Search Results for: brooklyn history

6sqft’s series “Where I Work” takes us into the studios, offices, and businesses of New Yorkers across the city. In this installment, we’re going inside Black Seed Bagels' new Nomad location. Want to see your business featured here? Get in touch! "We founded Black Seed with the goal of bringing extremely well-made bagels, bagel sandwiches, and coffee to everyone," said co-owner Noah Bernamoff. After he and Matt Kliegman met through a mutual friend while running separate restaurants (Matt, The Smile and the Jane Hotel ballroom and Noah, Mile End Delicatessen), they decided to open their first location of Black Seed Bagels in Nolita in 2014. The Montreal-meets-New York-style bagels became an instant foodie hit, and the partners now have locations in the East Village, Battery Park City, and, as of this week, Nomad. 6sqft paid Noah a visit at their latest location in the trendy Ace Hotel and chatted with him about Black Seed's journey. We also met with head baker Dianna Daoheung, who developed the shop's unique hand-rolled, wood-fired bagels (which garnered her a James Beard nomination) and expanded the menu to include sandwich collaborations with fellow NYC restaurants and chefs.
See the space and meet Noah and Dianna

Photo by 6sqft

August 14, 2018

Where to experience Bangladeshi culture in NYC, from the East Village to Ozone Park

By Hannah Frishberg

It's hard to miss the two floors of flashing, chili pepper light-adorned Indian restaurants on First Avenue and Sixth Street in the East Village. The origin of these two stacked eateries, though, is much more frequently overlooked, as is the fact that the neighborhood's adjacent "Little India" is really more "Little Bengal." New York's main Bangladeshi community is often cited as being in Jackson Heights, which boasts a large South Asian population and a great representation of its diverse culture, including the beloved Patel Brothers grocery store. Less well known is that East New York also has a large Bangladeshi community, and in the 1990s, the East Village's "Curry Row" worked to identify itself as Indian, a culture more Americans at the time were familiar with. Ahead, we look at the whole history and break down the best places to experience Bangladeshi culture in NYC.
READ MORE

August 13, 2018

The 8 best wildlife activities in and around NYC

By Rebecca Fishbein

You may have thought NYC’s wildlife predominantly consisted of subway rats and the giant cockroaches that find their way into your apartment each summer, but it appears there’s more to this city’s animals than pests. Indeed, New York is actually full of unique birds, mammals, and insects that help contribute each day to our shared ecosystem. It’s also full of walking tours, boat tours, driving tours, and other activities that’ll give you an opportunity to get a good look at the wildlife around us, both in the city and just outside of it. Here are some of our favorites.
The top 8 wildlife activities in and around NYC

August 13, 2018

This $3.5M Crown Heights mansion gives you plenty of room to imagine its grand historic past

For the many house-hunters seeking a townhouse in Crown Heights, this $3.5 million Colonial Revival mansion at 190 New York Avenue is a fine example of the neighborhood's grand history. The area known as the St. Marks District was, at the turn of the 19th century, home to many of the borough's wealthiest residents, with streets lined with large free-standing or semi-detached homes like this one. This four-story townhouse measures an unusually large 30 feet by 59 feet on a 109-foot lot. Inside are 14 rooms including seven bedrooms, seven fireplaces and a master bedroom that's blessed with a terrace. And here's a fun fact--according to the listing, a one-time tenant was the prolific singer and actress Ethel Waters
Take the tour

The best affordable and student-friendly off-campus neighborhoods in NYC

Columbia campus, via Pixabay

August 9, 2018

The best affordable and student-friendly off-campus neighborhoods in NYC

By Cait Etherington

If you can’t bear the idea of living in the dorms for another year, you’re not alone. Unless you happen to go to Columbia where over 90 percent of students live on campus, there's a high likelihood you’ll be searching for your own apartment at some point during your college years, just like 57 percent of students at NYU and 74 percent at The New School. And if you're like most students, you’ll be looking for an apartment far from downtown that strikes the right balance between affordability, commutability, and access to services. To help you make the smartest decision possible, 6sqft has compiled a list of affordable, student-friendly neighborhoods in Manhattan and Brooklyn. By New York City standards, all of these are both safe (e.g., reported fewer than 1.5447 crimes per 1000 people in June 2018) and within reach (e.g., on average, three-bedroom units can still be rented for less than $5,000 per month). Using July 2018 City Realty data on average neighborhood rents, we've broken down how much you’ll pay on average to live in a three-bedroom shared unit in each of these neighborhoods. We’ve also provided average commute times to both Union Square, which is easily walkable to NYU, The New School, and Cooper Union, and to the Columbia University campus.
Get the guide

August 8, 2018

News anchor Cynthia McFadden’s UES townhouse, once home to director Elia Kazan, asks $6M

Built in 1899, this Carnegie Hill townhouse at 174 East 95th Street has another history claim: It has been home to some serious and dedicated behind-the-camera luminaries. The four-story townhouse was for a time the address of controversial Oscar-winning stage and screen director Elia Kazan ("On the Waterfront," "East of Eden" and many more). The 4,240-square-foot, four-bedroom home is currently owned by veteran TV journalist Cynthia McFadden, who is now the senior legal and investigative correspondent for NBC News. A fine example of an Upper East Side townhouse, the home has been renovated with care using fine fixtures and finishes while preserving its 19th century grandeur.
Take the tour

After years of delays and $20M increase, Lower Manhattan pedestrian bridge won’t meet fall deadline

Rendering via WXY Architecture

August 2, 2018

After years of delays and $20M increase, Lower Manhattan pedestrian bridge won’t meet fall deadline

By Washington Square Park Conservancy

After two Battery Park City bridges were destroyed during the terrorist attacks on 9/11, the city quickly built the Rector Street Bridge, a temporary solution to let pedestrians safely cross West Street. The state's department of transportation released a proposal in 2006 to reconstruct the promenade but opted to renovate the bridge in 2009 instead. WXY Architecture released a new proposal in 2013 to replace the Rector Street Bridge with a 230-foot-long light-filled, permanent pedestrian walkway at West Thames Street. But, as Crain's first reported, the project won't meet its fall deadline and the project's budget has grown from $20 million to roughly $40 million.
Find out more

Architecture And Design

Photo via Wiki Commons

August 1, 2018

10 secrets of Washington Square Park

With 12 million visits a year from tourists and residents alike, Washington Square Park has plenty of things to see and do. And Parkies worth their salt know the basics: it was once a potter’s field where the indigent were buried, and a roadbed carried vehicles through the Park for almost 100 years. But the Park holds some secrets even the most knowledgeable Washington Square denizen might not know, like its connection to freed slaves in NYC and the fact that it was the first place the telegraph was publicly used.
Read on to discover if you’re a Park newbie or a Park expert

July 31, 2018

How six Italian immigrants from the South Bronx carved some of the nation’s most iconic sculptures

By Lucie Levine

When the Piccirilli Brothers arrived in New York from Italy in 1888, they brought with them a skill-- artistry and passion for stone-carving unrivaled in the United States. At their studio at 467 East 142nd Street, in the Mott Haven Section of the Bronx, the brothers turned monumental slabs of marble into some of the nation’s recognizable icons, including the senate pediment of the US Capitol Building and the statue of Abraham Lincoln that sits resolutely in the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall. The Piccirillis not only helped set our national narrative in stone but they also left an indelible mark on New York City. They carved hundreds of commissions around the five boroughs, including the 11 figures in the pediment of the New York Stock exchange, the “four continents” adorning the Customs House at Bowling Green, the two stately lions that guard the New York Public Library, both statues of George Washington for the Arch at Washington Square, and upwards of 500 individual carvings at Riverside Church.
Chisel away at this tale

July 30, 2018

The New York City subway in fascinating facts and figures

When it comes to New York City’s subway system, you may think you know the letters (A,B,C,D,E,F,G,J,L,M,N,Q,R,S,W,Z) and numbers (1 through 7), all too well. But a few of the fun facts and staggering stats that add up to the seventh busiest public transit system in the world might surprise you. From the longest route (the A line is 31 miles) to the world's highest rapid transit station at Smith-9th Streets (it's 88 feet above street level), there are plenty of figures that even the most well-versed New Yorker likely doesn't know.
More stuff you never knew about the subway

July 26, 2018

15 must-see attractions and adventures on Staten Island

With major developments underway, Staten Island is slowly losing its nickname as the "forgotten borough." While projects like Empire Outlets, the Bay Street Corridor rezoning, and the expansion of the former Stapleton homeport hope to revitalize the borough with new residential and commercial space, Staten Island already offers visitors a ton of unique attractions to explore. Just take the free Staten Island Ferry to discover the miles of coastline and 12,300-acres of parkland in the city's greenest and least populated borough. For the best spots in the borough, follow 6sqft's list ahead of the 15 most unforgettable attractions on Staten Island.
Find out more

Events & Things To Do

Scrabble is played in 22 languages around the world, but it was invented in Jackson Heights, Queens

Image: Matthew D. Britt via Flickr

July 23, 2018

Scrabble is played in 22 languages around the world, but it was invented in Jackson Heights, Queens

"Secret" details hidden in plain sight are pretty much the rule in New York City, and the “Scrabble” street sign in Jackson Heights is a fine example. The letters that make up the sign marking 35th Avenue where it meets 81st Street in the neighborhood’s historic district are–if you look more closely than you’d ever really look at a street sign–accorded numbered points below each letter, Scrabble tile-style. The sign honors the fact that the beloved geeky pastime–according to Hasbro, three out of every five American homes harbor a Scrabble board–was invented right here in Queens by the Poughkeepsie-born Alfred Mosher Butts in 1931. Butts was an architect, and as history tells us, an architect generally needed to find an alternate way to keep busy during the Great Depression.
A big hit at the church social

History

July 20, 2018

NYC added 32,000 affordable homes this year, setting a new construction record

Via Pixabay New York City financed more than 32,000 affordable homes in the last fiscal year, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Thursday. This breaks the record set by former Mayor Ed Koch in 1989 and sets a record for most new construction with 9,140 affordable homes. But with the additional units come additional costs: The city's investment in the housing plan grew from $1 billion in fiscal year 2017 to $1.6 billion this year.
Learn more

July 20, 2018

Meet the man filling potholes with mosaics of NYC vermin (and Donald Trump)

Update 10:15am on 7/20/18: Jim Bachor tells us that the NYC Department of Transportation has already pulled up the cockroach, bouquet, Trump, and pigeon mosaics. If you recently saw a construction worker filling potholes around Manhattan and Brooklyn with mosaics and thought it was a bit off, you were right. This was Chicago-based artist Jim Bachor in disguise for his latest public art piece, "Vermin of New York." For the past five years, Jim has been filling potholes in Chicago with mosaics of everything from flowers to trash, and after a successful Kickstarter campaign, he recently brought his work to NYC. The series includes a cockroach, a rat, a pigeon, and Donald Trump (yes, you can drive over his face). 6sqft was able to talk with Jim about how he got into such a unique form of "guerilla" art and what the meaning is behind his latest series.
Read on for more from Jim

Preservationists, LGBT groups push Landmarks to designate Walt Whitman’s Clinton Hill home

Photo of Whitman via Wikimedia; Photo of 99 Ryerson Street via NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project

July 16, 2018

Preservationists, LGBT groups push Landmarks to designate Walt Whitman’s Clinton Hill home

A coalition of preservationists, LGBT groups and literary experts is asking the Landmarks Preservation Commission to reassess their decision last year to not landmark Walt Whitman's Brooklyn home, the last residence of the 19th-century poet remaining in New York. Located at 99 Ryerson Street in Clinton Hill, the home was where Whitman and his family lived between May 1, 1855 and May 1, 1856. While living at the home, Whitman wrote "Leaves of Grass," a collection of poems considered to be one of the most significant American works ever. The home is also one of the earliest extant buildings in NYC associated with a member of the LGBT community.
More here

INTERVIEW: Meet Mary French, the woman archiving New York City’s 140 cemeteries

Photos courtesy of Mary French

July 11, 2018

INTERVIEW: Meet Mary French, the woman archiving New York City’s 140 cemeteries

By Emily Nonko

In a city as tight as New York, it's no surprise we've long struggled to figure out what to do with our dead, from acres-wide cemeteries to those wedged into forgotten slivers of city blocks. The city now boasts 140 cemetery sites, and Mary French has visited them all. Mary is the author of the New York City Cemetery Project, a chronicler of "the graveyards of this great city." Though cemeteries may come with dark connotations, Mary sees them as prime opportunities to understand the history of New York. As she explains on her website, "For those with a passion for culture and history and a curiosity about the unknown, cemeteries are tantalizing spots that provide a wellspring of information about individual lives, communities, religions, and historic events." On NYC Cemetery Project you can read the histories of existing and long-gone cemeteries and the interesting New Yorkers living six feet under, alongside a trove of historic photos and maps. It's a labor of love (and intense research) for Mary, who has a background in anthropology and library science. With 6sqft, Mary explains what first attracted her to the cemeteries of New York and what it's like delving into their past. She also explains why she thinks many might be lost to the pressures of development in New York.
Read the interview

June 28, 2018

Young professionals in Yonkers: How the city’s redevelopment plan targets millennials

Photo via Dennis Fraevich's Flickr Located on the Hudson River adjacent to New York City's northern border, Yonkers is the third-largest city in the state with nearly 200,000 residents. And with five major highways, two commuter train lines that are just a 28-minute trip to Grand Central, and the highest number of bus lines in Westchester County, it's no surprise that many are going bonkers for Yonkers. Phillip Gesue, chief officer of development at Strategic Capital, the developer of the Hudson Park residential project, told 6sqft that Yonkers is in transition. "Unlike Manhattan, which is, perhaps, over-baked, Yonkers is an affordable place to live and play," Gesue said. "It has people who have been living here a long time and new transplants who largely want to work in New York City. There is a growing population, development momentum and job growth.” Ahead, find out how officials are working to attract millennials, get a breakdown of all Yonkers' new developments, and learn why there's a lot more to do here than you might think.
Get the Yonkers low-down

Real Estate Trends

June 26, 2018

New Historic District more than doubles the landmarked buildings in Boerum Hill

In a vote today, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Boerum Hill Historic District Extension. The 288-building district is split into three distinct sections, all adjacent to the existing 250-building Boerum Hill Historic District that was designated in 1973. According to an LPC press release, the extension "represents the diverse cultural and economic history of Boerum Hill, as well as its largely intact 19th-century architecture." It's mostly residential blocks, made up of late 19th-century brownstone and brick townhouses, along with a block-and-a-half commercial stretch of Atlantic Avenue.
READ MORE

Policy

Exploring NYC’s historic gay residences beyond Greenwich Village

Clear Comfort, the Alice Austen House, photo by Alice Austen, via NYPL

June 22, 2018

Exploring NYC’s historic gay residences beyond Greenwich Village

By Cait Etherington

When most people think about gay New York, they naturally think about all the historic sites located in Greenwich Village and its surrounding vicinity. In fact, the LGBTQ community has long lived and made history citywide from the Bronx to Staten Island. To mark the 2018 NYC Pride Celebration, which will take place from June 14 to 24 with the famed Pride March happening this Sunday, 6sqft has compiled a list of just a few historic gay residences located well beyond Greenwich Village.
Learn about 7 of the most influential sites

History

June 20, 2018

Where I Work: Tour FXCollaborative’s Flatiron architecture office with partner Dan Kaplan

6sqft’s series “Where I Work” takes us into the studios, offices, and off-beat workspaces of New Yorkers across the city. In this installment, we’re touring the Flatiron office of architecture firm FXCollaborative. Want to see your business featured here? Get in touch! To mark their 40th anniversary, architecture firm FXCollaborative recently debuted their new name (formerly FXFOWLE), along with a slew of big-name projects such as the Statue of Liberty Museum, a nearly 1,000-unit affordable housing development in the Bronx, and Downtown Brooklyn's One Willoughby Square, which will be the borough's tallest office building as well as the firm's new home. Ahead of their big move when the tower is completed in a few years, 6sqft paid a visit to FXCollaborative's current Flatiron office space to see how these prolific architects make their magic happen, thanks to a behind-the-scenes tour and talk with senior partner Dan Kaplan. From sustainable architecture and office design to equality in architecture and the importance of collaboration, learn how FXCollaborative remains one of NYC's top firms after four decades.
Take the tour and hear Dan’s thoughts

June 18, 2018

Yayoi Kusama is bringing 1,500 mirrored spheres to the Rockaways this summer

Yayoi Kusama at the 1966 Venice Biennale; via MOMA PS1 Yayoi is coming back to New York. From July 1 through September 3, MoMA PS1 will present "Rockaway!" featuring "Narcissus Garden," a site-specific installation made up of 1,500 mirrored stainless steel spheres by the uber-talented, polka dot-obsessed Japanese artist, Yayoi Kusama. This is MOMA’s third iteration of Rockaway!, a free public art festival dedicated to the ongoing recovery efforts after Hurricane Sandy. The exhibit will be on view at the Gateway National Recreation Area, a former train garage at Fort Tilden, which once was an active U.S. military base. Kusama’s mirrored metal spheres reflect the industrial surroundings of the abandoned building and highlight Fort Tilden’s history. According to MoMA, the metal directs attention to the damage inflicted by Sandy in 2012 on the surrounding area.
Get the details

Events & Things To Do

June 18, 2018

The 1936 ‘Summer of Pools’: When Robert Moses and the WPA cooled off NYC

By Lucie Levine

On June 24, 1936, thousands of Lower East Siders turned out for a spectacle the likes of which New York had never seen. They jammed Hamilton Fish Park, filled Pitt Street, and perched on surrounding fire-escapes and rooftops to get a glimpse. With great fanfare (and the swim stylings of the Jones Beach Water Troupe) Mayor La Guardia and Parks Commissioner Robert Moses officially opened Hamilton Fish Pool. The dedication kicked off New York’s “Summer of Pools.” One by one, for each week of the summer, 11 gleaming outdoor pools, financed and built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), opened in underserved neighborhoods across the city, providing recreation and relief to millions of heat-addled, Depression-strapped New Yorkers.
Learn more about the summer of 1936

History

June 13, 2018

Leasing launches for a glass-factory-turned-chic rental in Bushwick, from $2,500/month

Photo via N7 Bushwick’s newest rental development, Glassworks Bushwick, is a cool blend of new construction and reuse of the original Dannenhoffer Opalescent Glassworks stained glass factory. Located at 336 Himrod Street, real estate developer and designer ASH NYC, in partnership with Martin Lomazow and the owner of the factory, are developing the 77,000-square-foot mixed-use development in the bustling Brooklyn neighborhood. Ranging from $2,500/month studios to $3,800/month three-bedrooms, as well as a selection of penthouses, Glassworks Bushwick includes 63 rentals in the five-story building. The rental, currently under construction, will incorporate new construction, the rehabilitation of an existing factory space and the redevelopment of an existing garage building into a commercial space. The project is set to be complete this year.
See inside

Ride six different vintage trains in Brighton Beach this weekend to celebrate Father’s Day

Image via New York Transit Museum

June 12, 2018

Ride six different vintage trains in Brighton Beach this weekend to celebrate Father’s Day