All articles by Ondel Hylton

Ondel is 6sqft's Market News Editor and the Digital Content Manager for CityRealty. He’s a lifelong New Yorker and comprehensive assessor of the city’s dynamic urban landscape. Ondel is an alumnus of Pratt Institute’s School of Architecture, and is a LEED accredited professional. Beginning his career as a Junior Architect at DaSILVA Architects, Ondel moved to the public sector as an Analyst Architect for the New York City Office of Management and Budget. Aside from CityRealty and 6sqft, he is a volunteer at the Skyscraper Museum, a docent for the Municipal Arts Society, and leads architectural tours around the city.

Two New Handel-Designed Towers to Sail Onto the Greenpoint Landing Waterfront

October 28, 2015

Two New Handel-Designed Towers to Sail Onto the Greenpoint Landing Waterfront

By Ondel Hylton

Yesterday it was announced that Brookfield Property Partners is making their first Brooklyn venture by purchasing a majority stake in two Greenpoint Landing development sites for $59.7 million. While better known for their commercial ventures, Brookfield will begin construction early next year on 775 market-rate apartments on two waterfront parcels. The towers should be finished sometime in 2019 at the total cost of $600 million as part of the first phases of the of the 22-acre master plan which is being designed by Handel Architects. Plans filed with the Department of Buildings for Brookfield's sites call for a 30-story, 372-unit rental building at 37 Blue Slip and a larger 39-story, 401-unit tower at 41 Blue Slip. A cul-de-sac will separate the slab-shaped towers, which will open onto a waterfront esplanade designed by James Corner Field Operations.
More renderings right this way

First Look at the Bow Building’s Interiors, Fifth Avenue Gem Comes Back to Life as Condos

October 27, 2015

First Look at the Bow Building’s Interiors, Fifth Avenue Gem Comes Back to Life as Condos

By Ondel Hylton

Here's a first look at the interiors of Pan-Brothers Associates lovingly restored condominium development The Bow Building at 242 Fifth Avenue. Acquiring its name from the ornamental bow cast onto its facade, the structure's Queen Anne cast-iron front has been rehabilitated to its original 1885 grandeur. Once home to high-end antique furniture stores, tailors and art dealers, its sumptuously-scaled, arched windows will soon flood light into four bespoke units, each equipped with 11- to 20-foot ceilings and private outdoor spaces.
More info and all the renderings

65-Story Condo Tower Designed by CetraRuddy to Rise in the Downtown Skyline

Renderings of the tower at 900 feet, courtesy of CityRealty

October 27, 2015

65-Story Condo Tower Designed by CetraRuddy to Rise in the Downtown Skyline

By Ondel Hylton

Last week it was announced that the long vacant Financial District lot at 45 Broad Street would be redeveloped into a 65-story condominium tower through a partnership between Madison Equities and the Pizzarotti Group. According to The Real Deal, "The buyers closed on the purchase of the land for $86 million and secured a $75 million acquisition loan." While it is not yet clear what the project’s exact size and number of units will be, given the lofty ceiling heights of today's high-end condo developments, 65 stories could yield a tower of up to 900 feet.
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Check Out the Views From 1,438 Feet in the Air at 111 West 57th Street

October 26, 2015

Check Out the Views From 1,438 Feet in the Air at 111 West 57th Street

By Ondel Hylton

Last week, 6sqft brought you an up close and personal look at 111 West 57th Street's exterior facade mock-up, and now Property Markets Group (PMG), who is co-developing the super-tower with JDS Development Group, posted a nifty interactive panorama of the building's out-of-this-world views. Rising from the heart of Billionaires' Row (New York's very own Mount Olympus and preferred residence of our anonymous overlords), the building is 80 stories and 1,438 feet high and is nearly perfectly on axis to Central Park–an egotistical perk that Extell's Central Park Tower and Macklowe/CIM Group's 432 Park aren't granted despite having higher apartments.
This way for the views

First Peek at Alchemy Properties’ 26-Story NOMA Condominium

October 26, 2015

First Peek at Alchemy Properties’ 26-Story NOMA Condominium

By Ondel Hylton

Here's our first peek at Alchemy Properties' upcoming mixed-use condominium development NOMA. Slated to rise 26 stories/316 feet from a 7,000-square-foot corner lot at 846-850 Sixth Avenue, the building will be the first ground-up condominium development in NoMad west of Fifth Avenue. With demolition just wrapping up on a single-story strip of retail stores, excavation will soon begin for a FXFowle-designed mixed-use tower that is slated to house 52 condo apartments and 13,000 square feet of retail space on its first two floors. Zoning diagrams filed at the Department of Buildings indicate the form of the tower will be composed of variously scaled and skewed interlocking volumes. Units with eastern exposures will have balconies.
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A Closer Look at How XOCO 325’s Oh-So-Cool Melting Facade Was Created

October 23, 2015

A Closer Look at How XOCO 325’s Oh-So-Cool Melting Facade Was Created

By Ondel Hylton

Earlier, we gave you a look at DDG's rough-cut, bluestone facade at 12 Warren Street in Tribeca, and now, just a few blocks north within the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District, the team has de-shrouded the skeletal exterior of their upcoming condominium XOCO 325. Rising from a through-block site at 325 West Broadway, the 48,000 square foot development will house 21 light-filled residences upon its completion early next year. DDG picked up the site for $38.5 million in 2012, and in typical fashion, souped up the design with organic and environmentally inspired elements that charmed the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
more this way

DDG’s Bluestone Beauty at 12 Warren Street Finally Shows Some Skin

October 23, 2015

DDG’s Bluestone Beauty at 12 Warren Street Finally Shows Some Skin

By Ondel Hylton

Fully-integrated design and build firm DDG has raised the curtain on their highly anticipated condo development 12 Warren Street. Designed by their in-house architect Peter Guthrie, its facade of roughly-hewn Pennsylvania bluestone is meant to evoke the natural uneven stacking of the material. In what must have taken quite the effort to detail, variously dimensioned slabs, ranging from standard-sized bricks to large lintel blocks, protrude from the exterior at varying depths. While more commonly seen underfoot as sidewalk pavement, here the brittle stone's soothing tone softens the building's ogreish form, whose still-shrouded cliff-like top will incorporate a wild display of projecting volumes and terraces. As simply stated by architecture critic Carter Horsely, "DDG continues its elegant campaign to make New Yorkers lust after bluestone rather than brownstone."
Find out more details about the development

A Behind the Scenes Look at How SHoP’s Stunning Facade at 111 West 57th Street Will Come to Life

October 21, 2015

A Behind the Scenes Look at How SHoP’s Stunning Facade at 111 West 57th Street Will Come to Life

By Ondel Hylton

Last month, JDS Development wowed us with an image showing a visual curtain wall mockup of their super-tower underway at 111 West 57th Street. Now the Michael Stern-led development team in partnership with Property Markets Group has released a new video and a handful of images to keep our mouths watering for what is poised to become New York's most daring skyscraper in generations. Designed by the local talents at ShoP Architects, the tower has already nervously impressed us with its extraordinary height of 1,438 feet and its jaw-dropping slenderness (a ratio of 1:24). Now that its engineers, the WSP Group, and the Times have thoroughly convinced us that the building will not fall over, we can focus our attention on the tower's elegantly detailed facade, composed of a feathery mix of terra-cotta, bronze, and glass. A recent video posted by JDS provides us with more glimpses of the cladding, a time-lapse video of how the facade will transform throughout the day, as well as some behind-the-scenes insight of the extraordinary undertaking involved to sheath this future landmark.
Watch the video and get more details

New Renderings of Handel Architects’ Torqued 43-Story Rental Underway Near Grand Central

October 16, 2015

New Renderings of Handel Architects’ Torqued 43-Story Rental Underway Near Grand Central

By Ondel Hylton

Groundwork on BLDG Management's 43-story rental tower at 222 East 44th Street is quickly moving forward now that the large block-through parking garage that occupied the site has been removed. The 441,000-square-foot development situated midblock between Second and Third Avenues will house 429 residential units, 87 of which will be deemed affordable. East 44th Street is among the most densely built streetscapes in the city, and will be more so once three other high-rises projects on the stretch are complete. But as 6sqft reported in August, the 556-foot-tall, Handel Architects-designed development employs a unique massing where its elevations are torqued away from the street wall, granting additional light and air to residents.
This way for more details and renderings

First Full Look at Extell’s 80-Story One Manhattan Square, 800 Condos Aimed at Asian Buyers

October 15, 2015

First Full Look at Extell’s 80-Story One Manhattan Square, 800 Condos Aimed at Asian Buyers

By Ondel Hylton

Bloomberg News reported yesterday that the restless developer Gary Barnett will soon begin marketing the 800 condominiums of his upcoming One Manhattan Square development to Asian buyers first. Apparently not satisfied with erecting two of the tallest and priciest residential buildings in the city, One57 and the Central Park Tower, the Extell Development Company founder and CEO is busy laying the groundwork for one of the largest condominium towers in the city at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge. Going by the address 252 South Street, the bipartite tower is being designed by Adamson Associates Architects (AAI) and will soar 80 stories tall, roughly to the same height as the Comcast Building (former GE/RCA Building) in Midtown. At nearly 850 feet, the tower will be the tallest skyscraper on the island between Midtown and downtown, and by far the tallest building directly along the waterfront. Its staggering 800 units will fall just short of the city's largest individual condo-tower, the 816-unit Corinthian in Murray Hill.
More details on the development

Popular Articles

REVEALED: First Look at GDC Properties’ Townhouses Coming to Long Island City

October 14, 2015

REVEALED: First Look at GDC Properties’ Townhouses Coming to Long Island City

By Ondel Hylton

After the record snatch-up of Red Hook's King and Sullivan Townhomes last month, another not-so-Brownstoney neighborhood is joining in on the townhouse craze. Westchester County-based GDC Properties is slated to bring eighteen two-family townhouses to Long Island City, and here we have a first look at what the ensemble's 11th Street frontage will look like.
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REVEALED: Karl Fischer Pens Another Bottom-Line Design for East Williamsburg

October 14, 2015

REVEALED: Karl Fischer Pens Another Bottom-Line Design for East Williamsburg

By Ondel Hylton

Here's our first unfortunate look at a 12-story residential building slated to rise within a rapidly gentrifying corner of East Williamsburg. The block-through parcel at 46 Cook Street, between Graham and Humboldt Streets, will give way to a 34,000-square-foot mixed-use development designed by Karl Fischer Architect and Brooklyn-based developer Joel Braver, under the LLC Cook Properties. The project replaces a one-story brick warehouse building and is located just two blocks from the Flushing Avenue J/M subway station.
More info ahead

Robert A.M. Stern’s 520 Park Avenue Finally Reaches Street Level, $130M Penthouse on Its Way

October 14, 2015

Robert A.M. Stern’s 520 Park Avenue Finally Reaches Street Level, $130M Penthouse on Its Way

By Ondel Hylton

Two years since its groundbreaking, Zeckendorf Development's tower o' opulence at 520 Park Avenue has finally emerged from its cavernous trench. Set for completion in 2018, the Billionaires' Row building will climb 54 floors and 780 feet into the Manhattan skyline, becoming the tallest and likely the most prestigious building on the Upper East Side. Envisioned by William Lie and Arthur Zeckendorf, 520 Park Avenue inherits the classically-inspired taste of the real estate dynasty's prior projects. In the '80s, their father William Zeckendorf Jr. erected some of the city's largest post-modern apartment complexes such as Worldwide Plaza, Zeckendorf Towers, and the Park Belvedere. Here, the developers commissioned the esteemed architect/historian and dean of the Yale School of Architecture Robert A.M. Stern as the designer and SLCE as the architects of record. This team also collaborated together on 18 Gramercy Park South and 15 Central Park West, which shattered apartment records when it opened in 2008. Intent on replicating its west side counterpart's success, the Zeckendorfs again gathered the now-not-so-secret ingredients: a powerful address, palatial apartments, and most importantly, the coveted Central Park view, all of which will culminate in a jaw-dropping $130 million penthouse.
More on the project's status

252 East 57th Street Tops Off Construction Ten Years After Innovative Public-Private Partnership

October 13, 2015

252 East 57th Street Tops Off Construction Ten Years After Innovative Public-Private Partnership

By Ondel Hylton

Soaring more than 700 feet into the Midtown East skyline, World Wide Group and Rose Associate's 252 East 57th Street has officially topped out. Yes, it's hard being a stand-out skyscraper in Manhattan these days; some 30 years ago, the tower would have been the highest apartment tower in the city, just besting Trump Tower and Olympic Tower on Fifth Avenue. Today, the 57-story building is the shortest and eastern-most of six super-towers underway along the southern periphery of Central Park that have been raising average building heights and asking prices to new levels.
More details ahead

REVEALED: Chelsea Atelier’s Mixed-Use High Line Development With Viewing Decks

October 9, 2015

REVEALED: Chelsea Atelier’s Mixed-Use High Line Development With Viewing Decks

By Ondel Hylton

Another forward-looking project may be coming to the banks of the High Line, this time for a T-shaped lot near the corner of Tenth Avenue and West 17th Street. While still in its conceptual stage, the design of 455 West 17th Street is being handled by architecture and project management firm Chelsea Atelier. The two-wing project consists of a four-story Tenth Avenue wing, to contain a small hotel or offices, and a larger 11-story wing that would house residential condominiums. Amir Shouri, senior designer at Chelsea Atelier, says the design seeks to create viewing decks to capture glimpses of the High Line and the Hudson River. The blurred boundaries between inside and out will ceaselessly showcase the "live urban activity of the High Line during the day and motivate inhabitants to go out an enjoy the area's many amenities."
More details this way

Turkish Consulate’s New Tower Across From UN Finally Moves Ahead, Offices and Apartments Planned

Concept design by Chelsea Atelier

October 9, 2015

Turkish Consulate’s New Tower Across From UN Finally Moves Ahead, Offices and Apartments Planned

By Ondel Hylton

After more than three years on the drawing board, the replacement tower for Turkey’s Consulate General and Permanent Mission to the United States at 821 First Avenue is finally moving forward. First announced in 2012, the proposed project, known as the Turkevi Center, has commissioned Perkins Eastman as the architects of record. The building will house new offices for the consulate, and diplomatic residences for permanent staff and visitors above.
Find out more here

Construction and Sales Begin on SCDA’s Billionaires’ Row Tower, 118 East 59th Street

October 9, 2015

Construction and Sales Begin on SCDA’s Billionaires’ Row Tower, 118 East 59th Street

By Ondel Hylton

Construction and sales have commenced on a glass-encased, 500-foot-tall condominium tower at 118 East 59th Street developed by Euro Properties and designed by Soo K. Chan of SCDA Architects. Situated mid block between Park and Lexington Avenues, the tower is surrounded by the crème de la crème of New York real estate, positioned within the nexus of several high-value locales: The Plaza District, home to the GM Building, commands the city's top office rents; nearby shopping stretches of Fifth and Madison Avenues hold the world's most coveted retail corners; and a one-mile long, super-luxury residential corridor, nicknamed Billionaires' Row, straddles the southern bounds of Central Park and is set to reshape the city skyline into a trophy shelf of wealth.
More details ahead

Affordable Housing Lottery Launched for Bjarke Ingels’ Epic Pyramid, VIA 57 West

Construction shot © 6sqft

October 3, 2015

Affordable Housing Lottery Launched for Bjarke Ingels’ Epic Pyramid, VIA 57 West

By Ondel Hylton

Applications are now being accepted for the 142 affordable apartments in Bjarke Ingels' tetrahedron-shaped rental building dubbed VIA 57 West, aka "the Pyramid Building." By downloading applications here, you and 141 other lucky families may have the chance to live in a future landmark that is already turning out to be the most audacious rental building ever built in the city. The massive, half-block-long development will contain a total of 709 units, of which 20 percent will be deemed affordable. Subsidized rents range from $565/month studios for single-person households making between $19,222 - $24,200 annually, to three-bedroom apartments going for $1,067/month for three- to six-person households.
More construction shots and the full pricing breakdown

Zaha Hadid Launches Sales at Her High Line Condos, Talks the Evolution of NY Architecture

October 2, 2015

Zaha Hadid Launches Sales at Her High Line Condos, Talks the Evolution of NY Architecture

By Ondel Hylton

Related Companies has officially launched sales for their highly-anticipated upcoming condominium, 520 West 28th Street. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect and artist Zaha Hadid, the eleven-story building will be Hadid's first ground-up structure in New York and will offer 39 distinctive two- to five-bedroom homes priced from $4,950,000 to $50 million for the largest penthouse. The under construction building, now five-stories up, rises alongside the High Line elevated park from an L-shaped parcel between West 27th and 28th Streets in the center of West Chelsea's art gallery district. Related Companies purchased the site for $65 million in 2012 and soon after commissioned the Iraqi-British designer, who beat out the likes of fellow Brit, Norman Foster. Yesterday, at the development's launch, Hadid said she has "always been fascinated by the High Line and its possibilities for the city. "
More from the event here

Watch Videos of Morgan Stanley’s New Times Square LED Screens That Replaced Its Iconic Zipper

September 25, 2015

Watch Videos of Morgan Stanley’s New Times Square LED Screens That Replaced Its Iconic Zipper

By Ondel Hylton

Last week, Morgan Stanley unveiled a set of seven modernized LED signs at the base of its headquarters building at 1585 Broadway in Times Square. The digital billboards, which took five months to replace, feature six million LED pixels that can display up to 281 trillion colors. The screens replace the iconic amber ticker that stood at the lower three floors of the Gwathmey, Siegel & Associates-designed building for more than 20 years. Since the sign was inspired by similar signage at Bloomberg's 731 Lexington Avenue, the bank spent nine months working with Bloomberg's internal creative agency to develop its content. With custom-built technology by British-based Framestore, the screens can display updated imagery and data at all times. The sign's fact sheet (PDF) notes that the displays will be operational 19 hours a day and will display 2,100 pieces of distinct content, including 855 news headlines and real-time data of eight global indices.
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Check Out These Insane Views From Brooklyn’s First 1,000+ Foot Tower

September 25, 2015

Check Out These Insane Views From Brooklyn’s First 1,000+ Foot Tower

By Ondel Hylton

Seeing the boroughs from sky-high heights is nothing new thanks to all the supertall towers in Manhattan, but it's not as common to have a panoramic view of our main island, which is why we had to share this video. JDS Development posted the short clip on their Instagram stream yesterday that shows potential views from their upcoming mixed-use skyscraper planned for Downtown Brooklyn using air rights from the Dime Savings Bank site. If constructed as intended, it will be the first 1,000+ foot tower outside of Manhattan. The nine-second video, whose camera height seems nearly eye-level to the 1,368-foot roof of One World Trade Center, depicts far-reaching, panoramic views to the west and northwest over Manhattan and beyond.
Check it out here

Extell’s Church-Encroaching 10th Avenue Tower Tops Out, New Interior Renderings Revealed

September 24, 2015

Extell’s Church-Encroaching 10th Avenue Tower Tops Out, New Interior Renderings Revealed

By Ondel Hylton

With the opening of the 7 train extension earlier this month, things are finally starting to look up for Manhattan's far West Side–literally. Hudson Yard's Coach Tower is nearing its 900-foot apex, and Gary Barnett's Extell Development has topped off construction on its 610-foot high skyscraper at 555 Tenth Avenue. Extell's rental/dormitory project anchors a full block-front between West 40th and 41st streets, and cozies up next to (and above) the neo-gothic Church of Saints Cyril & Methodius and Saint Raphael, from which the savvy developer purchased 140,000 square feet of air rights from in 2012 for $16.5 million. According to previous reports, Barnett obtained the rights to build on the 18,000 square-foot parcel after signing a 99-year ground lease from the estate of Sol Goldman in 2011. The $480 million project is partly financed by means of $100 million from EB5 equity investors.
find out more here

Downtown’s Beekman Residences Tower Is Ready for Its Crowns – Now 50 Percent Sold

September 22, 2015

Downtown’s Beekman Residences Tower Is Ready for Its Crowns – Now 50 Percent Sold

By Ondel Hylton

Rising from the birthplace of the romantic skyscraper, a svelte 51-story condominium known as the Beekman Residences will soon receive its twin pyramidal crowns. The to-be-illuminated, open-air pinnacles will bring the building's 599-foot roof height up an additional 51 feet, granting us skyline-watchers a new silhouette to gaze upon. While the tower's height is unremarkable in today's world of kilometer-high skyscrapers (it's only the 24th tallest building now under construction in the city), its peculiar design and prominent location overlooking Park Row is sure to add to the exceptional urban room created by the variously-styled towers surrounding City Hall Park.
More details ahead

New Renderings of Vinoly’s 125 Greenwich Street, Downtown’s Future Tallest Residential Skyscraper

Rendering by ArX Solutions

September 11, 2015

New Renderings of Vinoly’s 125 Greenwich Street, Downtown’s Future Tallest Residential Skyscraper

By Ondel Hylton

On the 14th anniversary of the day that caused the city to question our skyward building ambitions, we give you a new look at lower Manhattan's future tallest apartment tower, 125 Greenwich Street. Not only has the city regained its confidence in building high again, but it has now been feverishly erecting 1,000-plus-foot supertall towers at a faster rate than nearly any other global metropolis. This particular residential spire will soar 77 stories and roughly 1,100 feet high, some 200 feet taller than downtown's next tallest ground-up residential buildings, 30 Park Place (937 feet) and New York by Gehry (870 feet).
Find out more here

REVEALED: First Look at 1399 Park Avenue, 23-Story Tower Coming to East Harlem

Google Streetview of buildings that previously stood at the site (L); Rendering of the new building via Goldstein Hill & West Architects (R)

September 9, 2015

REVEALED: First Look at 1399 Park Avenue, 23-Story Tower Coming to East Harlem

By Ondel Hylton

Here's our first look at Heritage Real Estate Partners' 23-story, 108-unit residential building underway at 1399 Park Avenue in East Harlem. Designed by Goldstein Hill & West Architects (GHWA), the 253-foot tall, glass and cast-stone tower is expressed as a stack of variably-sized, staggered volumes creating numerous terraces that face north towards the East River and west towards Central Park. Fittingly, Heritage has filed permits under the alias "Heritage on the Park LLC," possibly hinting at the official name for the tower.
More details ahead

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