6sqft | NYC local news, events, and apartments

When we last checked in on Glenwood Management's latest rental development at 175 West 60th Street, the 48-story, 533-foot tall building had just topped-out and launched its affordable housing lottery offering apartments priced as low as $566/month. Now, the team has jump-started leasing on the building's 205 market-rate residences. Dubbed The Encore—likely due to its proximity to Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the tower being Glenwood's second foray on Fordham University's Lincoln Square campus superblock (Hawthorn Park was the first)—the building is centrally positioned at the meeting of Midtown West and Upper West Side. According to Glenwood, occupancy for the upscale rentals will begin on July 1, and early lease-signors, for a limited time, can capture net-effective rents of $3,483/month for alcove studios, $4,790/month for one-bedrooms, and two-bedrooms starting at $7,297/month.
more details this way

May 17, 2016

Live On Artist Hannes Bend’s Boat for Under $300/Month – Tow It Wherever You Want

Now that we know it is very possible to live a (reasonably) comfortable life on a 200-square-foot boat with your significant other and a dog, there's no reason to pass up this opportunity to stretch out on a 28-foot sailboat for next to nothing. As Brokelyn first reports, artist Hannes Bend, is offering up his Bronx-docked boat up to anyone who wants to live a seafaring life—with the convenience of the city just handful of subway lines and stops away, of course—pretty much for free.
more details on how to move in here

May 17, 2016

Tour Eli Zabar’s Yorkville Rooftop Greenhouses; Automated Selfie Stick Features Lights and Fans

Here’s how to wash every kind of tote bag. [Racked] A selfie stick with built-in studio lights and fans for perfect wind-blown-Beyonce-hair. [Mashable] Tour Eli Zabar’s rooftop greenhouse gardens in Yorkville. [92nd Street Y] Ralph Modica, Compass broker and creator of Burgopoly, is hosting Williamsburg Terrace Tour two nights this week. Peek inside 20 homes […]

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May 17, 2016

This $3M Duplex Townhouse Was Carved Out of a 1902 Waterworks Building in Brooklyn Heights

If you're looking for a home that feels like a townhouse, co-op and loft all rolled into one, this Brooklyn Heights property may be your best bet. It's located at 25 Joralemon Street, a waterworks building constructed in 1902. It has since been converted into six co-ops, each laid out like duplex "townhouse" units. All six townhouses have their own separate entrance and a unique floorplan, with this one boasting a totally lofty aesthetic.
There's also a private courtyard entrance

Distinctive Homes

May 17, 2016

The History of the Roosevelt Island Tramway

In honor of the Roosevelt Island Tramway's 40th anniversary today, we've pulled this wonderful piece on the history of the high-flying gondola system from our archives. Commuting in New York City, whether for work or pleasure, is rarely an enjoyable experience. However, for some tourists and lucky city dwellers, the Roosevelt Island Tramway provides a delightful, high-flying travel alternative to the standard, and sometimes miserable, modes of NYC public transport. Running across the East River, this aerial tramway brings commuters to and from Roosevelt Island and Manhattan’s Upper East Side, and has carried over 26 million passengers since opening in 1976. It is one of the few forms of mass transit in New York City not operated by the MTA, but it still costs the same as the bus or subway and can be paid for with your NYC metro card. Like most things in our historic port town, both the tramway and the commute between Manhattan and Roosevelt Island has a history, and this one includes bridge elevators, high-rise rescue missions and French ski lifts.
More on how the Roosevelt Island tramway came to be

May 17, 2016

Map Mashup: The NYC Subway System Gets Re-Stylized as The London Tube

Pretty much everyone can appreciate a good map, and many of us are downright obsessed. Then there’s Cameron Booth, who has devoted a serious amount of his time to interweaving maps to transit systems all around the world with one another. The Portland, OR-based (by way of Syndey, Australia) graphic designer tweaks and reimagines the world's city transit maps on his blog; Booth has also helped test and create map apps for cities throughout the world. You could think of it as a way to travel everywhere at once, while not leaving home (as long as you stay within the bounds of this virtual transit system). Booth has tried his hand at versions of the transit systems of Paris and Portland, major U.S. highway routes and Amtrak train maps, and it’s both a graphic delight and an eye-opening way to see how cities’ transit systems get you from point a to point b. Take, for example, his project that combines the London tube diagram with the New York City subway system map.
Get a closer look at the maps

Transit

May 17, 2016

Live in Park Slope Without Giving Up Modern in This $1.45M Designer Duplex

If your dream of New York City living means clean, contemporary lines, sleek finishes, lots of white and pops of bright, but your life–or your budget–is in the land of brick and brownstone, head south a bit and you'll find that this chic duplex, asking $1.45M, might be just right. While this two-bedroom condo at 349 16th Street in Park Slope may not be super-spacious–it comes in at just under 1,000 square feet–a 300-square-foot private wrap-around patio definitely adds more to life than just square footage. For a single person or couple seeking enough room for frequent guests, the layout really clicks; it could also work as a starter home for a young family that can't yet claim the adjective "growing," or empty nesters-to-be with a frequently-visiting fledgling.
See more upstairs, downstairs and outside

Distinctive Homes

May 16, 2016

New Studies Show Historic Preservation Doesn’t Cause Gentrification Woes

The city's preservation groups have reported that the results of a series of studies, prompted by the 50th anniversary of the city's Landmarks Law, have put some numbers behind the claim that landmarking doesn't harm, and may actually improve, the economic balance of neighborhood development and growth. According to Simeon Bankoff, executive director of the Historic Districts Council, "This is the first time which preservationists–who tend to be from the humanities and subsequently math-averse–have put real data behind anecdotes." The combined reports represent the most comprehensive study to date of the impacts of historic preservation in New York City.
Find out what the numbers say

Policy

Distinctive Homes

This $2.2M Bed-Stuy townhouse is a 19th-century beauty seeking a 21st-century life

From rental income to solar panels, this $3.5M Bed-Stuy brownstone checks all the boxes

$1.5M Clinton Hill co-op is a modern home base in a classic loft space

For $32.5K/month, rent a five-story designer townhouse in Gramercy

For $8.5M, this Gramercy townhouse is a slender slice of reclaimed history

For $5.1M, this pretty Gramercy condo comes with a key to the private park

For $1.65M, this Prospect Heights pre-war co-op can expand to hold a classic six

$1.95M duplex co-op is an East Village idyll gone luxe

Heatwave goals: A $25M Flatiron penthouse with a rooftop infinity pool

Every inch of this $1.8M Fieldston home was hand-crafted by an artist resident

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Controversial Lower East Side Waterfront May Get Even More Tall Towers

One Manhattan Square on the left, the JDS/SHoP Project in the center. The above image, created by CityRealty, depicts the possible massing of the new towers if built to 50 stories; No official design has been released

May 16, 2016

Controversial Lower East Side Waterfront May Get Even More Tall Towers

Just a few weeks ago 6sqft learned that the supertall super-team of JDS Development and SHoP Architects are planning a 900-foot, 77-story rental building at 247 Cherry Street, directly next to Extell's 850-foot One Manhattan Square. These waterfront developments in the Two Bridges area caused quite a stir since the neighborhood has historically been mostly low-income and low-rise, but now two more supertalls may rise at the site. Bowery Boogie reports that L+M Partners are looking to erect two 50-story towers on the nearby lots at 265-275 Cherry Street. Together, the buildings would hold about 1,000 units.
Find out more

May 16, 2016

Not Tall Enough! On the World’s Stage, New York’s Supertalls Are Ungraceful Runts

By Carter B. Horsley

Carter Uncut brings New York City’s latest development news under the critical eye of resident architecture critic Carter B. Horsley. Ahead, Carter brings us his ninth and final installment of “Skyline Wars,” a series that examines the explosive and unprecedented supertall phenomenon that is transforming the city’s silhouette. In this post Carter takes at aim the quality of design of those towers rising around the city right now, and how they fail to inspire when compared to those found internationally. The explosive transformation of the New York City skyline now underway is occurring without any plan in a very haphazard fashion. Some of the new towers are not ugly but compared to many new ones elsewhere, especially those that are free-standing, they’re not going to win many top honors. Many are very thin, mid-block incursions. Others arrogantly abut and loom over landmarks with nary a thought to context. Some clearly are aimed at one-percenters and offer lavish amenities and layouts. But many others are squeezing potential residents like sardines into very small apartments in attempts to set new “density” records.
The towers that got it wrong, and right

Architecture And Design

May 16, 2016

Parts of the Original Harlem Hospital Live On in this Funky Tribeca Duplex Loft

This 1,500 square-foot co-op loft at 156 Franklin Street in Tribeca is a first floor duplex with a layout that goes beyond the usual one-two beat. Rooms are layered above, below and between, which elevates everyday living—literally. The loft, asking $1.895 million, is also located in an historic district in a landmarked building and is filled with parts that were salvaged from the original Harlem Hospital. As such, the historic layers within are quite unique; reclaimed items harkening to the late 19th century include the stairs that run between levels and floors and the large stainless steel sink in the kitchen, and then there are the building's prewar architectural details like exposed red brick, arches, and barrel-vaulted terra cotta ceilings.
READ MORE

Distinctive Homes

May 16, 2016

Downtown Brooklyn’s Newly-Launched City Tower Offering One Month Free Rent

City Tower, the second phase of Downtown Brooklyn's 1.8 million-square-foot, mixed-use mega-development, has debuted, ushering in 439 brand new market-rate rentals to the heart of the borough. For a limited time, the building is offering new renters one month for free based on a 13-month lease. The 38-story tower's current availabilities include four studios starting at $2,423/month, five one-bedrooms at $2,838/month, and three two-bedrooms at $4,154/month. The building was developed and is being managed by the long-established Brodsky Organization and was designed by the acclaimed eco-conscious architects at COOKFOX. Perched twenty floors above 700,000 square feet of retail, entertainment and dining spaces, many of City Tower's residences provide spectacular views of the harbor and Manhattan skyline.
Get the full scoop on the building this way

May 16, 2016

Sander Mulder’s Ghostly Josephine Lamp Glows With Its Whole Body

By Ana Lisa Alperovich

Less is more for just about everything when it comes to cramped NYC apartments; the notable exception, of course, being light. So here's a brilliant design that strikes a perfect balance between being hidden but also visually arresting when it needs to be. Sander Mulder's Josephine Lamp is a standing luminaire that takes on an almost ghostly form, only becoming apparent when one switches its on-off button.
Learn more about this magical lamp

May 16, 2016

Designer Kitchen Distinguishes This Two-Bedroom Apartment in Gowanus

This two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment occupies the top floor of 335 Carroll Street, a Gowanus warehouse converted not long ago to rental apartments. Asking $5,317/month, the apartment has shed its former warehouse skin for a much more modern aesthetic, which includes a chic designer kitchen.
Check it out

May 16, 2016

$180 Bowl of Ramen Comes to Midtown; Beth Israel May Be Closing Its Doors

A midtown restaurant is serving a $180 bowl of ramen, which it says is the world’s most expensive thanks to “Japanese-imported Wagyu beef, truffles and edible 24-karat gold flakes.” [WSJ] Maya Angelou’s historic Harlem brownstone is in contract. [Harlem Bespoke] Nurses from Mount Sinai Beth Israel claim the hospital is closing by the end of the […]

Uncategorized

Safer and Smaller Crane Could Cut Building Costs by Millions, But the City Doesn’t Allow Use

The Skypicker in use, via JOMAC

May 16, 2016

Safer and Smaller Crane Could Cut Building Costs by Millions, But the City Doesn’t Allow Use

Crane safety has made major headlines in recent months, after a crane collapse in February killed a passerby in Tribeca and reports surfaced about an uptick in construction site deaths. But at the start of the city's current building boom, there was a man and a crane who sought to make skyscraper construction safer, not to mention quicker and cheaper. Crain's introduces Dan Mooney, president of crane leasing company Vertikal Solutions and designer of the Skypicker, a lightweight mobile crane. It's only 10-feet tall with a 30-foot boom (compared with tower cranes that rise hundreds of feet), but Mooney says that's the point, that it "can fit in small spaces and is ideal for midsize buildings where tower cranes are overkill and mobile cranes or derricks are not big enough." When it was employed in 2012 for Midtown's Hilton Garden Inn, the 34-story building went up in just six months. After that, Mooney's phone was ringing off the hook with developers looking to save time and money on smaller projects, and he had four more Skypickers built. So why are they now sitting idle in a warehouse in Astoria?
Find out here

Policy

May 15, 2016

Angular Design Dominates this East Hampton Home Renovation by Maziar Behrooz

This dynamic East Hamptons home is located on the East End of Long Island in Wainscott, New York. The owners of the property originally purchased it 20 years ago when it was just a small structure. After a few expansions and renovations over a decade, in 2008, they decided they wanted an even bigger home and enlisted the help of architect Maziar Behrooz to build anew. The owners, who are originally from France, fell in love with the natural beauty of Long Island and wanted to reimagine their property without regard to its organic confines. In response to this request, architectural plans were created to include a dramatic 9,500-square-foot extension with asymmetrical triangles and a linear orientation that unifies the pool, grounds and garden.
READ MORE

Architecture And Design

Weekly Highlights: Top Picks From the 6sqft Staff

7,500-Name Waitlist Opens for 975 Affordable Units at Harlem’s Riverton Complex Rafael Viñoly Admits 432 Park ‘Has a Couple of Screw-Ups’ Behind This $1.25M Greenpoint Duplex Is a Barefoot Backyard Paradise Forgotten Four Acres of Central Park Reopens to Visitors After Almost 90 Years Williamsburg Unsurprisingly Tops List of NYC’s 15 Fastest Gentrifying Neighborhoods Preserved […]

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Rafael Viñoly Apologizes for Dissing 432 Park

Image of Rafael Viñoly via Rafael Viñoly Architects Facebook page for Fall 2011/Winter 2012 issue of Pin-Up: Magazine for Architectural Entertainment

May 13, 2016

Rafael Viñoly Apologizes for Dissing 432 Park

Image of Rafael Viñoly via Rafael Viñoly Architects Facebook page for Fall 2011/Winter 2012 issue of Pin-Up: Magazine for Architectural Entertainment On Monday, the architecture world was gobbling up the comments starchitect Rafael Viñoly made about 432 Park Avenue at a Douglas Elliman talk last week. He admitted that the 1,400-foot supertall "has a couple of screw-ups," referring to the interior design and layout, as well as the window framing, which he blamed on developer Harry Macklowe. But it looks like the architect is a bit red in the face, because he penned a lengthy public letter to design blog Dezeen apologizing for his loose lips. "In the context of what we understood to be a private and off-the-record conversation, I expressed frustration, inartfully, about the consequences of my profession's diminished position in the real estate development eco-system. Sometimes I get a little excited and say things that can easily be taken out of context and stripped of their humor. I have to improve," he said.
Read more of his apology letter

Architecture And Design

May 13, 2016

Odds You’ll Score an Affordable Apartment Through a City Lottery Are 1,000 to 1

Last August 6sqft reported that about 696 applicants were applying for each of the city's available affordable housing units, and those odds have gotten even longer. So far this year 2.54 million applicants have applied via the city’s Housing Connect website for 2,628 affordable apartments, which puts the odds at about 1,000 to 1. The number of hopefuls vying for units like the 181 well-below-market rate apartments–from $559/month studios to $3,012 two-bedrooms–available at Pacific Park's 461 Dean Street has increased dramatically since 2013, when 364,000 applicants applied for around 2,300 units, reports the New York Post.
Who's included in those depressing odds?

May 13, 2016

Brooklyn-Queens Streetcar Gets a New Website With More Details and Images

Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector launched a brand new website yesterday, revealing not only more images of how the streetcar could fit in with the various neighborhoods it would serve, but also the names of the developers, transportation experts and civic organizers involved in pushing the lightrail project forward. As listed on the site, members of the advocacy group include former MTA head and mayoral candidate Joe Lhota, big names hailing from the likes of Tishman Speyer, Steiner Studios and Two Trees Development, and a number of local groups, including the Fifth Avenue Committee, Industry City and DUMBO BID. According to DNA Info, over the next 16 months, the committee will attempt to get additional neighborhood groups and residents along the streetcar's 16-mile route involved in the city's public planning process, which in turn should drive more support and funding.
More photos of the Connector this way

Transit

May 13, 2016

Spotlight: BioBus’ Sarah Weisberg Helps NYC Students Find Their Inner Scientist

By Susan Cohen

An early appreciation for science can lead to a lifelong passion for the subject, but it can be a challenge to get elementary, middle and high school students excited about the sciences from inside the classroom, which is where the BioBus comes in. The mobile science lab was founded in 2008 by Ben Dubin-Thaler, who has a PhD in Biology from Columbia University. The bus began “as an experiment to test his hypothesis that, given the opportunity to use research-microscopes to perform live experiments, anyone would be excited about science.” To test his hypothesis, he purchased a bus on Craigslist and transformed it into a mobile laboratory equipped with state-of-the-art microscopes that could travel to students. The bus now serves thousands of New York City students and has a sister in the BioBase, located at the Lower East Side Girls Club, a hub created so that bus's lessons can be expanded upon through additional programming. BioBus’s Chief Scientist Sarah Weisberg is a great example of what's possible with careers in science. While she originally envisioned working in academia as a researcher, she found her passion for science programming and advocacy through BioBus. She is now hard at work growing the organization and its mission of presenting science in a fun, accessible way to children. 6sqft recently spoke with Sarah to learn more about the BioBus and how it's helping young New Yorkers discover their inner scientists.
Read the interview with Sarah here

May 13, 2016

Alan Cumming Lists Charming, Quirky East Village Home for $2.2M

"The Good Wife" star Alan Cumming is selling the East Village apartment that stole his heart when the Scottish-born actor first saw it back in 2005. Listed for $2.2 million, the four-bedroom co-op at 297 East 10th Street overlooking Tompkins Square Park definitely looks like the kind of place you could call home for at least a few years, a rare thing in the otherwise great neighborhood. The Wall Street Journal reports that Cumming and husband Grant Shaffer have been renovating a nearby 19th-century townhouse that they bought in 2013 for $4.65 million, and the time seemed right to part with this cozy co-op.
Have a look

May 13, 2016

Morris Adjmi’s Tribeca Condo Building at 83 Walker Street Gets Its Inverted Facade

After a unanimously approval by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in June 2011, the Morris Adjmi-designed condo building at 83 Walker Street has fully risen and is nearly completely adorned with its creamy, concrete facade. The nine-story, 19,000-square-foot building is being developed by Brooklyn-based Abra Construction Corp. and will house a duplex unit at the ground and cellar levels and eight full-floor residences above. Its narrow 24-foot-wide lot is within the fast-changing eastern extents of Tribeca (formerly Chinatown) and sits within the Tribeca East Historic District. The realized project is slightly higher than zoning allows and had to seek approval from the City Planning Commission in addition to the LPC.
The story behind that inverted facade

May 13, 2016

Get Views of the Apollo From the Private Terrace of This $795K Harlem Condo

There are lots of perks that come with a top-floor apartment, including this duplex at the Dover Condominium. The building is located right in the heart of Harlem at 252 West 123rd Street. The second level of the space has both a skylight and private terrace, where you've got views of all the neighborhood landmarks including the Apollo Theater. As for interior design, lots of exposed brick and a wood-burning fireplace keep things feeling cozy.
Take a tour

Distinctive Homes

May 13, 2016

There’s a Serious Ice Cream Crime Epidemic; Psychedelic Temple Planned for Upstate

Everything you need to know about affordable housing: applying, getting in, and staying put

Thieves have been swiping pints of Häagen-Dazs and Ben & Jerry’s from drugstores so they can resell them at a bargain price to bodegas. [Grub Street] As of last night, and through Sunday, many of New York’s major landmarks will be lit red as part of a city-wide campaign to raise awareness for HIV/AIDS. [TONY] Brooklyn woman […]

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THE 6SQFT SHOP

The best websites for buying and selling used furniture in NYC

The 6 best furniture rental companies in NYC

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Everything you need to know about using a guarantor in NYC

15 quintessential NYC gifts for the New Yorker in your life

New York City's best holiday markets of 2023

Raising chickens in NYC: Laws, tips, and everything else you need to know

10 Ways to Decorate an Exposed Brick Wall Without Drilling

Snag the Greenest Seat in Town: Gufram's 1972 Pratone Chair is Shaped Like a Patch of Grass

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May 13, 2016

Spencer Lowell Creates Hyperrealistic Photos of the Queens Museum’s Famous Panorama

The most prized piece in the Queens Museum is undoubtedly the Panorama, a scale model of the entire city conceived by Robert Moses for the 1964 World's Fair. Now, fifty years later, it can be enjoyed from an entirely new perspective, thanks to a recent collaboration between LA-based artist Spencer Lowell and the Frieze Art Fair. The resulting collection of hyperrealistic images zoom in on some of the most impressive sections of the model and give an aerial view of the mini metropolis that showcases the city's urban density in a new way.
See more of the prints

Events & Things To Do

May 12, 2016

Preserved Stuyvesant Heights Brownstone Was Jackie Robinson’s First Home in Brooklyn

Besides being a newly-hot neighborhood, Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant holds one of the city's finest collections of historic brownstones. Though many beautiful homes didn't survive the neglect of the late 20th century, many that did have been remarkably preserved or painstakingly restored to their original splendor. One of the highest concentrations of those impressive townhouses can be found in the Stuyvesant Heights Historic District in the south-central part of the neighborhood. It's here that you'll find this landmarked four-story home at 407 Stuyvesant Avenue, just arrived on the market for $2.875 million. According to the listing, baseball icon and civil rights pioneer Jackie Robinson lived here, and the brokers tell 6sqft that this was his first residence in Brooklyn. They add that when the current owners moved in, they found a treasure trove of memorabilia. So let's just say this 20-foot-wide Romanesque Revival-style brownstone hits it out of the park when it comes to intact historic detail and unspoiled 19th century architecture.
Explore this central Brooklyn treasure

May 12, 2016

A Mini-Solarium Brings Serious Sunlight to This $835K Kensington Apartment

It's not everyday you find a condo apartment with its own solarium—especially in the quiet, suburban-like neighborhood of Kensington, Brooklyn. This is the top floor apartment at 734 East 5th Street, an eight-unit, four-story development built in 2005. A wall of complete glass lines the east end of the apartment, creating a small solarium above the dining area. It leads out onto a patio, which isn't even the only outdoor option in this sun-flooded space.
See all the outdoor spaces

Distinctive Homes

May 12, 2016

Interview: RAMSA’s Paul Whalen Reflects on the Unique Design of 15 Central Park West

For good reason, hundreds if not thousands of articles and books have been published on 15 Central Park West, the “Limestone Jesus” designed by famed architect Robert A.M. Stern. This modern icon is credited with not only elevating the New York City luxury market to a level no one before dreamed it could reach, but […]

May 12, 2016

Art Nerd New York’s Top Event Picks for the Week – 5/12-5/18

By Lori Zimmer

In a city where hundreds of interesting happenings occur each week, it can be hard to pick and choose your way to a fulfilling life. Art Nerd‘s philosophy is a combination of observation, participation, education and of course a party to create the ultimate well-rounded week. Jump ahead for Art Nerd founder Lori Zimmer’s top picks for 6sqft readers! Design week is here, with enough trade-show events to make your head spin. Not to miss is the massive ICFF and Dwell on Design, two places to hit for the absolute latest and greatest in contemporary design. Take advantage of the nice weather and enjoy a cocktail al fresco while viewing the new Ivan Argote sculpture at the Standard High Line, or head out to Sunset Park and meander through the massive Industry City's open studios. The Judd Foundation creates a dialogue with James Rosenquist's work, and Swizz Beats' ex puts on her curatorial hat for an all-female show at Joseph Gross Gallery. Visit LA artist Marc Horowitz's New York debut at Johannes Vogt, and discover your inner adventurist in a one-night pop up by NY Adventure Club, featuring their members' death-defying photos of our beloved city.
More on all the best events this way

Events & Things To Do

May 12, 2016

Gardener’s Majestic Hudson River Home Is Surrounded by Edible Gardens

By Ana Lisa Alperovich

This beautiful Hudson River estate is not only a stunning gateway with sweeping views and luscious gardens, but it's also a gardener's home with significant historic, cultural and ecological value. The estate, which is comprised of many buildings, once served as a farm, a gentleman’s club, a nursing home and a camp before Janice Parker Landscape Architects turned it into a nature-lovers retreat. In addition to featuring expansive views of the Hudson River and being surrounded by a rolling forest and farms, the estate delves deeper into the realm of Eden with its lush carpets of creeping thymus, blooming perennials and a full assortment of edible plants.
Learn more about this majestic home

May 12, 2016

Why Do Subway Conductors Always Point After Pulling Into a Station?

If you've ever been able to tear your eyes away from your targeted entry point when the subway doors are about to open, you might've noticed that every time a train pulls into the station, the conductor is pointing out his window at something. And believe it or not, he isn't calling out the crazy person screaming on the platform or gesturing to his fellow employees in the booth. This is actually a required safety precaution. Halfway down every subway platform is a "zebra board," a black and white-striped wood panel that's meant to line up perfectly with the conductor's window, signaling that all cars are at the platform. "Because opening the doors without a platform to step onto is such a serious concern, conductors are required to point at the sign every time to show that they've stopped at the right spot," Mental Floss explains.
Find out more this way

Transit

May 12, 2016

Leasing Begins at Downtown Brooklyn’s One Duffield, No-Fee Units Begin at $2,400/Month

Within the human-scaled oasis between the Manhattan Bridge and the BQE, a 57,000-square-foot church conversion has wrapped up construction, releasing 84 brand-new no-fee rental apartments to the Downtown Brooklyn market. Named One Duffield, for its address at the corner of Gold and Duffield streets, the five-story building uses some of the structural bones of a prior two-story church and completely re-imagines its aesthetic into a varied composition of brown and orange brick, metal siding, and large square windows. Nataliya Donskoy of ND Architecture and Design P.C. is the designer of the building and "The Bridge Building LLC" is listed as the developer in permits.
Get pricing and see inside

May 12, 2016

POLL: Can Mayor de Blasio Get Albany to Pass a 421a Deal by Next Month?

The city’s 421a program, which provides tax breaks of up to 25 years to new residential buildings that reserve at least 20 percent of units as affordable housing, expired in January, leaving Mayor de Blasio concerned for his push to add/preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing over the next decade. According to a REBNY report last […]

May 12, 2016

7,500-Name Waitlist Opens for 975 Affordable Units at Harlem’s Riverton Complex

Like Stuyvesant Town, the Riverton Square residential development in Harlem opened in 1947 as an affordable complex for World War II veterans and was built by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. But unlike Stuy Town (and Met Life's Parkchester in the Bronx), black and Hispanic tenants weren't barred from renting in Riverton. According to the Times, over the years the seven-building site was a sought-after address for the middle-class and was home to such notables as jazz pianist Billy Taylor, former Mayor David Dinkins, and former vice president of Motwon Records Suzanne de Passe. But in 2005, again similar to its downtown counterpart, Riverton was sold to Stellar Management, who tried to swiftly remove long-term tenants and replace them with higher-paying residents. Unable to convert the rent-stabilized units to market-rate and saddled with debt, Stellar lost Riverton to its lenders in 2008. This past December, after nearly a decade in limbo, the 12-acre site was sold to A&E Real Estate Holdings for $201 million in a deal with the city which, like the recent terms at Stuy Town, dictated that 975 of the complex's 1,229 units be reserved for working- and middle-class families for 30 years. In return, the buyer will receive about $100 million worth of tax breaks and incentives. The waitlist is now open for these affordable units, and 7,500 randomly selected applicants will earn themselves a spot.
Find out if you qualify here

Affordable Housing

May 12, 2016

Take a Hands-Free Selfie; First Hip Hop Museum May Open in the Bronx

Say goodbye to the selfie stick and use a “stick and shoot” camera instead. [Business Insider] The old Bronx courthouse may be turned into the Universal Hip Hop Museum. [CityLab] This graphic novel was inspired by a Williamsburg resident’s hellish L train commute. [DNAinfo] Check out Astor Place’s new design pavilion, sponsored by downtown supertall […]

Uncategorized

May 11, 2016

Skyline Wars: Accounting for New York’s Stray Supertalls

By Carter B. Horsley

Carter Uncut brings New York City’s latest development news under the critical eye of resident architecture critic Carter B. Horsley. Ahead, Carter brings us his eighth installment of “Skyline Wars,” a series that examines the explosive and unprecedented supertall phenomenon that is transforming the city’s silhouette. In this post Carter looks at the "stray" supertalls rising in low slung neighborhoods. Most of the city’s recent supertall developments have occurred in traditional high-rise commercial districts such as the Financial District, the Plaza District, downtown Brooklyn and Long Island City. Some are also sprouting in new districts such as the Hudson Yards in far West Midtown. There are, however, some isolated "stray" supertalls that are rising up in relatively virgin tall territories, such as next to the Manhattan Bridge on the Lower East Side and Sutton Place.
read more from carter here

Architecture And Design

May 11, 2016

That Time a NYC Bus Driver Said %#$# It, I’m Driving This Bus to Florida

If you’ve ever fantasized about leaving work at lunchtime and heading for a faraway beach, you probably know you’re not alone. Though many dream, the afternoon more likely finds us stifling a yawn in that meeting instead of watching the runway grow smaller in the distance. But collectively we love the idea enough that there are few who wouldn’t make a hero of New York City bus driver William Cimillo, a 37-year-old married father of three from the Bronx who, in 1947, drove into the pages of history by taking life by the you-know-whats and giving himself a “busman’s holiday.” The term refers to a vacation where you’re basically doing the same stuff you’d be doing at work anyway, which is just what Cimillo, a driver on the BX15 bus route, did when he drove all the way to Florida.
We hope this story ends well

History

May 11, 2016

Behind This $1.25M Greenpoint Duplex Is a Barefoot Backyard Paradise

You're thinking of living in Greenpoint; you've fallen in love with the neighborhood. If the magical words, "two bedrooms plus office," and "outdoor space" don't get you to investigate further, you're not trying hard enough to make it happen. This nicely-outfitted duplex at 687 Leonard Street in the heart of north Brooklyn's waterfront paradise may not turn heads from the outside, but there are some pleasant surprises within.
Have a look

Distinctive Homes

May 11, 2016

Grow Vegetables in Your Apartment Effortlessly With Foop and Your Smartphone

Caring for plants at home is a nice idea, but growing food inside your city apartment is an even better one. Now with Foop, a hydroponic pod from Japan, you can grow vegetables and herbs, like lettuce, parsley, basil, and mesclun with almost no effort. The process couldn't be easier; The first step is to purchase of your desired vegetable seeds, and the second to place the seeds into Foop's "cultivation cup." After the seeds are in place, you set a time frame for them to grow using Foop's app. When the vegetables are ripe for picking, you'll get a notification on your phone!
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May 11, 2016

NYC Must Produce 20,000 New Housing Units a Year to Keep Up With Exploding Population

The 2015 census puts New York City's population at a record high of 8.6 million. This is a 375,000-person increase from 2010, the biggest spike since the 1920s. The rise is attributed to the nearly 250,000 jobs that were created in 2014 and 2015, the $7.3 billion in venture capital present in the city in 2015 (the second-highest level ever), and record-breaking tourism that's created a boom in the hospitality industry. And of course, with more people comes the need for more places to put them, and Commercial Observer estimates that the city "needs to produce at least 20,000 new housing units each year just to keep pace with demand and population growth."
What does this mean for NYC's housing stock?

May 11, 2016

Lissoni Architettura Conceptualizes a Submerged Aquarium in the East River

By now we all know about the urban design fad of floating things in NYC's rivers (Pier55, +Pool, this island), but here's a concept for an under-water public space off Long Island City. Untapped took a look at this proposal for a submerged aquarium from Milan-based architecture firm Lissoni Architettura. Titled NYCAquatrium, it will likely never get built since it's just the winning entry in Arch Out Loud's ideas competition for a New York City aquarium and public waterfront, but it's certainly an innovative project.
See all the renderings and get more details

Architecture And Design

May 11, 2016

Furniture That References NYC Construction Sites; Do Calorie Counts Actually Make Us Eat Better?

This furniture collection references New York City construction details such as rebar, grid formations, and pinion elevators. [designboom] PlaceILive has new and improved features to help you find out which NYC neighborhoods best match your lifestyle. [6sqft inbox] Six years into Bloomberg’s controversial calorie count system, research shows that these labels have no affect on what New […]

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222 LES Tower + Lofts

222 East Broadway

Lower East Side

Art Deco romance meets 21st-century convenience

Studios starting at $799,000
1 bed starting at $1,100,000
2 beds starting at $1,955,000
3 beds starting at $2,875,000

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May 11, 2016

The ‘One57 of Assisted Living’ Will Charge Seniors $20,000 a Month

Luxury isn't exactly the word that comes to mind when one thinks of a T.G.I. Friday's, or an assisted living development for that matter, but the chain restaurant's midtown location will soon yield the "One57 of Assisted Living." Bloomberg reports that Welltower Inc., the country's largest senior-housing owner by market value, teamed up with developer Hines (who is also behind the nearby MoMA Tower) to purchase the site at 56th Street and Lexington Avenue, just a few short blocks from Billionaires' Row and the prestige of Park Avenue, where they'll build a 15-story tower "to accommodate wealthy Manhattanites in need of assisted-living and memory-care services." And wealthy is not an understatement -- monthly rents will start at $20,000, and keep in mind that this isn't covered by insurance.
More details ahead

New Developments

May 11, 2016

Clinton Hill Mansion Designed by Iconic Brooklyn Architect Hits the Market for $3.85 Million

Once upon a time, Clinton Hill was a neighborhood of mansions designed by some of Brooklyn's most prominent architects. Many have since been demolished and replaced with either townhouses or apartment buildings. But this one at 186 Clinton Avenue still stands, on a stretch that was known as the neighborhood's "mansion row." Montrose Morris, a prolific Brooklyn architect, designed it in 1891 for William H. Beard, the son of the third wealthiest man in Brooklyn, William Beard, Sr. It's so massive it's been divided into several apartments—the property being offered is only one-half of the mansion, which holds eight units.
Take a look

May 10, 2016

Forgotten Four Acres of Central Park Reopens to Visitors After Almost 90 Years

After being closed off to the public since the 1930s, The Hallet Nature Sanctuary on the lower east side of Central Park is once again open to all, writes The Times. The lush four-acre peninsula has for the last decades been used as a bird sanctuary, reclaimed and then tended to by the Central Park Conservancy in 2001 as part of their Woodlands Initiative. Under the project, $45 million was directed towards revitalizing and restoring the wooded areas of Central Park to their original glory.
More on how to visit here

May 10, 2016

400-Bed Designer Dorm Headed for Williamsburg

When you spend your student years living in an architect-designed former car radio button factory in the ultra-hip Berlin neighborhood of Kreuzberg, face it, you’re just going to be a little spoiled for everything else. And it should come as no surprise that, thanks to a developer specializing in student living, students in de facto hipster sister city Williamsburg will be getting a similar opportunity to live in architectural bliss rather than institutional semi-squalor. New York City-based real estate development company Macro Sea piloted the design-friendly dorm—outfitted with found furniture and slatted ladder-style stairs–in Berlin's Kreuzberg district last year. FastCompany quotes company principal David Belt: "Most people build student housing and they want to build it as cheaply as possible and the furniture to be as rugged as possible, because they think that students will wreck it." Diverging from this idea, Belt's company "sought to create an environment that treats students as savvy global citizens rather than wards of an institution."
Student housing or co-living for adults, what's the difference?

Real Estate Trends

May 10, 2016

The Elegantly Designed Interiors at This Carroll Gardens Brownstone Can Be Yours For $3M