Upper West Side

A building that once operated as an illegal hotel and has been converted into affordable housing for seniors opened a lottery on Friday for 53 apartments. Located at 117 West 79th Street, Park 79 Apartments is a 100 percent affordable housing development with 77 rent-stabilized studio apartments for seniors earning at or below 50 percent of the area median income (AMI), including 24 homes for formerly homeless New Yorkers. Residents, who must be aged 62 years or older to qualify, will pay only 30 percent of their income in rent.
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Affordable Housing

All photos courtesy of Chris Lee

June 3, 2022

See NYC’s largest outdoor dance floor and its 10-foot disco ball at Lincoln Center

New York City's largest outdoor dance floor is now open. As part of Lincoln Center's three-month-long festival Summer for the City, "The Oasis" opened this week with a 10-foot, 1,300-pound disco ball hovering above the institution's iconic fountain. Designed by costume and set designer Clint Ramos, The Oasis has transformed Josie Robertson Plaza into a dance floor that will host silent discos, live music, dance lessons, and more free events all summer. Summer for the City, which kicked off last month, will feature over 1,000 artists across 10 stages at the famed campus.
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Events & Things To Do

Amy Schumer lists her Upper West Side ‘secret garden’ penthouse for $15M

Photo credit: Edward Menashy for Evan Joseph Studio

May 20, 2022

Amy Schumer lists her Upper West Side ‘secret garden’ penthouse for $15M

Actress and comedian Amy Schumer is selling her Upper West Side penthouse at 190 Riverside Drive, the Wall Street Journal reports. Asking $15,000,000, Schumer purchased what she calls her "Manhattan dream apartment" for $12,150,000 in 2016. Surrounded on every side and on the roof above by 3,000 square feet of verdant planted terraces, and centered around a glass-wrapped solarium living room, the five-bedroom, 4,500-square-foot condominium is indeed a New York City dream home–even if it's no longer a secret. Schumer told the Journal she and her husband, chef Chris Fischer, are moving–likely to Brooklyn–to be closer to their son's school.
Step inside Amy Schumer's dreamy sky garden

NYC to celebrate Biggie Smalls’ 50th birthday with Empire State Building tribute, special MetroCards

Image courtesy of Marc A. Hermann / MTA on Flickr

May 18, 2022

NYC to celebrate Biggie Smalls’ 50th birthday with Empire State Building tribute, special MetroCards

One of hip-hop's most influential artists will be paid tribute by his hometown this weekend. On May 21, the Empire State Building will turn its lighting to red and white, with a crown spinning atop its mast, in honor of the late rapper Notorious B.I.G., who would have turned 50 on Saturday. In Brooklyn, videos of Biggie Smalls, born Christopher Wallace, will be shown at the Barclays Center entrance and special MetroCards featuring the icon will be sold at three nearby subway stations, Variety reports.
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AMNH’s revamped Northwest Coast Hall features exhibits curated by Indigenous communities

All images © D. Finnin/AMNH

May 16, 2022

AMNH’s revamped Northwest Coast Hall features exhibits curated by Indigenous communities

Five years and a $19 million renovation later, the American Museum of Natural History's oldest gallery reopened to the public last week. Developed alongside curators from Native Nations of the Northwest Coast, the new 10,200 square-foot Northwest Coast Hall showcases the history of the Pacific Northwest with a focus on the "scholarship and material culture of the Northwest Coast communities," according to a press release. The gallery contains more than 1,000 artifacts including a 63-foot-long canoe, the largest Pacific Northwest dugout canoe existing today, and a diverse collection of art, from monumental carvings up to 17 feet tall to contemporary works of art from Native artists.
Details here

Award-winning design is crowned by a perfect penthouse in this $13.8M Upper West Side home

Photo credit: Tim Waltman for Pamela D’Arc / Compass

May 16, 2022

Award-winning design is crowned by a perfect penthouse in this $13.8M Upper West Side home

This 6,300-square foot Upper West Side townhouse at 347 West 84th Street has enough going for it given its size, 2,000 square feet of outdoor space, and prime Manhattan location off Riverside Park. A pristine and beautifully-designed renovation by O’Neill Rose Architects has transformed this four-story house, asking $13,750,000, into a home worthy of design awards and inclusion in publications like Architect Magazine and Dezeen. To maximize natural light, two curved skylights were added, and glass panels replaced the home's rear wall. On the top floor, a glass-walled atelier provides a sun-filled indoor and outdoor oasis.
Tour four floors of livable luxury

Distinctive Homes

The El Dorado apartment of renowned art collector and ‘Beastie mom’ Hester Diamond asks $19.5M

Photo credit: Rise Media

May 12, 2022

The El Dorado apartment of renowned art collector and ‘Beastie mom’ Hester Diamond asks $19.5M

An apartment in the El Dorado at 300 Central Park West is an enviable enough thing on its own, even without the added cachet of belonging to the estate of Hester and Harold Diamond, owners of one of the world's finest art collections and parents of Mike Diamond of Beastie Boys fame, whose childhood home this was, Picassos and all. Ms. Diamond, who passed away in 2020 at 91, was an art dealer and collector whose collection of Old Masters and Modernist art, according to the New York Times, included Picasso, Mondrian, Rothko, and many more. Asking $19,500,000, the duplex co-op in one of New York City's most venerable buildings is museum-sized at 6,300 square feet with 800 square feet of terrace space and peerless park and skyline views.
View more of this amazing El Dorado residence

Distinctive Homes

NYC’s first-ever Japan Parade takes place this weekend

Image courtesy of Geoff Livingston on Flickr

May 9, 2022

NYC’s first-ever Japan Parade takes place this weekend

New York City is hosting a parade dedicated to Japanese people and their culture for the first time ever this weekend. On Saturday, May 14, the Japan Parade kicks off at Central Park and West 81st Street and moves south towards 68th Street. The parade will showcase a variety of Japanese performing arts and Japanese organizations, like Anime NYC, the International Karate Organization Kyokushin, and the Japanese Folk Dance of NY, according to Thrillist.
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Events & Things To Do

NYC gives billionaire Bill Ackman green light to build rooftop penthouse on Central Park West

All renderings designed by Foster+ Partners, courtesy of the Landmarks Preservation Commission

May 3, 2022

NYC gives billionaire Bill Ackman green light to build rooftop penthouse on Central Park West

Billionaire Bill Ackman is getting his Central Park-facing rooftop glass penthouse designed by Norman Foster after all. The Landmarks Preservation Commission on Tuesday approved plans from the hedge fund founder to build a glass penthouse addition on top of a 100-year-old Upper West Side co-op building where he owns an apartment. First presented last November as a two-level glass box on the roof of 6-16 West 77th Street, the approved proposal includes a scaled-down design and more muted materials.
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Janet Jackson lists her Upper West Side apartment for $9M

Photo courtesy of Yoo Jean Han for Sotheby’s International Realty

April 28, 2022

Janet Jackson lists her Upper West Side apartment for $9M

Janet Jackson has decided to part ways with her Upper West Side apartment, which she recently listed for $8,995,000, as the Wall Street Journal first reported. The younger Jackson sibling has owned the three-bedroom condo in the Trump International Hotel and Tower at 1 Central Park West for almost 25 years; she purchased the 34th-floor unit in the gleaming tower overlooking Central Park for $2.8 million in 1998.
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Lincoln Center to host summer festival with outdoor dance floor, film screenings, and a speakeasy

The Oasis dance floor, designed by Clint Ramos. Rendering courtesy of Ali Kashfi

April 21, 2022

Lincoln Center to host summer festival with outdoor dance floor, film screenings, and a speakeasy

A three-month-long festival that aims to bring New Yorkers together through art will take place at Lincoln Center this summer. The first-ever "Summer for the City" will feature 300 events with more than 1,000 artists across 10 outdoor stages. Running between May and August, the festival includes the city's largest outdoor dance floor, film screenings, and a "speakeasy," a pop-up bar and performance space in the center's underground driveway.
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Events & Things To Do

This $8.5M UWS townhouse has Central Park as a front yard and a private back garden

Photo credit: Tim Waltman for Sotheby’s International Realty

April 15, 2022

This $8.5M UWS townhouse has Central Park as a front yard and a private back garden

On a postcard-perfect Central Park block on the Upper West Side, this Queen Anne-style townhouse at 53 West 85th Street is every inch a beauty, inside and out. A charming brick facade ends in a pitched gable roof, fronted by bay windows on the garden and parlor floors. Inside, the house is move-in ready, with elegant historic details forming the backdrop for tasteful up-to-the-minute renovations. Asking $8,495,000, the five-story home is less than a block from the park, but comes with its own backyard oasis.
Explore five floors

Distinctive Homes

Step into the Victorian era inside this $5.6M Upper West Side brownstone on Edgar Allan Poe Street

Photo credit: Scott Wintrow / Gross & Daley for Sotheby’s International Realty

April 12, 2022

Step into the Victorian era inside this $5.6M Upper West Side brownstone on Edgar Allan Poe Street

Asking $5,595,000, this circa 1890 single-family brownstone at 340 West 84th Street is on the market for the first time in over half a century. The Romanesque Revival townhouse, designed by architect Joseph H. Taft, sits among a row of nine homes built together in the Riverside-West End Historic District. If you feel the home's 18-foot width isn't sufficient, its neighbors at 342 and 344 are also for sale.
Step into the 1890s on the Upper West Side

Distinctive Homes

For $65M, this remarkable Gilded Age mansion on the UWS has a rooftop conservatory and river views

Photo credit: LPG for Sotheby’s International Realty

April 7, 2022

For $65M, this remarkable Gilded Age mansion on the UWS has a rooftop conservatory and river views

Asking $65,000,000, the 12,000-square-foot, seven-story Renaissance Revival-style townhouse at 25 Riverside Drive (h/t WSJ) on Manhattan's Upper West Side harkens back to the city's Gilded Age, when Riverside Park was lined with single-family mansions. Unmistakeable from the outside, the palatial corner property with rounded facades of limestone and brick has breathtaking river and palisades views from three exposures, 70 windows, and a rooftop conservatory. Built in the 1890s, this unique home was designed by prominent architect C.P.H. Gilbert for American Book Company editor-in-chief Herbert Horace Vail.
Tour this amazing Riverside Drive mansion

Distinctive Homes

Museum of Natural History’s new Studio Gang-designed science center to open next winter

Entrance, © Neoscape, Inc.

March 29, 2022

Museum of Natural History’s new Studio Gang-designed science center to open next winter

After years of delays due to legal action, the American Museum of Natural History's Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation has an official opening date. The museum on Monday announced the Gilder Center, a 230,000 square foot architectural wonder designed by Jeanne Gang's Studio Gang, will open to the public next winter. The new center will improve circulation in the museum and help fulfill a 150-year-old vision of creating a continuous campus across four city blocks. It will also provide space for new galleries, educational programs, an expanded library, and a theater.
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Abandoned Art Deco gem Metro Theater to return to the UWS as multi-screen cinema

Photo by Enniferj on Wikimedia

March 23, 2022

Abandoned Art Deco gem Metro Theater to return to the UWS as multi-screen cinema

An 89-year-old Art-Deco movie theater that has sat vacant on the Upper West Side for years has finally been purchased and will be restored to its former glory. The landmarked Metro Theater, abandoned since 2005, was purchased by an unidentified buyer from California who intends to change it into a restaurant theater in which patrons can purchase food and drinks while enjoying their movies, previous owner Albert Bialek told the West Side Rag. The space will also offer restaurant facilities and community meeting rooms on a rental basis.
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City Living

Looking East; Rendering: DBOX

March 9, 2022

See the new $550M home for the New York Philharmonic, set to open in October

Nearly two decades after the project was first proposed, the New York Philharmonic's new state-of-the-art concert hall will open this October, two years ahead of schedule, officials announced Wednesday. The revamped David Geffen Hall aims to create a more intimate space, "a living room for New York City," as a press release describes, by moving the audience closer to the stage and improving sightlines. Plus, the project fixes the hall's poor acoustics and reduces the total number of seats by about 500. In addition to announcing the $550 million project was finishing on time, officials also released new renderings of the theater and public space.
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Architecture And Design

The Met Opera will host benefit concert for Ukraine relief efforts

Photo by Ajay Suresh on Flickr

March 8, 2022

The Met Opera will host benefit concert for Ukraine relief efforts

The Metropolitan Opera next week will host a benefit performance to support the people of Ukraine. A Concert for Ukraine will be held on March 14, with all ticket sales and proceeds going to relief efforts in Ukraine. The 70-minute program will be led by Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin and feature some of the opera's star soloists. Tickets are $50 and go on sale this Wednesday.
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Events & Things To Do

Everything is for sale, including the $6.5M apartment, at this Upper West Side interior design exhibition

Dining table in rosewood with red under-painted inset glass top designed by Joaquim Tenreiro, Brazil, 1948, $125,000.00; “First Chairs” in rosewood and cane seat designed by Joaquim Tenreiro, Brazil, 1942, $80,000.00 for set of eight; “Vine” illuminated sculpture with hand-blown round soda glass globes and fifteen sockets designed and made by Jeff Zimmerman, USA, 2018, $125,000.00; Photo courtesy of frenchCALIFORNIA

February 24, 2022

Everything is for sale, including the $6.5M apartment, at this Upper West Side interior design exhibition

The Belnord at 225 West 86th Street is getting plenty of attention recently. The Upper West Side condo building stars as the fictional Arconia in Hulu’s "Only Murders in the Building" series. Now, a three-bedroom unit, on the market since October for $6,475,000, is having a turn in the spotlight as an international interior design showcase. The Belnord Project presents the home's interiors and art in a shoppable exhibition curated by frenchCALIFORNIA in partnership with Evan Snyderman of modern and contemporary design gallery R & Company.
Check out the design collaboration, room by room

Photo courtesy of Brown Harris Stevens

February 18, 2022

Sprawling Upper West Side pre-war ‘classic seven’ with city and river views asks $3.9M

It's the kind of jumbo pre-war classic co-op that has launched nearly a century of Manhattan fantasies–on the Upper West Side, no less. Asking $3,895,000, the 15th-floor apartment at 90 Riverside Drive, on the market for the first time in 50 years, has the pre-war size and city and river views that look just as enviable in the 21st century.
Tour this uptown classic

Distinctive Homes

Kerry Washington’s former palatial penthouse rental on the UWS asks $25M

Photos by Will Ellis for DDreps

February 16, 2022

Kerry Washington’s former palatial penthouse rental on the UWS asks $25M

An Upper West Side penthouse actress Kerry Washington once rented is now on the market for $25,000,000. Located at the luxury condominium building One Riverside Park, the exquisite full-floor mansion-in-the-sky boasts six bedrooms, seven and a half bathrooms, and unobstructed views of the Hudson River.
See inside

Distinctive Homes

February 16, 2022

Former illegal Upper West Side hotel will become apartments for homeless and low income residents

As part of a larger plan to create much-needed affordable housing, Mayor Eric Adams has expressed his support for converting hotels to residential units. In the first such attempt by his administration, Adams announced on Monday plans to convert what had been an illegal hotel at 258 West 97th Street on the Upper West Side into 80 new units of housing primarily for formerly homeless and low-income New Yorkers.
More on illegal hotels and new housing

For $4.65M, this Upper West Side ‘classic seven’ is a designer’s dream

Photo credit: Yale Wagner and Shade Degges for Sotheby’s International Realty

February 11, 2022

For $4.65M, this Upper West Side ‘classic seven’ is a designer’s dream

The pre-war details and gracious proportions at this three-bedroom co-op at 210 West 90th Street are perfectly complemented by the flawless renovation it received at the hands of Gramercy Design. Built in 1915, the Astor Court co-op is an Upper West Side icon, and this thoroughly livable apartment, asking $4,650,000, adds 21st-century comfort to its old New York charm. Adding even more to its appeal, the home's furnishings can be included in the sale for a higher price.
See more of this beautifully designed co-op

Distinctive Homes

Central Park takes center stage at this $5.9M condo above Lincoln Center

All photos: Eitan Gamliely for Sotheby’s International Realty

February 10, 2022

Central Park takes center stage at this $5.9M condo above Lincoln Center

From its expansive, unobstructed views of Central Park to its location above Lincoln Center, this duplex condo has a flair for the dramatic. Located at 3 Lincoln Center, the only residential building within the renowned performing arts complex, the home boasts a 27-foot-long great room with direct views of Central Park and a south-facing dining room with sights of the Empire State Building. The interior views aren't too shabby either; award-winning architecture firm Jennifer Post Design put their signature sophisticated touch on the nearly 2,000-square-foot two-bedroom home. It can be yours for $5,975,000.
See inside

Distinctive Homes

NYC’s first skate park in a residential development is open at Waterline Square

Photo credit: Jonathan Robles

February 1, 2022

NYC’s first skate park in a residential development is open at Waterline Square

Remember when having a group of teenagers with skateboards hang out at your building was considered a bad thing? Times have changed, skateboarding is an Olympic sport, and Waterline Square's skate park, complete with a custom mural by a local artist, is open. Located in the Upper West Side condo and rental complex's 100,000-square-foot amenity center, the Waterline Club, the skate park offers a half-pipe and mini ramp, plus hang-out space with seating. The new amenity is the first of its kind in a New York City residential development.
More photos, this way

Architecture And Design

Photo credit: Coldwell Banker Warburg

January 26, 2022

$8.25M Lincoln Square condo has designer dazzle, celebrity cachet, and skyline views