Upstate

A city couple commissioned Resolution: 4 Architecture to come up with a site-specific home for escaping their busy Manhattan lives on the weekend. Located on a sloped wooded terrain in Kent, not too far from the city, the beautiful Lakeside House combines wooden interiors, classic furniture items and privileged views onto the mirrored waters of the Sagamore Lake. Although bright and airy inside, the modern dwelling is grounded and strong and relates to its site through the use of natural materials.
Learn more about this traditionally modern home

November 20, 2015

10 Unexpected and Affordable Host Gifts for Thanksgiving

It's always tough when your Thanksgiving host tells you not to worry about bringing anything for the meal. With stuffing and pumpkin pie out of the question, what can you bring as a token of gratitude? Forget standard run-of-the-mill host gifts like a jar of jam or Yankee candle–6sqft has rounded up some fun and affordable options that are unexpected yet surprisingly useful. From a clever wine tote made in Brooklyn to an adopted olive tree in Italy, here are our top ten hostess gift picks.
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November 8, 2015

$350K Catskills Colonial Was an Underground Railroad Safe House

Built in 1795 in a "central chimney, post and Beam Colonial style," this home in the Catskills village of Andes was originally used as a tavern. It then had lives as a farmhouse, meeting house during the Anti-Rent War (a tenants' revolt in the early 19th century), and, most impressively, a safe house for the Underground Railroad (h/t CIRCA). In its most recent incarnation, it's served as a private home, with the current owners preserving its historic integrity, including five fireplaces, beamed ceilings, hardwood floors, and .62 acres of conservation land. They've now listed the property for $350,000.
Check it all out

October 29, 2015

It’s Only $275,000 to Live in This Old Stone Meeting House in Upstate NY

New York City real estate got you down? There's nothing more refreshing than perusing properties upstate, which have plenty of history and charm for loads less money. Exhibit A is this "old stone meeting hall," an 1810-era home that was originally built as a Presbyterian church in the town of Barneveld, New York, at the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains. The current owners purchased it back in 1970 and converted it to a single family home, and the result is a wonderfully warm, quirky and historic house. And yes, this five-bedroom home, which sits on .45 acres of land, is only asking $274,900.
There's lots more to see

October 28, 2015

Woodwork and Greenery Abound at This Upstate Stone House by BNO Design

By Rebecca Paul

This beautiful home located in Yorktown Heights in Westchester County, New York, is situated on acres of sprawling greenery. The immaculate interior was created by BNO Design and boasts a myriad of truly unique architectural details. From the intricate wood staircase, complete with ornate storage compartments, to upholstered linen walls and impressively large windows, this home is chock full of taste and elegance.
Take a tour around

Architecture And Design

October 21, 2015

Actress Hayden Panettiere’s Storybook Childhood Home Hits the Market for $1.75M

By Annie Doge

“Nashville” star Hayden Panettiere has been making headlines the last couple of weeks after publicly revealing she would be seeking professional help for postpartum depression, a condition she's suffered from, and has spoken openly about, since the birth of her first child nearly one year ago. As the actress takes time to come back into her own, The Post sends some lighthearted news that harkens back to when the star was a wee one herself. The charming Palisades, NY abode (incidentally, not far from Angelina Jolie's childhood home) where Panettiere spent her formative years is now selling for $1.75 million.
Check it out here

October 19, 2015

Garrison Treehouse Features Twisty Slide, Writing Desk and Hudson Valley Panoramas

By Rebecca Paul

Even as adults many of us willingly admit that having a treehouse would be awesome, and the Garrison Treehouse, designed by the NYC-based studio Sharon Davis Design, is better than we imagined. This 200-square-foot playful retreat is quaintly situated amongst the meadow, forest, orchards and hills of the Hudson River Valley in Garrison, New York (where Davis herself has an eco-retreat), and includes fire poles, a twisty slide, a balcony and even a writing desk.
Live out your childhood fantasies

Architecture And Design

October 13, 2015

18th Century Farmhouse, With Art Gallery and Pool Additions, Costs Less Than Most NYC Apartments

Does the price of New York City real estate get you down? Then consider this: an organic farm nestled within the Catskill Mountains with additions like a pool and art gallery, plus barns, an equestrian facility and enough land to hold 200 cows. And this isn't just any farm–Charlotte Valley Organic Farm, as it's called, has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Architectural Digest and this very website for the merits of the modern residential addition built in 1992. So what's the cost for this unique upstate property? Take a deep breath. The price tag comes in at $998,000 for the house, garage, two barns and 10 acres -- the price of many small one-bedroom apartments in Manhattan. For $1.75 million, you get the entire property, which spans 464 acres.
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Distinctive Homes

October 8, 2015

Hudson River Cottage That Was Home to Orson Welles and John Steinbeck Goes Into Contract

This Medieval Tudor-style cottage in Palisades, NY had a pretty impressive roster of residents in the 1940s, including Orson Welles (he lived here while working on "Citizen Kane"), John Steinbeck, Sir Laurence Olivier, and Vivian Leigh. Perhaps this celebrity cache is what helped the $2.25 million Hudson River-front home attract a buyer, as the Post reports today that it's gone into contract. Known as "House in the Woods," the three-bedroom stone cottage sits on a bluff overlooking the river, encompassing 2.4 acres of land. It's located in the upscale hamlet of Sneden Landing, where Angelina Jolie’s mid-century modern childhood home is currently for sale and other past and presents residents include Mikhail Baryshnikov, Al Pacino, Lorraine Bracco, Bill Murray, and Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke. But name dropping aside, the 2,245-square-foot home is truly charming with open hearths, pitched beamed ceilings, original wood floors, and a stone back house.
See more here

October 6, 2015

Angelina Jolie’s Mid-Century Modern Childhood Home Is for Sale

By Annie Doge

Yes, there's A-list star cred here, but really, the pitched gabled roof is more than enough to convince us to take out a mortgage for this mid-century modern gem just 20 miles out of Manhattan. According to the WSJ, the Rockland Country home where Angelina Jolie spent her formative years has just hit the market for $2.049 million. Measuring a sprawling 4,088 square feet, it features three bedrooms, a dramatic pitched roof, exposed roof beams, and two very lush acres within the hamlet of Snedens Landing. Given that hubby Brad Pitt is quite the modern architecture enthusiast himself, could this not be a wonderful investment for the Jolie-Pitt brood?
go inside the home here

September 30, 2015

Own Puppeteer John Henson’s 137-Acre Hudson River Farm and Mansion for $12M

If you watched the Muppets as a child (or an adult) the late puppeteer Jim Henson likely holds a special place in your heart. You may not have known, though, that his son John Henson was also a puppeteer. John's other passion was historic architecture. At the age of 16, he renovated a turn-of-the-century schoolhouse in Saugerties, New York, an historic village in Ulster County that borders the Hudson River and Catskills. After that, he had the renovation bug, buying and developing many properties in the town. According to a Facebook posting on the Jim Henson Company's page upon his passing last year, "each of his buildings is an art project, an immersive experience balancing function with artistic expression. His exterior, and fine interior work, utilizing a wide range of materials; from wood, to metal, to stone, created rooms of exquisite embracing craftsmanship." One of the homes he worked on in Saugerties was his personal residence known as Bright Bank, a circa 1848, 13,892-square-foot mansion and farm buildings on 137 acres of Hudson Riverfront property. It was once a sanitarium, later converted to apartments, and John Henson and his wife Gyongyi bought it in 2004 for $4.2 million. However, after embarking on a massive renovation, Henson died suddenly of a heart attack in February 2014, never getting to complete the project. Gyongyi Henson has now listed the breathtaking property for $12 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.
See more of the property

September 24, 2015

Wild Walk, an Upstate Treetop Trail, Was Inspired by the High Line

The High Line has inspired countless urban projects, from local ideas like the QueensWay to international schemes like the Chapultepec Project in Mexico City, but it's not as often that we see the elevated park cited as inspiration for rural projects. But that's the case for Wild Walk, an upstate treetop trail nestled in the Adirondacks, according to Dezeen. The trail is located at the Wild Center, a 79-acre nature reserve within Adirondack Park, the largest natural park in the lower 48 states. Wild Walk is elevated between 30 and 40 feet off the ground and is a series of bridges and paths supported by pointed towers made from pre-rusted steel tubes, which resemble the cabin-like architecture one would expect to find in the mountains.
Learn all about this treetop trail

Architecture And Design

September 23, 2015

Modern ‘House on the Hill’ Sits in an Open Meadow Miles Away From Any City

The owners of the "House on the Hill" in upstate New York are a couple of NYC-based art collectors who for the past twenty-five years have spent their weekends in an old farmhouse in Columbia County. In love with the sweeping views and the near-untouched landscape that greeted them every time they made the trip up, they decided they wanted to build an eco-friendly passive house in the middle of a forest clearing nearby. With the idea of living a simpler and more efficient life in mind, they asked Gates Merkulova Architects to build them a shelter designed with materials that would age as gracefully as they hoped to with time.
Learn more about this modern retirement home

September 18, 2015

Grandiose Castle Hotel & Spa in Tarrytown Helps You Relax and Restore Medieval-Style

By Rebecca Paul

Located at 400 Benedict Avenue in Tarrytown, NY, a short thirty minutes north of Manhattan, Castle Hotel & Spa sits atop one of the highest points in Westchester County. This majestic palace (h/t FEH) overlooks the Hudson River and quaint suburbs below. The Castle is over 100 years old and a visit will easily whisk you away to America's enchanted Gilded Age.
Learn more about the historic property

September 11, 2015

Kim Hoover’s Sustainable Upstate Home Has Fossilized Bamboo Floors and a ‘Cool Roof’

Architect Kim Hoover, principal at Hoover Architecture, built a bold sustainable house and guesthouse within the picturesque Hudson Valley. The two-level property takes inspiration from a tree house, which is reflected through its open, casual spaces, use of wood and the great outdoor views it frames through its many windows. But the home's most interesting details aren't what you'd expect. This unique space boasts recycled porcelain tiles, fossilized bamboo floors and it has a reflecting "cool roof."
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August 24, 2015

Preston Scott Cohen Builds a Brilliant Upstate Home from an Old Dutch Barn

To create the beautiful Goodman House, architect Preston Scott Cohen had to transport, restore and re-assemble a Dutch barn frame at a new location in Pine Plains, NY. The structure affords an unpolished but warm atmosphere with open-plan interiors wrapped in an industrial skin. The space was crafted to follow the client's desire for an "excessively lit space" with an "undivided interior," and as such, the home uses an ample number of slide-up screens and roll-down glass doors to make way for an open abode with a modern aesthetic.
Learn more about this contemporary barn-home

August 21, 2015

Construction Worker Turns Condo Walls Into His Canvas; Mapping Out LIC’s High-Rise Buildings

By Alyssa Alimurung

Get ready to cry your eyes out. These maps show that one-bedroom rentals have gone up $200/month since just six months ago. [Brokelyn] Gentrification summed up in 311 calls. [NY Mag] If you’re heading upstate this weekend, be sure to hit up these eateries in the Hudson Valley and Catksills. [Brownstoner] This construction worker doesn’t […]

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August 21, 2015

An Incredible Private Hideaway Asks $12.75 Million in the Adirondacks

The listing calls this "a private hideaway for those who seek the finest craftsmanship and location." For sure, the house at 553 Hawk Ridge Road, nicknamed Camp Big Rock, is pretty special. It's located on 30 sprawling acres near Saranac Lake, up in the Adirondacks. The modern house, designed by the architect Shope Reno Wharton, was even impressive enough to land on the cover of Architectural Digest. And there is so much more than the home: the grounds include a boathouse, beach cabin, guest house, barn, gym cabin, caretaker's cabin and tennis court. There's no "roughing it" here. This is the luxurious day camp of your dreams.
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Modernist Designer Russel Wright’s Hudson Valley Home Is a Rare Example of Organic Mid-Century Architecture

Wright’s studio, surrounded by windows and the wooded landscape. Photo courtesy of Manitoga/The Russel Wright Design Center.

August 20, 2015

Modernist Designer Russel Wright’s Hudson Valley Home Is a Rare Example of Organic Mid-Century Architecture

By Michelle Cohen

Dwell Magazine recently brought to our attention this magical modernist gem, located in the Putnam County town of Garrison, New York. Manitoga, the house, studio and 75-acre wooded garden of mid-century industrial designer Russel Wright (1904-1976), is one of the few 20th century modern homes open to the public in New York State. A firm believer in the idea that “good design is for everyone,” Russel Wright was a pioneer of the idea of modern living in America. Best known for his organic yet elegant American Modern dinnerware collection, his became a household name–one which could be found on the underside of each of the over 200 million pieces that were sold between 1939 and 1959. But the designer's lesser-known–yet no less remarkable–effort can be seen in the home and surrounding landscape–including a large abandoned granite quarry–which were acquired by Russel and Mary Wright in 1942. Now a National Historic Landmark, and virtually unchanged save ongoing improvements and renovations, the Manitoga/Russel Wright Design Center hosts tours, hikes, performances and an artists’ residency.
Find out more about Russel Wright's lesser-known masterpiece this way

Architecture And Design

August 19, 2015

A Gorgeous Upstate Getaway Dubbed the Mission House Is Asking $1.4 Million

Have you spent the summer dreaming about where you want to escape to in upstate New York? This listing won't make you feel any better. Called the Mission House, it is a beautiful modern mansion located in East Fishkill, a charming town on the southern border of Dutchess County, New York. The house itself is gorgeous, with stunning landscaping, modern design, and tons of space. Get this: the house covers 4,000 square feet, with an additional 2,400 square feet of decks. Of course, it isn't cheap, but you'll still get more bang for your buck up here than down in Manhattan—for the whole mansion, the asking price is $1.4 million, cheaper than many NYC apartments. (And keep reading for a way to stay here without forking over all that cash.)
Take a tour

August 13, 2015

Drovers Tavern, an Upstate Property with Many Past Lives, Seeks a New Owner

By Shiloh Frederick

In its 195 years of existence, Drovers Tavern has changed hands several times; however, the one thing that hasn't seemed to change is its facade. Completed around 1820, the Cazenovia, New York property is a typical Federal-style house, but its history is anything but. In its earliest days, the four-bedroom house served as a resting spot for drovers shipping livestock down to New York City. After the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825, the droving profession, and consequently the tavern, became obsolete. Eventually, the 114-acre property was put to use as a family farm. Drovers Tavern has had its share of notable residents. It was home to Melville Clark, the creator of the Clark Irish Harp, and his nephew Melville Clark, Jr., a physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project. Now up for auction, the historic mansion is in search of a new owner to continue its long, quirky history. Bids start at $525,000 and will be accepted until August 31st.
Tour the historic tavern here

August 9, 2015

$7.4M Lake George Tudor Has 600 Feet of Private Waterfront and a Five-Slip Boathouse

By Shiloh Frederick

You'd think having a private peninsula would appeal to people looking for seclusion, but this Lake George estate is geared for the gracious host who's ready to throw a serious lakeside party. The four-bedroom Tudor-style house is nearly ninety years old and is full of original architectural details like stone mullions and steep beamed ceilings. But when it comes to inviting friends and family over, it's the outdoor spaces that seal the deal. The 1.26-acre property has a whopping 600 feet of private waterfront, as well as three outdoor dining and cooking areas, a secluded spot to fish and swim, a massive five-slip boathouse, and a carriage house that boasts amenities like a 2,000-bottle wine cellar and home theater. What'll all this cost you? $7.4 million.
View the lakeside estate

July 21, 2015

10 Unbelievable Upstate NY Escapes You Can Rent by the Night

By Diane Pham

Home-sharing sites like Airbnb and Home Away often spell trouble in the big city, but just about everywhere else, they're an excellent opportunity for individuals to not only explore a new place, but live in a home they would never otherwise dream of inhabiting. We've rounded up a handful of unique summer escapes that promise to offer an unforgettable experience. From an eco-friendly yurt to an upstate barn renovated by local artisans to the woodland retreat where President Calvin Coolidge kicked off his boots to an ultra-modernist retreat in the middle of the forest, get to know all of these dreamy upstate New York hideaways ahead and then grab your friends and family for some out-of-city fun. We've got something for just about every budget!
see them all here

Getting Away

July 21, 2015

Weekend House in the Berkshires is Part Glass House, Part Japanese Kimono

Prior to starting his own firm, architect David Jay Weiner worked in Tokyo under Arata Isozaki, who is known for infusing Eastern influences into his modernist structures. He also spent time in the New York offices of James Stewart Polshek and Partners and John Burgee Architects with Philip Johnson. So it's no wonder that his award-winning Weekend House in Stephentown, New York fuses the principles of a Japanese kimono with the simplistic transparency of Johnson's Glass House. The small house (1,200 square feet to be exact) overlooking the Berkshire Hills was designed for a Japenese client as an escape from the hustle and bustle of city life.
Learn all about the house here

Architecture And Design

July 17, 2015

Own an Old Abandoned Stone Mill, Now a Home Steeped in History, for $795K

By Shiloh Frederick

Converted lofts are cool, but this revamped stone mill in St. Johnsville brings rehabbed homes to the next level. This historic treasure has been the home of Judith and Ron Hezel for nearly a quarter-century. The couple bought the abandoned factory in 1988 and after five years of hard work, they turned the 6,000-square-foot mill into a four-bedroom home. The avid preservationists made sure to maintain most of the mill's historical details and even had the site added to the State and National Registers of Historic Places in 1995. The Hezels are ready to move on, but they hope the historic mill, along with a barn, three-stall garage, and guest house, all listed at $795,000, ends up in the hands of someone who appreciates history just as much as they do.
Learn more about this mill turned home

July 13, 2015

Own an Entire Stone Mini-Estate in Putnam County for $500,000