City Living

By now you’ve surely seen Tim Seggerman‘s practically iconic 240-square-foot apartment on Pinterest and on design blogs across the web. But while the architect has made a name for himself creating innovative solutions for small living in the city, what might come as a surprise is that he doesn’t really advocate squeezing into a small space. […]

This 1970s East Village Windmill Was Decades Ahead of Its Time

Raising the windmill on the roof of 519. Photo credit: Travis Price via Gothamist

April 5, 2016

This 1970s East Village Windmill Was Decades Ahead of Its Time

If you want to build a windmill today, you can thank a handful of dedicated tenants in a building at 519 East 11th Street in the East Village of the 1970s. The story of the Alphabet City windmill is one of many stories, recounted in Gothamist, from the bad old days of Loisaida–as the East Village's far eastern avenues, also known as Alphabet City, were once called–the kind the neighborhood's elder statesmen regale you with, knowing well that you know nothing firsthand of a neighborhood of burned-out buildings and squatters who bought their homes for a buck. But this particular story isn’t one of riots or drug deals on the sidewalk; it’s one of redemption, no matter how brief in the context of time. The windmill was installed above an East Village building that was saved by the community, built and lifted to the roof by hand–or many hands. According to legend, the windmill kept the lights on during the chaos of the 1977 blackout.
Read all about it

Spotlight: Gotham Greens Talks Rooftop Farming Against the New York Skyline

The Gotham Greens team: Viraj Puri, Eric Haley and Jennifer Nelkin Frymark

April 1, 2016

Spotlight: Gotham Greens Talks Rooftop Farming Against the New York Skyline

If you walk through the produce section at Whole Foods or scroll through Fresh Direct’s website, you likely have come across Gotham Greens’ Blooming Brooklyn Iceberg Lettuce or Queens Crisp. What make these lettuces different from others is that they’re local, urban greens, which are grown on rooftop greenhouses in Brooklyn and Queens with views of Gotham not too far in the distance. Gotham Greens was founded in 2009 with the goal of revolutionizing urban farming and providing a model for the future when cities are expected to be even more densely populated. One of the visionaries behind the company is co-founder and CEO Viraj Puri. Viraj and his partners started with one greenhouse in Greenpoint and now have four greenhouses between New York and Chicago that cover over 170,000 square feet and produce 20 million heads of lettuce every year. 6sqft recently asked Viraj some questions about what’s growing in Gotham.
read 6sqft's interview with Viraj

March 31, 2016

NYC Water 101: From the Catskill Aqueduct and Robotic Measurements to Your Tap

New York City is the nation’s largest municipal water supplier. While many locals happily choose tap water at restaurants and extol the virtues of New York’s wettest, we sometimes wonder how and where the magic happens–even more so recently, in light of some other cities’ far less stellar experiences with the local water supply. This recent New York Times article clears things up, so to speak, on how 9.5 million people (and growing, apparently) can keep the good stuff flowing. The source: More than 90 percent of the city's water supply comes from the Catskill/Delaware watershed, about 125 miles north of NYC; the other 10 percent comes from the Croton watershed. The watershed sits on over a million acres, both publicly and privately owned, but highly regulated to make sure contaminants stay out of the water.
Robots, radiation and more of the journey

March 30, 2016

Controversial Zoning Change Would Fill Lower Manhattan Public Plazas With Retail

Whether you consider them "dead-end" corridors devoid of street life or nifty urban shortcuts (or just convenient rain shelters), the city's covered public walkways and arcades are finding themselves in something of a spotlight, reports the Wall Street Journal. This recent focus is on the covered walkways that run alongside skyscrapers in the Water Street corridor in lower Manhattan. A proposed zoning change, which would affect property owners in the Water Street Subdistrict, would allow retail to open up shop in these arcades.
Find out why some object to new retail additions

March 29, 2016

Three People Share What It’s Like to Live in Common’s Co-Living Concept in Brooklyn

By Michelle Sinclair Colman

What if your home was more than just a place to live? What if it took care of the tedious parts of everyday life (like cleaning, paying utility bills, and shopping for the basics) and there were always a bunch of interesting and like-minded people hanging out in your living room? Brad Hargreaves, CEO of Common, has structured his co-living housing company to be just that. While we've reported on Common before (as well as WeWork's similar new shared housing setup in FiDi), today we're going behind the scenes at Common's first outpost located in Crown Heights. We asked three residents why they chose to live at Common, if this catered style of co-living beats the standard New York roommate setup, and, of course, what we all really want to know—with 10 different personalities under one roof, just how "Real World" do things get?
Meet residents Jason, Kamilah and Adam here

March 29, 2016

The Official 2016 NYC Bike Map Has Arrived

The Department of Transportation just released the downloadable 2016 New York City Bike Map ahead of a paper version due next month. This year's map shows 70 miles of new or "upgraded" bike-specific lanes, twelve of which are protected (physically separated from auto traffic). Also on the map are seven miles of newly-created off-street bike lanes.
Check out the map

March 25, 2016

Spotlight: Mike Gansmoe Puts Macy’s in Bloom at the Annual Flower Show

In America, seasonal change is ushered in by Macy's and its productions, from the holiday season with the Thanksgiving Day Parade to summer with fireworks for America’s birthday. When it comes to welcoming spring, the department store puts on its annual Flower Show, a longstanding tradition that began 65 year ago and is now marking its 42nd year at the company's Herald Square location. This year’s show, America the Beautiful, celebrates the wonders of the nation's natural world at five stores around the country (NYC, Philadelphia, Chicago, Minneapolis, San Francisco). For New Yorkers who visit the show, it’s a chance to step out of the hustle and bustle and immerse themselves in gardens representing various regions of the United States. The executive producer behind the show is Mike Gansmoe, who is responsible for overseeing everything from conception to putting that last flower in place during overnight setups. 6sqft recently spoke with Mike to find out what's blooming at this year's show.
Read the full interview here

March 25, 2016

Chatty Maps Tell You What You’ll Hear on Given Streets and How It’ll Make You Feel

Chatty Maps is an interactive project that reveals what sort of experience your ears will have on specific city streets. Leaflet-based maps of New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Washington, Miami, Seattle, London, Barcelona, Madrid, Milan and Rome map each city's roadways, which are colored to correspond to sounds on the street (transport, nature, human, music and building), based on tags taken from social media. Select your city and find a street on the map (or search for the street of your choice) to view the corresponding sounds. For each street, you also get a data visualization that attempts to track the relationship between street sounds and human emotions. Streets with dominant music sounds, for example, are associated with strong emotions of joy or sadness.
Check the map to find out how the city sounds at street level

City Living

Spotlight: Beekeeper Andrew Coté Gives Us the Buzz on Raising Honeybees in the City

On rooftops throughout the city, there's a great deal of activity taking place. This hustle and bustle isn't coming from the construction of new skyscrapers, but instead from beehives across the city where honeybees are hard at work. The keeper for many of these bees is Andrew Coté, who at the height of spring and summer works at least 14 hours a day, seven days a week tending to them. Andrew traces his family’s beekeeping roots to the 1800s in Quebec, Canada. In the 1970s, his father carried this tradition to Connecticut by starting a farm and selling honey, and a decade ago, Andrew brought beekeeping to the city. As a New York City beekeeper, his work focuses on overseeing clients’ hives on business and hotel roofs as well his own hives in neighborhoods ranging from Prospect Heights to the Upper East Side. Andrew harvests the honey from his hives, bottles, and then sells it at Union Square Market for his company, Andrew’s Honey. Depending on what jar customers pick up, they might be purchasing Forest Hills, Central Park or Harlem honey. With spring starting this Sunday, we recently spoke with Andrew to find out what all the buzz is about.
read our interview with andrew here

March 18, 2016

Fire and Ice: City Snow Removal Methods Included an Army Flamethrower

With forecasts threatening snow (?!) on this fine late March weekend, the idea that an "army flame thrower" was among the historic methods the city used to make piles of the formerly-white stuff disappear is oddly satisfying.
Moar! this way

March 16, 2016

Go Inside the Trippy Apartments of 1970s Urban Dwellers

Mid-century modern is often touted as the ideal when it comes to design, but while that era gifted us beautiful and timeless works from the likes of Mies and Charles and Ray Eames, not everyone at the time was keen on keeping with this design aesthetic. As the 70s gave way to a slew of political and social change, many homes also saw revolution of their own from the streamlined to the downright psychedelic. Case in point: All of the interiors featured in old issues of Apartment Life, a city living lifestyle magazine from the 70s. But what might be better than ogling all the decades-old acid trip decor in these old issues is reading the captions of the glossies. Like the folks featured in our My sqft series, Apartment Life talks the challenges of urban living (like no-view windows and limited storage), in addition to offering up some tips on how to deal (solution: build yourself a "butcher block storage/coffee table" they say!). They've even got a great idea for beating the below-zero blues: A "Winter Picnic" in bed.
Go inside these apartments here

10 Ways to Decorate an Exposed Brick Wall Without Drilling

6sqft’s 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 offer up ideas for decorating exposed brick walls without drilling.

March 15, 2016

10 Ways to Decorate an Exposed Brick Wall Without Drilling

By Annie Doge

Exposed brick is one of the most common architectural elements in NYC apartments -- even otherwise bland spaces often feature the material. Though it offers tons of character, it can make decorating quite challenging since drilling into brick isn't the easiest task. Renters especially have a tough time, as putting holes in a brick wall can be a big no-no for landlords. But 6sqft has come up with 10 ways to dress up such walls, no drill necessary. Thanks to decor like string lights and ladders, you'll never have to stare at a blank brick wall again.
See all the ideas ahead

March 14, 2016

Interested in a Flex Apartment? Here’s What You Need to Know

With rising real estate prices and shrinking spaces, flex apartments are growing in popularity with roommates, couples and families who are looking to add another room but can’t afford to move into a larger space. Flex apartments, for those who are unfamiliar, are typically a studio, one-bedroom or two-bedroom unit large enough to be converted up one level with […]

March 11, 2016

Spotlight: The Word on Whiskey From Kings County Distillery’s Colin Spoelman

Colin Spoelman moved to New York for post-grad job opportunities, but it was his home state of Kentucky that ended up giving him direction. On trips back home, he developed a deep appreciation for moonshine and distilling, and now his interest has gone from hobby to profession. Six years ago, Colin combined his Kentucky roots, his life in Brooklyn, and his love of distilling whiskey through Kings County Distillery, where he is one of the founders (along with David Haskell) and the head distiller. Founded in 2010, Kings County Distillery is making a name for itself with the whiskey and bourbon it distills at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, making it New York City's oldest operating whiskey distillery, the first since prohibition. The company started with eight five-gallon stills, and were at the time the smallest commercial distillery in America. But they now have a 250-gallon and a 180-gallon still and are beginning to distribute out west and internationally. With St. Patrick's Day coming up and lots of whiskey drinking to be had, 6sqft spoke with Colin to find out what's distilling in Brooklyn and why it makes perfect sense to make whiskey in this borough.
The full interview, this way

March 11, 2016

Reel Estate: Three Movies Put New York Housing Dramas on the Big Screen

When we see New York real estate on film, living situations usually err on the side of grossly unrealistic—think freelance writer Carrie Bradshaw’s apartment with walk-in closet on “Sex and the City,” or Monica Gellar’s massive two-bedroom in Greenwich Village on “Friends.” But while there are plenty of eye rolls to go around for said and […]

March 4, 2016

Spotlight: Jay Schweitzer Keeps Typewriters in Fashion at an 84-Year-Old Family Business

For anyone who thinks computers have entirely taken over, they might want to visit Gramercy Typewriter Company. Founded in 1932 by Abraham Schweitzer, this 84-year-old family business is busier than ever repairing customers' typewriters, as well as refurbishing and selling machines of all shapes, sizes, and even colors. Whereas many typewriter service companies went out of business with the rise of computers, Abraham's son and grandson, Paul and Jay, remained passionate about them and are now two of the only individuals in the city with the skills to work on these machines. For Jay and Paul, the demand for their expertise is a testament to the staying power of typewriters in the 21st century. They continue to be a necessity in fields such as law and accounting, where certain forms are more compatible with the typewriter than the computer. Outside of offices, there are tried-and-true typewriter users who type on them daily. In many cases, the Schweitzers' have customers who are discovering a love of these wonderful machines for the very first time. 6sqft stopped by Gramercy Typewriter Company and spoke with Jay about the business and to get a glimpse of history on the company's shelves.
Read the full interview this way

March 3, 2016

Stuff You Should Know: How Air Rights Work

“For whoever owns the soil, it is theirs up to Heaven and down to Hell.” Most folks outside the architecture and real estate industries are likely to believe that putting up a new skyscraper is simply about finding an empty lot to build up. However, those in the know understand that it takes much more than a stretch of space and a good […]

March 3, 2016

NYC Is Home to 79 Billionaires, More Than Any City in the World

By Dana Schulz

All of the major news outlets were reporting last week that Beijing had overtaken New York City as the billionaire capital of the world, not at all hard to believe considering that in 2016, 70 new members to the World’s Billionaires List were Chinese, more than double the number of newly-added Americans. However, the original report from Chinese research firm Hurun has been disproven by research from Forbes. The new data shows that NYC is home to 79 billionaires, more than any other city in the world. This includes David Koch and Michael Bloomberg, two of the ten richest people in the world. The city's billionaires' total wealth amounts to a whopping $364.6 billion.
Get the full list ahead

City Living

March 1, 2016

INTERVIEW: The Museum of Food and Drink’s Peter Kim Talks Food and Preservation

By Dana Schulz

This past October, the Museum of Food and Drink opened its first brick-and-mortar space in Williamsburg. Known as the MOFAD Lab, it's a design studio where the team is currently creating and displaying their exhibition ideas, as well as surprising a city who may have likened a food museum to merely big-name chefs and of-the-moment trends like rainbow bagels. Take for example their first exhibit "Flavor: Making It and Faking It," an in-depth and multi-sensory exploration of the $25 billion flavor simulation industry. Two more refreshingly unexpected facts are the background of executive director Peter Kim (he previously worked in public health, hunger policy, and law, to name a few fields) and the museum's first home at the Neighborhood Preservation Center (NPC), an office space and resource center for those working to improve and protect neighborhoods. If you're wondering what preservation and a food and drink museum have to do with each other, 6sqft recently attended an NPC event at MOFAD Lab to find out. After chatting with Peter and NPC's executive director Felicia Mayro, we quickly realized that the two fields have a lot more in common than you might think. Keep reading for our interview ahead, and if you want to visit MOFAD LAB, enter our latest giveaway. Peter is giving a lucky 6sqft reader and a guest free admission to the museum (enter here).
The full interview, right this way

February 29, 2016

10 Clever, Creative and Unexpected Storage Ideas for Apartment Dwellers

By Alyssa Alimurung

6sqft’s 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 offer up spots in your apartment that may be underutilized as storage. Unless you're living in a mega-mansion with amazing closet space, chances are your belongings are scattered across your apartment and overstuffed into drawers and cabinets. With spring right around the corner, you may want to rethink how you've been tackling clutter at home. Below we've rounded up 10 clever, creative and unexpected storage ideas that you can put into action in your apartment right now.
Spring cleaning organization this way

February 26, 2016

Spotlight: François Vaxelaire Blasts Tunes from a Shipping Container in a Williamsburg Parking Lot

By Dana Schulz

An independent online radio featuring live DJ sets, located in a shipping container on an empty piece of land on the Williamsburg/Greenpoint border -- if your inclination is to roll your eyes at just how Brooklyn this is, you might want to reconsider. The Lot Radio was founded by 34-year-old Brussels native François Vaxelaire, who has been living in the neighborhood for the past three years. After passing by the vacant triangle day after day, and growing more and more infatuated with its strange beauty, he decided it would be the perfect home for an online radio similar to those in Europe. And after getting through the city's red tape, Lot Radio is officially up and running, save for its adjacent coffee shop and outdoor seating area that are both awaiting permits from the Department of Health. What's most interesting about Vaxelaire is that he is committed to steering clear of the Brooklyn cliches. His goal is to grow an internationally focused, New York-based radio, but in terms of the physical location, he wants local residents exiting the nearby church to feel just as welcome hanging out as would an experimental music aficionado. 6sqft recently visited him at the shipping container to learn more about this very unique idea.
The full story from François

Image: Xymox/Flickr

February 24, 2016

City Filth, Decoded: The Gunk on Subway Platforms Actually Has a Name

Do you ever wonder what that black schmutz that collects on the subway platform is? Has all the discarded chewing gum in the world begun to mobilize? What if I put my bag on it? Slate's What's That Thing column appropriately examines the phenomenon: After repeated unreturned phone calls to the MTA, the intrepid journalists got "Gridlock Sam" Schwartz and his transit gurus on the case. Finally the fine folks from the MTA rallied and gave name to the mysterious muck. According to NYC Transit assistant chief of the Division of Stations Branko Kleva, the stuff is mastic, a tar-like substance used to seal and waterproof the subway tunnels. When it heats up, (in the summer, for example, ironically from the heat generated by subway car air conditioning) it starts to "flow and drip down from the roof of the tunnel onto the platforms below."
More on the mysterious gunk...

February 19, 2016

Spotlight: Ron Ben-Israel on the Art and Architecture of Creating a Wedding Cake