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.
November 22, 2016

Obama documentary goes back to 1980s NYC; Vintage subways return for the holidays

“Barry” is a new Netflix film about Obama’s college days in 1980s NYC. Check out the locations featured. [Untapped] A rendering was uncovered of the glassy Sephora store that may replace the former Lenox Lounge site. [Harlem Bespoke] Vintage subway trains will hit the tracks on Sundays between Thanksgiving and Christmas. [Tracks] Donald Trump‘s grandfather, Friedrich Trump, was […]

November 22, 2016

It costs NYC more than $1M a day to protect Donald Trump

Though part of Fifth Avenue will remain open in front of Trump Tower, the overall logistics of securing the area surrounding the building are still a bit of a nightmare for the NYPD and Secret Service, who must deal with traffic snarls, protests, security checkpoints, and angry pedestrians. If this wasn't enough of a cause for concern, CNN Money reports that the cost of protecting Donald Trump is more than $1 million a day, a figure that won't decrease any time soon since the president elect claims he'll spend weekends in his penthouse and Melania and Barron will continue to live there until the end of the school year. Plus, all of Trump's adult children and grandchildren live in the city and are therefore entitled to Secret Service protection.
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November 22, 2016

Windows at Frank Gehry’s IAC Building are oozing sealant

Frank Gehry's IAC Building was completed in 2006 for Barry Diller's media company InterActiveCorp. It was Gehry's first project in NYC, boasting his signature curving facade and ushering in a wave of starchitect-designed projects along Eleventh Avenue in Chelsea. It also gained notability for its full-height, double-glazed window panes that fade from clear to white, giving the 10-story structure the look of an iceberg. But it's this feature that's now resulted in a lawsuit, according to the Post, who reports that "the window sealant has become a dripping, opaque blob."
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November 21, 2016

New NYU program lets students live in local seniors’ spare bedrooms

As a way to offer lower-cost housing options, NYU is piloting a program this fall that will let students live in the spare bedrooms of local senior citizens. Dubbed the "home stay" program, it would cut in half the university's housing bill, reports the Post, as well as provide income to hosts. According to Gothamist, the program is part of a larger affordability initiative that NYU President Andrew Hamilton put forth when he assumed his role in January. The school's $65,000/year tuition makes it the third most expensive in the country, and undergraduate housing ranges from $10,500 for a shared bedroom to $21,000 for a private suite.
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November 21, 2016

Homeless spending in NYC hits $1.6B; Brooklyn Brownstones selling at a premium

As shelter numbers continue to climb, Mayor de Blasio has spent a record $1.6 billion on homeless services since taking office three years ago, a 60 percent increase. [WSJ] Six Thanksgiving recipes from Brooklyn chefs. [Brooklyn Based] Historic Brooklyn brownstones are dominating luxury sales in the borough, especially in Brooklyn Heights. [NYDN] Housing and legal services […]

November 21, 2016

Cuomo sets aside $300M in tax-exempt bonds for NYC affordable housing

As of the summer, Mayor de Blasio was ahead of schedule on his ambitious plan to build or preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing over 10 years, having financed nearly 53,000 such apartments. His goal will now be even closer in grasp thanks to the additional $300 million in federally tax-exempt bonds the Governor has allocated to subsidize the cost of new construction, which brings the city's total bond capacity to $771 million, according to the Daily News, an 11 percent increase over 2o15.
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November 21, 2016

Fifth Avenue shutdown won’t happen even though Trump’s family will stay put

Between swarms of protestors outside the building and Donald Trump's claims that he'll spend weekends at his penthouse, the NYPD has spent the last week mulling a shutdown of Fifth Avenue in and around Trump Tower. And even though Melania and ten-year-old Barron will remain in the 24-karat gold-covered triplex instead of moving to the White House, Mayor de Blasio announced that the stretch of the Avenue in front of the building will remain open to vehicular traffic, adding that, "We have never had a situation where the president of the United States would be here on such a regular basis. But the N.Y.P.D. is up to the challenge, and the City of New York is up to the challenge."
And it's quite the challenge
November 21, 2016

Live a block from the Bronx Zoo for $1,348/month, lottery opening for nine units in Belmont

As of tomorrow, nine brand new units in the Belmont section of the Bronx will become available through the city's affordable housing lottery. Located just a block from the Bronx Zoo and within walking distance to the New York Botanical Garden, the seven-story, 41-unit building at 2346 Prospect Avenue was recently constructed by the Stagg Group and Badaly Architects and also has ground-floor community facility space. The available apartments, open to those earning 80 percent of the area media income, include four one-bedrooms for $1,348/month and five two-bedrooms for $1,521/month.
Find out if you qualify here
November 19, 2016

Weekly highlights: Top picks from the 6sqft staff

Trump hopes to spend weekends in NYC at Trump Tower during presidency A penthouse off Central Park on the Upper East Side for $190K? Believe it! See new photos inside the world’s tallest modular tower; leasing kicks off at 461 Dean Richard Meier, Rafael Viñoly, and KPF release designs for Upper West Side waterfront development […]

November 18, 2016

Long Island’s ‘Amityville Horror’ house finds a brave buyer

Presumably unfazed by the gruesome murders that took place there in 1974, an anonymous buyer has picked up Long Island's notorious "Amityville Horror" house. The five-bedroom Dutch Colonial came on the market for $850,000 in June, and Newsday now reports that it went into contract this week. Likely due to the fact that the address is where then-23-year-old Ronald DeFeo Jr. shot his parents and four younger sisters while they slept, the listing broker said she won't "discuss the terms of a sale until it’s closed."
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November 18, 2016

The Urban Lens: Bushwick’s ‘Bizarre’ world of burlesque, acrobats, and fire spinners

6sqft’s ongoing series The Urban Lens invites photographers to share work exploring a theme or a place within New York City. In this installment, Meryl Meisler captures the artists and performers of Bushwick's bar and event space Bizarre. Are you a photographer who’d like to see your work featured on The Urban Lens? Get in touch with us at [email protected]. When he moved to NYC, French filmmaker Jean-StĂ©phane Sauvaire squatted in a boarded up Bushwick building until he eventually owned it. Along with friend Gregory Baubeau, he decided to turn the building into a bar, performance space, and gallery inspired by the wild stories of Greenwich Village's underground, avant-garde CafĂ© Bizarre. Their own BIZARRE opened in 2013, and shortly thereafter they exhibited photographer Meryl Meisler's iconic shots of the neighborhood in the glam/gritty '70s and '80s. Now, Meisler has come together with Sauvaire and Baubeau for a new exhibition that showcases the "assorted madness and the unexpected" of present day BIZARRE. They've shared their energetic photos with 6sqft, capturing all those who make the venue special--the acrobats, artists, burlesque, circus, drag kings and queens, fire spinners, magicians, musicians, poets, patrons and more--and Meisler has given us the inside scoop on this unique scene.
See the collection here
November 18, 2016

Renderings revealed for 40-story Coney Island tower, the tallest residential building in South Brooklyn

Robert S. Trump (Donald's much lesser known younger brother) sold Coney Island's Trump Village Shopping Center in the early 2000s to developer Rubin Schron of Cammeby’s International Group, who, in 2014, publicized plans to replace the center with a 40-story mixed-use tower. Despite opposition from the community, the project is moving ahead, as Yimby has revealed renderings from S9 Architecture of the 430-foot-tall building at 532 Neptune Avenue that's been dubbed Neptune/Sixth. When complete, it will be the tallest residential tower in South Brooklyn, offering 544 apartments, a retail and community facility base, and a public courtyard.
More renderings and details
November 18, 2016

Construction update: Pier 55’s 535 concrete columns rise from the Hudson River

Now that the Barry Diller-funded Pier 55 offshore park can proceed freely, the Wall Street Journal took a look at how construction is progressing on the $200 million project. Currently, the 535 concrete columns, each three feet wide and ranging from 70 to 200 feet long, that will support the 2.75-acre park have been erected, poking out of the Hudson River amidst the historic wooden piles that once supported Pier 54, where the Titanic was supposed to dock (these will remain to sustain marine life development). On top of them will be pots, "hollow pentagonal forms" that weigh as much as 60 tons and will be "linked with concrete to create a rectangular platform of about 104,000 square feet."
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November 17, 2016

Is Tribeca’s windowless AT&T building an NSA surveillance site?

Tribeca's AT&T Long Lines Building is a prime example of Brutalist architecture, with its hulking slab form and imposing concrete facade. But what really draws curious gazes is its lack of windows. Pair this with the fact that the 550-foot telephone exchange tower was built to withstand a nuclear blast and keep 1,500 people safe from toxic radiation for two weeks, has three subterranean floors, and isn't illuminated, and you've got quite the case to back up reports that the building is a secret NSA spy hub (h/t TRD). The Intercept analyzed data from former CIA employee Edward Snowden's leaked documents that point to the fact that 33 Thomas Street is an NSA site code named TITANPOINTE, from which the agency has tapped the likes of the UN, World Bank, and at least 38 countries under its controversial BLARNEY surveillance program.
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November 17, 2016

Budget woes and design disagreements cause Port Authority to stall on new bus terminal plans

Just two months ago, West Side elected officials and the Port Authority agreed to move ahead on the 10-year, $10 billion capital project to replace the current Bus Terminal, releasing five design proposals for a new building. But officials at the bi-state agency "have reached an impasse" on the project due to budget concerns and disagreements on the design, reports Crain's.
The full story
November 17, 2016

Donald Trump makes another bid to expand Bronx golf course; behold the 2017 NYC Taxi Drivers Calendar

Shake Shack will open in the Staten Island Mall, its first outpost in the borough. [Gothamist] After officials rejected Trump’s proposal earlier this year to expand his Bronx golf course so that it can host major PGA tournaments, he’s put in another request. [Crain’s] BLDZR, the Robert Moses rock musical, is returning for a holiday run. […]

November 17, 2016

Richard Meier, Rafael Viñoly, and KPF release designs for Upper West Side waterfront development

Forty-two years after Donald Trump first proposed a mixed-use development on the Upper West Side waterfront, one of the final pieces of the puzzle is coming together. Curbed got their hands on sparkling new renderings of what's now being called Waterline Square, a trio of residential towers on the five-acre site between West 59th and 61st Streets that's part of Riverside Center. In addition to views of the glassy structures, which will offer a combination of condos and rentals, and a Mathews Nielsen-designed park, what makes the reveal so exciting is the roster of starchitects behind the towers--Richard Meier and Partners, Rafael Viñoly Architects, and Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates.
More details and renderings
November 16, 2016

Trump letters already coming down on UWS buildings; How to save birds from glass architecture

Just a day after news broke that three Upper West Side buildings would dump the Trump name, cranes are on site removing the gold letters. [Gabriel Elizondo/Twitter] Architect Nadine Maleh is using innovative adaptive reuse to design buildings for New York’s diverse low-income and homeless populations. [Curbed] And Guy Maxwell of Ennead Architects is working to keep glass buildings […]

November 16, 2016

Nearly half of the city’s affordable housing units go to young, single New Yorkers

The odds you'll score an affordable apartment through one of the city's housing lotteries is about 1,000 to 1--that is, unless you're young and single. Through a FOIL request, DNAinfo obtained data from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development that showed more than half of the 1,470 units that became available through the 48 lotteries that opened from January 2013 to December 2015 were for studios and one-bedrooms; 41 percent of those chosen in these lotteries were ages 25 through 34, and 50 percent were single.
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November 16, 2016

Starchitect Frank Gehry may self-exile to France now that Trump’s been elected

Outspoken starchitect Frank Gehry is taking the whole "I'm moving if Trump wins" thing quite literally. The Canadian-born, LA-based architect told French paper La Croix just before the election that President Francois Hollande assured him he could go into exile in France if Trump became president. But as ArtNet points out, a possible relocation may have more to do with a personal beef than political leanings. In 2010, Gehry's 8 Spruce Street surpassed Trump World Tower as the city's tallest residential building, and we know how feisty the Donald gets when it comes to size...
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November 16, 2016

VIDEO: Go inside Donald Trump’s personal office in Trump Tower

Donald Trump has already made it clear that he hopes to ditch convention and spend weekends in his Trump Tower penthouse during his presidency (despite the unprecedented traffic snarls and security issues it'll cause). In addition to sleeping in his own bed, this will allow him to work out of his personal office. The 26th floor space is covered in awards, sports memorabilia, family photos, and an unsurprisingly narcissistic collection of magazines with yours truly on the cover. Business Insider uncovered two videos from last year--one from the Washington Post, one from the Wall Street Journal--where Trump provided tours of the office, and it looks like our next president may be working on international politics with one of Shaquille O'Neal's sneakers sitting next to him.
Watch both videos here
November 15, 2016

Where I Work: Go inside Lite Brite Neon’s colorfully gritty Gowanus workshop and showroom

6sqft’s series “Where I Work” takes us into the studios, offices, and off-beat workspaces of New Yorkers across the city. In this installment, we take a tour of the Gowanus studio of Lite Brite Neon. Want to see your business featured here? Get in touch! Among the manufacturing and arts tenants in the Old American Can Factory, a converted six-building industrial complex at the Gowanus Canal, is Lite Brite Neon, which has been described as "the darling of artists and designers." And after touring their funky workspace/showroom, the description definitely fits. They were founded in 1999 in Brooklyn and have been creating neon art, signage, lighting, and displays ever since, in addition to preserving and restoring historic neon. 6sqft recently got an insider's look at their colorfully gritty home and spoke to lead designer Wayne Heller about how the company functions and what makes neon unique.
Take the tour here
November 11, 2016

The Urban Lens: Chaz Langley captures the people and places that make Chinatown tick

6sqft’s ongoing series The Urban Lens invites photographers to share work exploring a theme or a place within New York City. In this installment, Chaz Langley explores the people and establishments breathe life into Chinatown. Are you a photographer who’d like to see your work featured on The Urban Lens? Get in touch with us at [email protected]. Nashville native Chaz Langley moved to New York to pursue a career as a singer/songwriter/actor/model, but along the way began snapping iPhone photos of his adopted city as another creative outlet, finding the process therapeutic. Through his Instagram account, he tells the stories of the people, places, and things that inspire him, using his other skill set of graphic design as a way to curate his collections. In "A Stroll in Chinatown" he captures the unique cultural establishments of Chinatown and the everyday comings and goings of the neighborhood's residents.
See all the photos here
November 11, 2016

Cuomo’s revised 421-a plan will move ahead as REBNY and construction trades come to agreement

Ever since the city's 421-a tax exemption program expired in January, the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York and the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) have been negotiating under what terms to extend and/or modify the program. Both groups took part in what the city believes were "secret talks" with Governor Cuomo over the summer, after which he released his proposal to revise 421-a with wage subsidies for construction workers. REBNY was concerned about this stipulation, claiming it would increase construction costs by up to 30 percent, but a press release sent yesterday evening reports that they've reached an agreement with the Trades Council to move ahead with Cuomo's version of the plan, which, in addition to setting a $60 hourly wage for qualifying projects in Manhattan and $45 in Brooklyn and Queens, extends the tax breaks up to 35 years (up from de Blasio's proposed 25 years) and mandates newly created affordable units be kept in place for 40 years.
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