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.
December 9, 2016

Google’s Window Wonderland lets you tour Fifth Avenue holiday window displays from your home

Google Maps introduced a street-view look at NYC's holiday windows a couple years ago, but their Shopping app has now completely revamped the feature, launching this year as Window Wonderland. The interactive tool lets users take a high-resolution digital tour of 18 stores, including audio tours from their creative directors and real-life background street noise. See the 34 hand-sculpted animals in Lord & Taylor's "Enchanted Forest," explore the candy and couture at Saks Fifth Avenue's "Land of 1000 Delights," or see the gang from South Park at Barney's.
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December 9, 2016

Pantone hopes their 2017 color ‘greenery’ will give us hope; Chelsea Market is the world’s best food hall

Pantone’s 2017 color of the year is greenery, a “zesty yellow-green shade that evokes the first days of spring.” [Fast Co. Design] A new report says NYC is the “indisputable food hall capital of the world,” and Chelsea Market is number one. [CO] Eight toys designed by architects since the 1940s. [Architizer] This sombering photos […]

December 9, 2016

114 affordable units at the Bronx’s new Compass Residences complex up for grabs, from $822/month

When the West Farms Redevelopment Plan came to fruition in 2011, it was the largest private rezoning ever in the Bronx. The 17-acre, 11-block site in Crotona Park East was a former industrial area that's being transformed according to a master plan by Dattner Architects that calls for a total of 1,325 units of affordable housing and 46,000 square feet of retail space and community facilities. The first two buildings in the complex, also designed by Dattner, are called the Compass Residences and offer 237 units organized around a series of "gracious courtyards." As of today, 114 of these apartments are available through the city's affordable housing lottery. They're open to individuals earning 60 percent of the area media income and range from $822/month studios to $1,224/month three-bedrooms.
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December 9, 2016

Public petition asks Mayor de Blasio to back East River Skyway

A month ago, U.S. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, City Councilman Stephen Levin, and State Assemblyman Joseph Lentol drafted a letter to the Mayor, urging him to advocate for the East River Skyway as a solution for the impending L train shutdown. Building on this momentum, a digital petition addressed to de Blasio has launched on Change.org where the public can show their support for the plan, as well.
Find out more
December 9, 2016

Lottery opens for 100 units in Far Rockaway’s new Passive House, from $653/month

Edgemere is a small neighborhood in the Rockaways that was full of beachfront hotels and bungalows back at the turn of the century. After Robert Moses tore down its most magnificent hotel and replaced it with a parking lot in 1941, the area soon fell into disrepair and became a ghost town. Just this year, however, the city released its Resilient Edgemere Community Planning Initiative to repair Sandy damage, protect the neighborhood from future flooding, improve transportation, and build resilient housing. One of these new projects is called Beach Green Dunes, a brand new Passive Building at 44-19 Rockaway Beach Boulevard with amenities like a roof garden, courtyard, parking, and fitness center. An affordable housing lottery for its 100 units opens today, ranging from $653/month studios to $1,597/month three-bedrooms.
Find out if you qualify
December 8, 2016

NYU reveals design for $1B 23-story building at controversial Greenwich Village site

NYU's controversial plan to replace their Coles Sports Center site at the corner of Mercer and Houston Streets received approvals way back in 2012, but due to community opposition and lawsuits, they only filed plans and began demolition this October. The Wall Street Journal now shares the first renderings of the hulking, 23-story, 735,000-square-foot building at 181 Mercer Street designed by Davis Brody Bond (who's also responsible for the 9/11 Museum) and KieranTimberlake. It will cost a whopping $1 billion and host a bevy of uses, including 60 classrooms, common spaces, two cafes, practice/instruction rooms for the arts, three theaters, a giant athletic facility that'll have four basketball courts and a six-lane lap pool, 30 to 60 faculty apartments, and a 420-bed freshman dorm.
Lots more renderings and details
December 8, 2016

Mod co-working building to rise at Brooklyn Navy Yard; Bed-Stuy artist’s giant igloo stolen

S9 Architecture designed a 16-story co-working building for tech and creatives startups on the Brooklyn Navy Yard waterfront. It’ll be called Dock72. [Dezeen] China’s street-straddling bus has been scrapped. [Curbed] Take a video tour of the abandoned Worth Street subway station. [Untapped] A Brooklyn artist/musician had his 16-foot inflatable igloo stolen. The 300-pound structure is where he […]

December 8, 2016

Norman Foster will design 985-foot tower at 50 Hudson Yards

It's been 14 months since developer Related Companies bought the site of a former McDonald's at 34th Street and 10th Avenue, the final parcel needed to complete Hudson Yards. Initial reports said the site of 50 Hudson Yards would hold a 62-story, 1,000+ foot commercial tower, but Related and Oxford Properties Group have now revealed that the structure will rise 58 stories and 985 feet and be designed by starchitect Norman Foster. As first reported by Curbed, the news comes on the heels of BlackRock's decision to sign a 20-year lease for 15 floors, or 850,000 square feet, in the building, leaving their long-time Park Avenue home in a show of confidence in the mega-complex.
Get more details ahead
December 8, 2016

City will increase the number of hotel rooms housing homeless New Yorkers by more than 500

As he readies himself for reelection this coming year, Mayor de Blasio is looking to address the city's surging homeless population. Just this week, the city reported a record 60,686 New Yorkers in shelters, nearly 40 percent of whom are children. This number was closer to 51,470 when de Blasio took office in 2014, and despite the $1.6 billion he's spent on homeless services since this time (a 60 percent increase), the shelter system still can't support the growing population. Therefore, as the Times explains, he's looking to ramp up a controversial initiative that uses hotel rooms to fill in the gaps, earmarking more than 500 additional rooms for this portfolio.
Find out more on this issue
December 8, 2016

Colonial Bronxville mansion built by General George Custer’s widow hits the market for $5M

After General George Custer perished in Little Big Horn in 1876 (Custer's Last Stand), his widow Elizabeth Bacon Custer moved to New York amid her quest to salvage her late husband's legacy through her three books, "Tenting on the Plains," "Boots and Saddles," and "Following the Guidon." In 1902, after attainting recognition and financial success through her writing, Elizabeth commissioned a massive Colonial-style home in Bronxville. Located in the high-end Lawrence Park neighborhood, the landmarked mansion boasts six period fireplaces, seven bedrooms, turreted rooms, "whimsical nooks and crannies," a large wine cellar, and landscaped gardens surrounding stone terraces and pathways.
Tour the historic home
December 7, 2016

Condos at 432 Park selling at an average discount of 10 percent

432 Park Avenue may be the tallest residential building in the western hemisphere and home to the most expensive apartment closing this year, but throughout 2016, the tower's ultra-luxury condos were selling at an average discount of 10 percent, according to an analysis by appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. for Bloomberg. And a recent transaction saw an even greater price cut; Lewis Sanders, founder and CEO of Sanders Capital and former CEO of AllianceBernstein, bought an 88th floor penthouse for $60.9 million, 20 percent less than its $76.5 asking price.
What's the deal?
December 7, 2016

Congress will only cover $7M of NYC’s $35M Trump security bill

Just two days after Mayor de Blasio formally requested $35 million in federal funding to cover security at Trump Tower for the 73 days from the November 8th election to inauguration day on January 20th, republicans in Congress decided to earmark a mere $7 million towards protecting the President Elect while he's in the Big Apple. Of the pending decision, the Mayor said, "NYC taxpayers shouldn’t be on the hook for 80 percent of the national bill to protect Trump Tower. DC must step up to pay us back what we’re owed," reports the Post.
The full scoop
December 6, 2016

21-inch replica of the Astor Place Cube selling for $30,000 on ebay

The Astor Place Cube returned to its longtime East Village home just a month ago, after a nearly two-year absence while the intersection was under construction and it underwent a restoration. Sculptor Tony Rosenthal erected the 15-foot public art piece known officially as "Alamo" in 1967, and over the years he created around 10 mini replicas of it. One of them, measuring 21 inches and weighing 30 pounds, is up for sale on eBay for a staggering $30,000, which, as Bedford & Bowery points out, is not that much more than the $180,000 it cost to restore the actual cube.
Get more details
December 6, 2016

Iconic JFK Terminal begins its life as the ‘TWA Hotel’ with new signage

After sitting vacant at JFK Airport for 14 years as a vestige of jet-age architecture, Eero Saarinen's iconic 1962 TWA Flight Terminal received a new life in the summer of 2015 when it was announced that the neo-futurist structure would be reborn as a high-end hotel. MCR Development teamed up with JetBlue and the Port Authority to develop a "505-room LEED-certified hotel with restaurants, 40,000 square feet of meeting space and a 10,000-square-foot observation deck," as 6sqft previously described. Initial reports referred to the project as the "TWA Flight Center Hotel," but the Times now confirms that it'll simply be the "TWA Hotel." And with construction four months in, Curbed noticed that signage for the hotel has gone up, preserving the airline's logo and font.
See the sign ahead
December 6, 2016

‘Tonight Show’ announcer and ‘SNL’ writer Steve Higgins buys $1.8M classic UWS co-op

Steve Higgins, announcer of "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" and SNL writer and producer, and his wife Ellen have dropped $1,797,000 on a traditional Upper West Side co-op according to recent city records. Though the listing says it'll need a renovation, the two-bedroom, pre-war apartment at 131 Riverside Drive has the coveted bones of a classic six--a large entry foyer, handsome fireplace mantle, 9' 10" ceilings, and attractive crown and picture moldings.
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December 5, 2016

De Blasio asks feds for $35M to cover 73 days of Trump Tower security

White House North, Dump Tower--call it what you will, but Trump Tower has been causing a major headache for the city ever since the President Elect announced that he hopes to spend weekends in his penthouse at the Midtown tower and that wife Melania and son Barron will continue to reside there during his presidency. Initial estimates put the cost of protecting the building at $1 million a day, but after City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and Council Member Dan Garodnick launched a petition last week demanding that the federal government cover these costs, Mayor de Blasio has officially asked for a total of "$35 million to cover the 73 days stretching from the election on Nov. 8 to Jan. 20, inauguration day," reports the Post, a lesser amount of roughly $480,000 a day.
More details ahead
December 5, 2016

One Vanderbilt confirms 1,020-foot observation deck

It's been almost a year since 6sqft first heard inklings that One Vanderbilt--the city's second tallest tower--would offer a sky-high observation deck, and now that developer SL Green has secured $1.5 billion in construction financing and broken ground on the 1,401-foot supertall, they'e confirmed that the tower will, in fact, have an sky deck. Bloomberg reports that the viewing platform will be located at the 1,020-foot mark, which will make it the third-highest indoor-outdoor observatory in the city after the forthcoming 1,100-foot deck at 30 Hudson Yards and the Empire State Building's at 1,050 feet (One World Observatory is at 1,250 feet, but it's not outdoors).
Find out more
December 5, 2016

There’s an ‘exotic’ Christmas tree selling for $1,000 in the Village

$1,000, as the Post notes, could pay for more than 600 meals for the homeless at the Bowery Mission, or 25 holiday gifts for in-need New Yorkers through the Winter Wishes program. It could also get you an "exotic" white fir Christmas tree off the street in Greenwich Village. Sixteen-year tree saleswoman Heather Neville, who runs a stand at Seventh Avenue and 11th Street, is charging $77 per foot for a 13-foot tree, which equals $750. Add to that a $200 stand, $25 delivery and setup fee, and $20 for the three men doing the job, and you've got yourself a four-figure Christmas tree.
If you think this is bad, just wait
December 5, 2016

Airbnb settles with NYC over $7,500 fines, how other cities are cracking down

After settling with New York state two weeks ago, Airbnb has now also dropped its case against the city, reports the Times. The company filed the lawsuits after Governor Cuomo passed a bill in October that would impose fines of up to $7,500 for illegal short-term rental listings--those rented out for fewer than 30 days without the lease holder present--on the site. The company agreed to settle on the grounds that the city only hold hosts responsible for the fines, not Airbnb. And they're facing similar situations in cities like Berlin, Amsterdam, and London, who will likely look to the New York case as they move forward with their own regulations.
Find out more this way
December 3, 2016

November’s 10 most-read stories and this week’s features

November’s 10 Most-Read Stories Live in SHoP’s Domino Sugar Refinery tower for $596/month, lottery open for 104 units My 4000sqft: Tour the 113-year-old Ditmas Park home of an architectural preservationist Apply for 195 affordable units in Long Island City’s glitzy new rental tower The Hayden, from $913/month Lottery opens for two affordable units in prime […]

December 2, 2016

Controversial Lower East Side site getting two more 700+ foot towers

L to R: One Manhattan Square, 247 Cherry Street, 260 South Street, and 271-283 South Street. The image above, created by CityRealty, depicts the possible massing of the new towers; No official design has been released When L+M Partners and CIM Group announced plans last May for two 50-story towers at 260 South Street, their project joined a growing list of controversial towers sprouting up along the Two Bridges waterfront, including Extell's 823-foot condo One Manhattan Square, JDS and SHoP Architects' possible 1,000+ foot rental at 247 Cherry Street, and Starret Group's shorter rental at 275 South Street. Now, in what's becoming a trend for the Lower East Side-meets-Chinatown 'hood, L+M and CIM have revealed plans for their project that actually show increased heights of 69 and 62 stories, or 798 and 728 feet. As first reported by The Lo-Down, the developers plan to include up to 1,350 apartments, 338 of which will be reserved as affordable, senior housing, ground-floor retail, landscaped outdoor spaces by Mathews Nielsen, and an upgraded flood-protection system.
Renderings and more details ahead
December 2, 2016

Watch a live feed of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree; new Union Square Cafe opens next week

Need a dose of holiday spirit throughout the day? Watch this live feed of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. [NBC] Danny Meyer’s new Union Square Cafe will open next week. Here’s a look inside. [Eater] President-elect Donald Trump says he’ll invest $550 billion in new infrastructure projects. These six maps show the current scope of the […]