Architecture And Design

See the five designs proposed for the Shirley Chisholm monument in Prospect Park

Design proposal by Mickalene Thomas

March 27, 2019

See the five designs proposed for the Shirley Chisholm monument in Prospect Park

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The city announced last November plans to commission a permanent statue in Brooklyn of Shirley Chisholm, a Bed-Stuy native who became the first black woman to serve in the House of Representatives. On Wednesday, the Department of Cultural Affairs unveiled five finalist design proposals and asked the public for feedback. An artist will be selected next month, with the monument, which will be placed outside of the Parkside entrance to Prospect Park, completed at the end of next year. The statue of Chisholm will be the first monument constructed under the city's She Built NYC! initiative, which aims to increase the number of public monuments dedicated to NYC women. Currently, just five of the city’s 150 statues are of women.
See the designs
These Upper West Side buildings stick out like sore thumbs

Google Street View of 249 West End Avenue

March 27, 2019

These Upper West Side buildings stick out like sore thumbs

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From brownstones to art-deco co-ops to glassy towers, the Upper West Side is home to an incredibly diverse mix of architectural styles. And this contrast is seen in its most abundant light when these different styles are located on a single street! Ahead, we've rounded up five buildings that really stick out like sore thumbs among their neighbors.
See them all here
Central Park Tower rises above 432 Park, officially becomes tallest residential building in the world

Current view of construction via 6sqft (L); Rendering of the completed tower via Extell (R)

March 27, 2019

Central Park Tower rises above 432 Park, officially becomes tallest residential building in the world

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Extell Development's supertall on Billionaires' Row is officially the tallest residential tower in the world. As YIMBY reported this week, Central Park Tower, at 225 West 57th Street, has reached its 92nd floor, surpassing the 1,396-foot-tall tower at 432 Park Avenue. Designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, Central Park Tower will top out at 95 stories, or 1,550 feet tall, making it stand out significantly among neighboring skyscrapers when construction wraps up next year.
Details here
David Adjaye to help design Bed Stuy’s Restoration Plaza revamp

Image courtesy of Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation.

March 26, 2019

David Adjaye to help design Bed Stuy’s Restoration Plaza revamp

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Restoration Plaza, the commercial complex on Fulton Street in Bed-Stuy that has served as a neighborhood hub since it opened in 1972, is getting a major revamp, with British starchitect David Adjaye at the helm for its design. Curbed reports that the nonprofit Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, which owns and operates the plaza, has announced the creation of a five-year plan for re-imagining the site, including improved services for the surrounding neighborhood and the addition of 400,000 square feet of office space to the complex that currently houses the Billie Holiday Theatre, office space, restaurants, grocery stores and the Brooklyn Business Center.
Find out more
De Blasio’s plan for a borough-based jail system as Rikers replacement moves forward

Via Wikimedia

March 26, 2019

De Blasio’s plan for a borough-based jail system as Rikers replacement moves forward

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Mayor Bill de Blasio's plan to open four new jails as replacements for the Rikers Island complex has officially entered the public review process. The City Planning Commission on Tuesday certified the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure application from the city's corrections department to open new facilities in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens as part of the city's 10-year plan to close Rikers. The rubber stamp from the CPC comes after the project's draft environmental impact statement, which was released last week, found no significant adverse impacts.
Learn more here
A 19th-century warehouse on Governors Island will become a permanent arts center

Photo by Zachary Tyler Newton

March 25, 2019

A 19th-century warehouse on Governors Island will become a permanent arts center

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Governors Island is gettings its first permanent home for artists this year as the effort to turn the 172-acre former military base into a year-round cultural hub continues. The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) announced on Monday plans to transform a 1870s warehouse into a 40,000-square-foot center for arts and educational programming. In 2009, LMCC became one of the first tenants on Governors Island, which opened to the public in 2005 after serving as a base for the Army and then the Coast Guard for more than two centuries.
More here
New proposal turns the BQE’s triple cantilever into a three-level linear park

Rendering by Kameny Design and Taylor Davenport, courtesy of Mark Baker

March 21, 2019

New proposal turns the BQE’s triple cantilever into a three-level linear park

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A longtime Brooklyn resident is offering his own innovative solution to fix the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. Mark Baker's proposal involves transforming the BQE's triple cantilever into the "Tri-Line," a three-tiered park that extends from Brooklyn Bridge Park. Modeled after Manhattan's High Line, the Tri-Line parks would measure 1,880 feet long and include gardens, seating, walking paths, and bike lanes. As the Brooklyn Eagle reported, cars and trucks would be rerouted along a new highway on Furman Street, preserving the Brooklyn Heights Promenade and adding eight acres of park space in the process.
See the proposal
Sales at Zaha Hadid’s High Line condo lag despite high hopes and hype

Image: Flickr cc

March 21, 2019

Sales at Zaha Hadid’s High Line condo lag despite high hopes and hype

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Developer Related Companies' high-profile condominium at 520 West 28th Street, designed by the late Pritzker Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid, launched sales in 2015 to a flurry of hype and hubris. The highly-anticipated West Side residence was Hadid's first ground-up structure in New York City, offering homes that ranged from $4,950,000 to a $50 million penthouse. Crains reports that since that glittering launch, though, only 16 of the building's 39 units have sold, calling the offering "a rare bust." The sales figures reflect about a 40 percent sell-through that looks even lower when square footage is considered: The building's biggest units remain unclaimed, including its three penthouses. Of the 16 apartments that have sold, 14 were bought in 2017. Only two units sold in 2018, and none so far this year.
Will Hudson Yards bring more buyers?
Jersey City wants to open a High Line-style park

Sketch by Richard La Rovere courtesy of the Journal Square Community Association

March 19, 2019

Jersey City wants to open a High Line-style park

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A Jersey City community association wants to turn an abandoned rail cut into a 17-acre High Line-style park. The Journal Square Community Association is proposing turning what used to be the Erie Railroad's four-track cut through the Palisades into a public park. Better known as the Bergen Arches, the historic rail-cut borders Journal Square and opened in 1910, but has not been in use since the late 1950s. Since then, the Bergen Arches has become an overgrown wooded area in the expanding Journal Square neighborhood.
Details this way
PHOTOS: See inside Hudson Yards’ climbable ‘Vessel’
March 18, 2019

PHOTOS: See inside Hudson Yards’ climbable ‘Vessel’

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The long-awaited Hudson Yards development opened on Friday and with it, the centerpiece of the 28-acre project: a 150-foot-tall climbable public art piece, known as "Vessel." Designed by Thomas Heatherwick, the impressive bronzed steel-and-concrete structure offers visitors a one-mile vertical climbing experience through 154 interconnected flights of stairs and 2,500 individual steps. On Friday, 6sqft joined the first group of people to ever climb the honeycomb-shaped sculpture. Ahead, get up close to the intricately-designed Vessel and learn how to reserve tickets to climb it.
See inside the sculpture
Proposed 40-story tower in Downtown Brooklyn gets City Council approval

Rendering of 570 Fulton Street via Slate Property Group

March 15, 2019

Proposed 40-story tower in Downtown Brooklyn gets City Council approval

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The New York City Council this week voted to approve a proposed 40-story building in Downtown Brooklyn, adding to the slew of new high-rises coming to the historically low-slung neighborhood. According to the Brooklyn Eagle, the council voted to approve zoning measures that permit Slate Property Group to build at 570 Fulton Street. With council approval, the 200,000-square-foot mixed-use building will move on to Mayor Bill de Blasio's desk next, despite concerns from the local community board.
More here
Step back in time in this charming row house on Washington Heights’ Sylvan Terrace, asking $1.5M
March 14, 2019

Step back in time in this charming row house on Washington Heights’ Sylvan Terrace, asking $1.5M

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The quaint row houses of landmarked Sylvan Terrace are tucked away on one of the city’s “secret” streets in Washington Heights, which used to be the carriage drive to the Morris-Jumel Mansion, the oldest house in Manhattan where General George Washington held a temporary headquarters during the Revolutionary War. Residences on the charming street rarely become available, but the three-bedroom at 14 Sylvan Terrace just hit the market for $1,589,000. With plenty of original details, including two fireplaces, pocket doors, and period hardwood floors, here’s a chance to experience “romance from another era,” as the listing describes.
Take a look inside
Bjarke Ingels’ two twisting towers top out in Chelsea

Photo by Evan Joseph

March 8, 2019

Bjarke Ingels’ two twisting towers top out in Chelsea

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Bjarke Ingels’ twisting towers at 76 Eleventh Avenue in Chelsea officially topped out this week, with the 36-story West tower reaching 400 feet shortly after the 26-story East tower hit its 300-foot height. The High Line-adjacent XI, located right across the street from Thomas Heatherwick’s bubbled condos at 515 West 18th Street, will offer 236 luxury condos, the first Six Senses Hotel location in the United States, commercial space, and a new public promenade that will extend from the park. Designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), the XI's slanted shape gives the illusion the two buildings are being pulled apart, allowing for all residents to have views of both the city and the Hudson River.
Get the details
New renderings revealed for Greenpoint Landing’s OMA-designed towers

Rendering courtesy of Brookfield Properties and Park Tower Group.

March 7, 2019

New renderings revealed for Greenpoint Landing’s OMA-designed towers

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Developers Brookfield Properties and Park Tower Group have unveiled the next phase of development in the massive Greenpoint Landing waterfront project, including an addition to the public waterfront esplanade designed by James Corner Field Operations and mixed-income housing designed by OMA, the architecture firm founded by Rem Koolhaas. Construction is scheduled to begin this summer on the two new towers and an adjacent seven-story building that will bring the total number of units in the project to 745, of which 30 percent will be affordable.
More this way
Rockefeller Center developer reveals first NYC residential tower in Nomad

Left: Rendering of Rose Hill; credit: Pandiscio Green and Recent Spaces. Right: Still from a video by artist Marco Brambilla, commissioned by Rockefeller Group to emphasize the building’s Art Deco influence.

March 6, 2019

Rockefeller Center developer reveals first NYC residential tower in Nomad

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Formed over 90 years ago to develop and build Rockefeller Center, developer Rockefeller Group has never built a residential tower in its New York City hometown–until now. Their new condominium tower, Rose Hill has just been unveiled along with the launch of the building's teaser site. The 600-foot tower is currently under construction at 30 East 29th Street. The building will be designed by CetraRuddy; first looks show an Art Deco-inspired facade that does not diverge heavily from the architectural style of Rockefeller Center.
More, this way
NYPL’s new entrance and public plaza on 40th Street gets green light from Landmarks

Rendering of the Marshall Rose Plaza by Mecanoo with Beyer Blinder Belle

March 6, 2019

NYPL’s new entrance and public plaza on 40th Street gets green light from Landmarks

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The city's Landmarks Preservation Commission on Tuesday approved the New York Public Library's plan to add a new public entrance and plaza to its Stephen A. Schwarzman Building in Midtown. The changes fall under the library's larger master renovation plan, a $317 million project first unveiled in 2017. The LPC approved the changes to the exterior of the building--subject to the city's landmark rules--after design modifications suggested at a presentation in February were made by the library, Curbed NY reported.
Find out more
Hudson Yards Park renamed in honor of activist and former NY congresswoman, Bella Abzug

Rendering via MVVA and the Hudson Yards Development Corporation

March 5, 2019

Hudson Yards Park renamed in honor of activist and former NY congresswoman, Bella Abzug

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Update 3/25/19: Tishman Speyer bought last week an auto repair building on West 36th Street for $20 million, the New York Post reported Monday. The company will demolish the two-story building to make way for a greenway that will be the next segment of Bella Abzug Park. In exchange for paying for the new park, Tishman Speyer will get air rights from the city to put up a tower bounded by Tenth and Eleventh Avenues. The city on Friday renamed a park near Hudson Yards in honor of the late Bella Abzug, a former U.S. Representative of New York and stalwart supporter of the women's rights movement. The greenspace, formerly Hudson Yards Park, stretches just over two acres between West 33rd and 36th Street. First developed with the extension of the 7 subway line to 34th Street, the park will soon be extended to 39th Street and run over an Amtrak rail cut.
Details here
Proposed project would bring 167 affordable housing units to East New York using modular construction

Rendering courtesy of Think! Architecture and Design

March 4, 2019

Proposed project would bring 167 affordable housing units to East New York using modular construction

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Hoping to create affordable housing more quickly and at a lower cost, New York City is turning to cutting-edge construction methods. The city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development announced on Monday plans to develop 167 affordable housing units in the Brooklyn neighborhood of East New York using modular construction. The $70 million project would become the first under Mayor Bill de Blasio's Housing New York 2.0 program to use this method of building on property owned by the city. As first reported by the Wall Street Journal, officials think modular construction could reduce the project's timeline by 25 to 30 percent.
Learn more
DXA Studio’s pedestrian bridge design would connect Hudson Yards and Moynihan Train Hall

Rendering: DXA Studio.

March 4, 2019

DXA Studio’s pedestrian bridge design would connect Hudson Yards and Moynihan Train Hall

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A curvy urban pathway designed by DXA Studio could allow commuters to pass between the new Moynihan Train Hall at West 31st Street to the High Line and Hudson Yards at 30th Street without having to deal with cars at all. The design is the grand prize-winning entry–for a $15,000 prize–in the 2019 Design Challenge by Metals in Construction magazine. The contest asked architects, engineers, and students to create a pedestrian bridge that could safely move the approximately 100,000 people daily that travel from the train hall to Hudson Yards while keeping the foot traffic from affecting the street below.
Find out more
180 East 88th tower tops out at 524 feet, set to be tallest tower north of 72nd Street

Rendering via DDG; Construction shot of 180 E 188th in early January via CityRealty

February 28, 2019

180 East 88th tower tops out at 524 feet, set to be tallest tower north of 72nd Street

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The highly anticipated tower rising at 180 East 88th Street recently topped out, taking the title of the city’s tallest building north of 72nd Street, as CityRealty first reported. Developed by DDG, the 524-foot structure will bring 48 expansive condos to the Upper East Side and is expected to open this Spring. Photos from a recent construction visit show crews adding the final pieces of the concrete-enclosed rooftop bulkhead. Crews are still working to fully cover the facade of the 32-story tower in hand-laid Kolumba brick (there are 593,987 individual bricks) which will be accented by bronze-colored window frames.
See the shots
IKEA’s newest curtains will purify indoor air

Images courtesy of Ikea

February 26, 2019

IKEA’s newest curtains will purify indoor air

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The World Health Organization estimates that 90 percent of people worldwide are impacted by the harmful effects of pollution, which provoke a range of life-threatening diseases. While pollution is thought to cause around eight million deaths a year, more than half of those are the result of indoor pollution, not the smog-filled city streets we’re more commonly wary of. To help with this problem, IKEA is preparing to launch GUNRID, an air-purifying curtain. The low-cost, low-tech option will give New Yorkers (who are always short on space) a simple way of destroying indoor air pollution without using any bulky filtering systems.
Get the scoop
Usonian-style Bronxville home built in 1950 by Frank Lloyd Wright collaborator asks $5M

Images courtesy of William Pitt/Julia B. Fee for Sotheby’s International Realty; photo credit: Chris Collins Studio.

February 26, 2019

Usonian-style Bronxville home built in 1950 by Frank Lloyd Wright collaborator asks $5M

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This unique home tucked into a gorgeous wooded landscape in Bronxville, NY, was built in 1950 by architect and Frank Lloyd Wright apprentice David Henken in the iconic Usonian style. A complete renovation by renowned architect Markus Dochantschi in 2012 modernized and expanded the 5,500-square-foot home; Dochantschi, founder of StudioMDA, is a former director of Zaha Hadid Architects and specializes in minimalist, functional design. The property is on the market for $4.995 million.
See more, this way
Finalists announced in Transit Tech Lab accelerator program to help modernize NYC public transit

Image via Flickr

February 26, 2019

Finalists announced in Transit Tech Lab accelerator program to help modernize NYC public transit

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As part of the much-needed effort to modernize New York City public transit, the MTA and the Partnership for New York City have announced six finalists for the inaugural Transit Tech Lab accelerator program. The eight-week program, which began this week, will give the six chosen companies an opportunity to try new technologies customized to solve for specific subway and bus priorities such as reducing cost and cutting down subway delays by employing predictive maintenance, deploying a transit network planning platform, using computer vision to untangle bus lane traffic and using sensors to address platform crowding.
More innovation this way
Sotheby’s announces $55M expansion and redesign of NYC headquarters by Rem Koolhaas’ OMA
February 22, 2019

Sotheby’s announces $55M expansion and redesign of NYC headquarters by Rem Koolhaas’ OMA

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Renowned auction house Sotheby’s has revealed renderings of its reimagined Upper East Side headquarters, designed by OMA New York’s Shohei Shigematsu. Slated to open on May 3rd to coincide with their auctions of Impressionist & Modern and Contemporary Art, the redesign features 40 galleries across four completely transformed floors and will increase Sotheby’s exhibition space from 67,000 square feet to more than 90,000 (a whopping two acres of space!).
Find out more
INTERVIEW: Architect Nancy Ruddy on 30 years in NYC, adding to the skyline, and restaurant design

Photo courtesy of CetraRuddy

February 22, 2019

INTERVIEW: Architect Nancy Ruddy on 30 years in NYC, adding to the skyline, and restaurant design

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When Nancy Ruddy and her husband John Cetra formed architecture firm CetraRuddy in 1987, they wanted to "create inspirational spaces and buildings based upon the ideas of craft and the human touch." Thirty-one years later, and the 100-person firm has achieved this goal and then some, marking the skyline with their soaring One Madison tower, transforming Tribeca's 443 Greenwich Street into the hottest celebrity residence, and adapting historic buildings by prolific architects such as Ralph Walker and Rosario Candela. They've also distinguished themselves by combing architecture and design practices, which was most recently showcased at their designs for the new Time Warner Center restaurant Bluebird London. Ahead, 6sqft talks with Nancy Ruddy about how all of these successes came to be, where she sees the architectural landscape of NYC heading, and what it was like creating a destination dining space overlooking Central Park.
Hear from Nancy
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