown Brooklyn. The 1920s office building is home to the Department of Finance, Department of Probation, Board of Elections, and Administration for Children’s Services. Others on the list are the Brooklyn Municipal Building ($39.1 million), 253 Broadway in lower Manhattan ($18.5 million), and the Manhattan Municipal Building ($16.7 million).
More details

Policy

January 25, 2017

Trump’s infrastructure plan may include $26B+ for NYC’s Gateway Project and Second Avenue Subway

By Dana Schulz

Reporters at McClatchy obtained documents that the Trump transition team provided to the National Governor’s Association detailing 50 projects across the country that would take priority under the President's proposed $1 trillion infrastructure plan, and among them are two NYC-based projects. The Gateway Project, which would repair the aging and Sandy-damaged Hudson River rail tunnels and build a new one, would cost $12 billion and create 34,000 jobs. Phases two and three of the Second Avenue Subway would cost $14.2 billion and create 16,000 direct jobs.
Get more details this way

January 24, 2017

NYC not one of world’s most expensive cities; L train repairs already over budget and behind schedule

By Dana Schulz

Hong Kong, Sydney, and Vancouver are the three most expensive cities in the world to live. Believe it or not, NYC didn’t make the top 10. [Fortune] Actor Steve Guttenberg on why he loves the Upper West Side. [West Side Rag] For the first time in 30 years, the Playboy Club is opening in NYC, […]

Uncategorized

January 23, 2017

Map: Here’s where you can afford to live in NYC in 2018

By Dana Schulz

For New York home buyers, a lot can change in a year. A neighborhood that was considered affordable can all of a sudden become out of reach, whether it be from new developments like a subway or good old fashioned gentrification. For this reason, Fast Forward Labs created an interactive map that predicts the price of real estate in 2018. As Google Maps Mania explains, "The map allows you to input a housing budget and see how likely it is that you will be able to afford to buy a property in different New York neighborhoods during different future time periods."
More on the map here

Real Estate Trends

All articles by Dana Schulz

Pitch a Story

Interested in seeing the property in person?

Interested in seeing the property in person?

Distinctive Post Form

Get in Touch

Send us a Tip

Interesting in learning more about purchasing a new home?

Thinking about selling your home?

Sell a Home (Footer)

Before You Move On from this Page.

Your Daily Doseof NYC Life!

Before You Move On
from this Page.

Your Daily Dose
of NYC Life!