All articles by Diane Pham

Diane is the founder and Editorial Director of 6sqft. After graduating from the University of Southern California with a B.S. in Real Estate Finance & Development and a minor in Architecture, she enjoyed stints at SCI-Arc, the A+D Museum Los Angeles, Perkins Eastman Architects and Resolution 4: Architecture. She also previously served as Senior Editor of Inhabitat.com and spent several years as an analyst at CB Richard Ellis Investments in Milan, Italy.

January 4, 2017

REVEALED: $10 billion overhaul announced for JFK Airport – see new renderings

By Diane Pham

"We shouldn’t settle for second best on anything,” Governor Cuomo proclaimed at the opening of the Second Avenue Subway this past weekend, and he was serious. This afternoon Cuomo announced that John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) will receive a massive overhaul that will transform the dated hub into a modern, state-of-the-art facility that can finally "meet the needs of a 21st century economy." As laid out by the governor's office, the revamp will address three main issues: unifying all the terminals with an interconnected layout so the airport is more easily navigable; improving road access to the airport; and expanding rail mass transit to meet projected passenger growth. In 2016 the airport served 60 million passengers, and this number is expected to increase to 75 million by 2030 and 100 million passengers by 2050.
more details and renderings this way

Transit

January 4, 2017

3,000 Ubers could replace NYC’s fleet of 14,000 taxis

By Diane Pham

If the city is looking to cut down on emissions and reduce traffic, here is some food for thought courtesy of folks over at MIT. Researchers at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) have determined that 3,000 ridesharing vehicles have the potential to do the same amount of work as NYC's fleet of roughly 14,000 taxis—that is if New Yorkers are willing to use rideshare carpooling like Lyft Line and Uber POOL.
find out more here

Transit

January 3, 2017

510-foot Rafael Viñoly-designed tower coming to East 62nd Street

By Diane Pham

Lenox Hill will see the addition of a new 510-foot tower at 249 East 62nd Street, designed by none other than 432 Park starchitect Rafael Viñoly. CityRealty reports that plans for the mixed-use skyscraper were filed in the last days of December by Chance Gordy of Florida-based Real Estate Inverlad, who is also developing another condo tower nearby called The Clare. The Viñoly design will join a slew of new Upper East Side constructions prompted by the opening of the Second Avenue Subway line, which is located just a few minutes walk away.
more details this way

New Developments

January 1, 2017

Nearly 100 years later, the Second Avenue Subway officially opens!

By Diane Pham

Today history is made, as January 1, 2017 marks the official public opening of the long-awaited Second Avenue Subway. The New York City transit endeavor has been in the works for nearly a century, and finally after countless delays and an eye-popping $4 billion bill, straphangers on the far Upper East Side will have access to three brand new stations at 72nd, 86th and 96th Streets. Just before midnight yesterday evening, Governor Cuomo, MTA CEO Thomas F. Prendergast, city and state pols, members of President Obama’s Cabinet, local community members, and many of the workers who helped build the new line’s massive underground tunnels and stations, took the line's inaugural ride.
photos this way

Transit

December 23, 2016

Did you know ‘The Night Before Christmas’ was written in New York’s Chelsea?

By Diane Pham

This may be hard to imagine, but one of the holiday's most iconic stories was written in none other than Manhattan's Chelsea. Ephemeral NY recounts the origins of Clement Clarke Moore's quintessential Christmas tale, "The Night Before Christmas," and points to early 19th century life in New York as the inspiration for the classic. As the story goes, the year was 1822, and Moore was said to have come up with the poem on a snowy day while riding around Chelsea in a sleigh, on his way to pick up a turkey from the market.
find out more here

December 23, 2016

Get an advance preview of the Second Avenue Subway’s 96th Street station TODAY

By Diane Pham

If you can't wait until January 1st to scope out the new Second Avenue Subway line, today Governor Cuomo is holding an "open house" from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the 96th Street station. Cuomo debuted the station yesterday afternoon at a press event in advance of the official New Year's Day opening, offering select New Yorkers a glimpse at the completed work. The open house is the first time the greater public will have access to the Second Avenue Subway since the start of construction.
more details this way

Transit

December 22, 2016

42 new affordable condos available at West Harlem’s Parkadon, from $225K

By Diane Pham

Qualifying New Yorkers can now apply to purchase one of 42 affordable condos in West Harlem's Parkadon Condominiums. Currently under construction, Harlen Housing Associates has been planning the structure located at 70 West 139th Street for nearly a decade and construction finally commenced on the project in 2015. Although move-in day is still a ways off, the building has topped off and the brick facade is currently being applied. Once finished there will be a total of 64 units (the difference pegged as market-rate) across 55,355 square feet, which includes 1,878 square feet of communal space on the ground floor. The NYC Housing Partnership relays that affordable apartments will range from one- to two-bedrooms priced from $225,545 and $440,381 and will be available to those earning between $50,400 and $149,490.
find out if you qualify

Affordable Housing

Ghost tunnel under Central Park will reopen along with Second Avenue Subway

Image Wiki Commons

December 22, 2016

Ghost tunnel under Central Park will reopen along with Second Avenue Subway

By Diane Pham

There are countless relics from the subway's past hidden beneath NYC, but one of the most intriguing will reveal itself again in just 9 days when the Second Avenue Subway (SAS) invites straphangers to swipe their Metro cards for the first time. As Quartz noticed this past summer, a peculiar loop cutting through Central Park appeared when the MTA released their new subway map touting the addition of the SAS. Reporter Mike Murphy immediately questioned the mysterious addition that would move the Q train further north without issue ("I felt like people would have noticed if the MTA had been ripping up Central Park to build a tunnel," he wrote). After a bit of digging, he found out the half-mile stretch was built over 40 years ago and, at least according to archival maps, it's only been used twice since then.
find out more

Transit

December 21, 2016

Interactive map reveals the shadows cast by every New York City building

By Diane Pham

The Times calls the phenomenon a "struggle for light and air." And indeed, while New York City architecture is lauded for both its design and innovation, the decades-long race to build bigger and taller has taken a toll on the cityscape, particularly in the form of shadows. While any recent criticism of the effect has been directed towards the towers rising along Billionaire's Row, as The Upshot's map reveals, New Yorkers on the whole spend a lot of their time cutting through long stretches of shadow. The map documents thousands of buildings across the five boroughs, denoting age, height and the resulting shadows cast at ground level over the course of one day, down to the minute, during all seasons. As seen above, tall-tower haven Central Park South is cloaked in darkness 24/7 during the fall, winter, spring and summer months—but then again, if you peruse the map, you'll see a lot of other blocks are too.
find out more

City Living

December 20, 2016

LaGuardia ranked nation’s worst airport in new study

By Diane Pham

J.D. Power has just released their 2016 North American Airport Satisfaction Study ranking the nation's airports by customer satisfaction, and New York's LaGuardia Airport has been bestowed the title of the country's worst. According to the study—and just about anyone who's visited LGA in the last few months—construction woes related to Governor Cuomo's $8 billion plan to transform the hub into a world-class airport by 2020 has led to serious headaches for travelers, and a 6-point drop in overall satisfaction from 2015. Last year, LGA ranked as the second worst airport in the U.S., just after Newark International.
See all the rankings here

Transit

6sqft Designer Gift Guide: 85 ideas curated by NYC creatives

By Diane Pham

Your holiday shopping companion has arrived! For the second year in a row, 6sqft has asked a handful of New York City designers, architects and artists to share five things they plan of gifting this season (and maybe one they hope to receive). Ahead find 85 truly unique and unexpected items curated by the city's most talented creatives. We promise that there is something for every budget and taste—and plenty of ideas to choose from if you happen to find yourself scrambling for a present at the last minute.
See all their gift picks here

December 19, 2016

First look at the Second Avenue Subway’s $4.5M public art installation

By Diane Pham

If a sparkling new line isn't cause enough to celebrate, once the Second Avenue Subway opens on January 1st, 2017, millions of New Yorkers will also be treated to several stretches of world-class art while navigating the 96th, 86th, 72nd, and 63rd Street stations. As the Times first reports, the MTA has poured $4.5 million into beautifying the stations with contemporary tile artworks by famed names Chuck Close, Sarah Sze, Vik Muniz, and Jean Shin.
see more here

December 16, 2016

Governor Cuomo announces ‘Subway Therapy’ Post-Its will be preserved

By Diane Pham

Among the more positive things to emerge from the 2016 election was the very visible outpour of love and solidarity by New Yorkers, who not only took to the streets together to stand up for what they believe in, but without inhibition expressed their anger, fears, hopes and words of comfort for one another on colorful Post-Its stretched along the 14th Street-6th/7th Avenue subway corridor. Recognizing the historic nature of this spontaneous art movement, Governor Cuomo announced this morning that the New-York Historical Society will partner with the MTA to preserve some of the thousands of "Subway Therapy" sticky notes that have materialized over the last weeks.
more details here

December 16, 2016

Durst Organization pays $173.5M for LIC site once slated for tallest tower in Queens

By Diane Pham

Back in 2015, Property Markets Group and the Hakim Organization announced plans to erect the tallest tower outside of Manhattan in Long Island City at 29-37 41st Avenue. The residential building, then dubbed Queens Plaza Park, would rise 914 feet atop a Queens Plaza site and boast high-end condos and a projected $363.2 million sellout. However, in July 2016, the developers abandoned those plans, putting the site up for sale for an undisclosed amount. Now, as the Times reports, the Durst Organization has scooped up the site for $173.5 million and is considering going forward with the massive construction, but as a rental tower with more than 1 million square feet.
READ MORE

December 16, 2016

The Urban Lens: Langdon Clay’s 1970s photographs of automobiles also reveal a New York City in decay

By Diane Pham

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 Langdon Clay shares photos from his new photo book "Cars — New York City 1974-1976." Are you a photographer who’d like to see your work featured on The Urban Lens? Get in touch with us at [email protected]. New York as a grimey, crime-ridden metropolis sounds like something out of a dystopian sci-fi novel, particularly as we sip our soy lattes and brush artisanal donut crumbs from our lips. But as photos from Langdon Clay's book "Cars — New York City 1974-1976" show, 40 years ago, Manhattan was more about crowbars and break-ins than cronuts and Airbnb. In the 18 years Clay lived as a young man in New York City, he spent three of those years exploring the streets of Manhattan in the middle of the night alone. During those wee hours Clay took to some of the city's most dangerous streets with his Leica camera and a few rolls of Kodachrome, snapping photos of the colorful cars he saw parked against the forlorn urbanscape. Ahead Clay shares with 6sqft some of his favorite images from that time.
Explore the series and hear from Langdon

December 12, 2016

Amtrak’s Hudson River tunnels project could bring 3 years of traffic jams

By Diane Pham

Back in January, Amtrak unveiled its $24B Gateway Program, a plan that would overhaul the Hudson River rail tunnels by building a brand new tunnel and repairing another that is currently in disrepair. Work under the plan would also encompass expanding Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan and replacing rail bridges in New Jersey. While details on the course of construction were previously thin, according to draft proposals obtained by Reuters, we now know that work on the new tunnel will begin in 2019, and the West Side Highway could be subject to three years of traffic jams as a result.
more details here

Transit

December 9, 2016

New York City awarded $80.2 million in state funding competitions for 121 projects

By Diane Pham

NYC will get a big boost thanks to Governor Cuomo's Regional Economic Development Council competitions, a six-year-old initiative that provides "ground-up" funding driven by a community's success in improving quality of life and growing the local economy. New York City was named a "top performer" by the administration and awarded $80.2 million. The hefty sum will be allocated towards 121 projects across all five boroughs, including $1 million to build a tech incubator facility in Brooklyn, $1 million for a shuttle-bus service for the Brooklyn Navy Yard, $2.1 million to support the Green Point Manufacturing and Design Center, and $1.24 million to complete the final section of the Brooklyn Bridge Park beneath the bridge. Money will also go towards brownfield clean-up, supporting workforce expansion in local organizations, job training, and improving parks in low-income neighborhoods.
find out more

December 8, 2016

ParkServe will share park data from 13,931 cities to help planners improve recreation space locally

By Diane Pham

Next year, urban planners across the country will have a handy new tool at their disposal to help better inform them on the placement of parks and other recreation in their respective cities. Together with ESRI, the Trust for Public Land (TPL) have been developing a new website called ParkServe that has culled park data from nearly 14,000 parks across the country. As Statescoop shares, in addition assisting in park planning through open-space advocacy and research, the new site will help citizens take advantage of, and have a say in the development of, local parks.
more on the new site

December 2, 2016

Officials launch petition to have federal government pay for Trump Tower security, not New Yorkers

By Diane Pham

City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and Council Member Dan Garodnick won't have New York City shafted with the bill for “White House North.” The pair have launched a petition demanding that the federal government pony up whatever cash is needed to keep Trump Tower secure during the president-elect's term of office. As 6sqft previously reported, Trump hopes to spend weekends and even some weeknights at the Midtown tower over the next four years, particularly as wife Melania will stay put until son Barron finishes school—and more simply because Trump likes waking up in his own bed. It has been estimated that turning Trump Tower into a 24/7 armed fortress will cost New York City taxpayers $1 million a day, and the total bill over the president-elect's four-year term could swell beyond $1 billion.
more details here

Celebrities

November 30, 2016

10 eco-friendly Christmas tree alternatives for small spaces and apartments

By Diane Pham

Our ongoing series Apartment Living 101 is aimed at helping New Yorkers navigate the challenges of creating a happy home in the big city. This week we've rounded up some alternative holiday tree ideas for those living in tight spaces. While you could buy a Charlie Brown tree, or try ask to have a few feet knocked off that pine when you hit the register, if you're a small space dweller who wants a more eco-friendly holiday arbol this year, there are plenty of options for you beyond the classic artificial fir (which fyi is even more environmentally unsound than chopping down an evergreen thanks to the carcinogens produced during manufacturing and disposal). From edible trees to LED pines to DIY options that smell just as good as the real thing, 6sqft has searched high and low for 10 different types of sustainable Christmas tree alternatives to jazz your apartment up with this year—and years to come.
ten alternative ideas here

St. Nicholas National Shrine at the World Trade Center tops out with cross

Images st_nicholasshrine Instagram / WTC Progress Facebook

November 29, 2016

St. Nicholas National Shrine at the World Trade Center tops out with cross

By Diane Pham

It's been a long and arduous process rebuilding the St. Nicholas National Shrine, a Greek Orthodox Church that was destroyed on 9/11 when the second trade tower toppled on it. Only last year was the foundation poured, and only two weeks ago were the steel ribs of the structure's defining dome installed. But despite construction moving forward at a glacial pace, officials yesterday celebrated a major milestone with a “topping out ceremony” at the church's new site at Greenwich and Liberty streets. The touchstone event was notably marked by the addition of a temporary 6-foot-3-inch Justinian cross, reports the Times.
see more photos here

Architecture And Design

November 24, 2016

Turn your Thanksgiving leftovers into one of these innovative dishes (infographic)

By Diane Pham

We all know this scene well: You’ve finally woken from your Thanksgiving Day food coma, and you emerge from your bedroom and stumble into the kitchen looking for a midday snack. You swing open your fridge door only to find yourself faced with container after container full of leftovers. While another turkey leg in your stomach doesn’t sound so […]

Events & Things To Do

Proposed towers could bring 500 apartments to Crown Heights, including 140 affordable units

Google Earth rendering created by CityRealty; Image depicts the massing of the proposed buildings, not the design

November 23, 2016

Proposed towers could bring 500 apartments to Crown Heights, including 140 affordable units

By Diane Pham

Crown Heights is a neighborhood undergoing rapid change, but the western area south of Eastern Parkway has remained relatively quiet and unaltered by new development. However, it appears that could soon change. As The Real Deal reports, Cornell Realty Management is hoping to rezone two parcels at 40 Crown Street and 931 Carroll Street, just one block from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, to make way for a pair of towers that would house more than 500 residential units.
more here

New Developments

November 18, 2016

UES studio Andy Warhol rented for $150/month sells for $10 million

By Diane Pham

In addition to being one of the world's most iconic artists, Andy Warhol appears to have had the Midas touch for real estate. In 2013, Warhol's one-time townhouse on Lexington Avenue sold $5.5 million—he paid just $60,000 for it in 1959; then last October, the artist's former Montauk compound, which he paid just $225,000 for in 1972, sold for a whopping $50 million; and now, as The Real Deal reports, the ramshackle Upper East Side studio he rented for paltry $150 a month has just traded hands for an incredible $9.9 million.
find out more

NYPL reveals first image for its $200M Mid-Manhattan Library renovation

Image: Mecanoo with Beyer Blinder Belle

November 17, 2016

NYPL reveals first image for its $200M Mid-Manhattan Library renovation

By Diane Pham

Hot on the heels of wrapping a major renovation and hosting an epic reopening for the Rose Reading Room at their flagship Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, the NYPL is now moving forward with another mammoth revamp on its Mid-Manhattan Library. Last September, the library revealed that Dutch architecture firm Mecanoo had been tasked with the $300 million overhaul of both the flagship and the Mid-Manhattan branch at Fifth Avenue and 40th Street. And now, the NYPL is offering us our first look at the latter, a project they are calling a "state-of-the-art library that will serve as both a model and catalyst for a rejuvenated library system."
all the details here

All articles by Diane Pham

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