March 31, 2016

Famed Architect Zaha Hadid Dies at Age 65

6sqft is sad to report that world-renowned architect Zaha Hadid has passed away. According to BBC News, Ms. Hadid died of a heart attack today in a Miami hospital, where she was being treated for bronchitis. The Baghdad-born Iraqi-British architect is considered one of today's most prolific and her works have been commissioned across the globe, including here in New York where her first Manhattan building is currently on the rise at 520 West 28th Street (seen above). Hadid was the first female architect to receive a Pritzker Prize award (2004) and she was also the first woman to receive the RIBA Gold Medal (2015).
more here
March 31, 2016

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

New York City is the nation’s largest municipal water supplier. While many locals happily choose tap water at restaurants and extol the virtues of New York’s wettest, we sometimes wonder how and where the magic happens–even more so recently, in light of some other cities’ far less stellar experiences with the local water supply. This recent New York Times article clears things up, so to speak, on how 9.5 million people (and growing, apparently) can keep the good stuff flowing. The source: More than 90 percent of the city's water supply comes from the Catskill/Delaware watershed, about 125 miles north of NYC; the other 10 percent comes from the Croton watershed. The watershed sits on over a million acres, both publicly and privately owned, but highly regulated to make sure contaminants stay out of the water.
Robots, radiation and more of the journey
March 31, 2016

Art Nerd New York’s Top Event Picks for the Week – 3/31-4/6

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! Childhood memories of show and tell are revisited this week at the Roger Smith Hotel's adult rendition that, of course, involves booze from their in-house bar. Times Square's Midnight Moment is all new for April, with JUNGLE-IZED, an Amazon takeover of the advertising screens. Artist Jan Tichy talks about his time-based projections at Fridman Gallery, and Todd Lim explores works inspired by Søren Kierkegaard at Booth Gallery. The Queens Museum of Art celebrates a closing reception Saturday afternoon, while MoMA PS1 opens their doors for Spring, including a performance by Cao Fei and Chinatown rap group Notorious MSG. MTV's Liquid Television star animator Bill Plympton enlivens South Street Seaport, and four artists poke at nature versus nurture at the Royal Society of American Art.
more on all the best events this way
March 31, 2016

26-Foot Ceilings and Stained Glass at This Brooklyn Heights Church Turned Condo

If the idea of living in a former church intrigues you, there are plenty of options on the market. Just yesterday, 6sqft featured a $3 million Williamsburg condo with soaring cathedral ceilings. But the 26-foot ceilings at this $6,900/month Brooklyn Heights church turned condo are some of the most spectacular we've yet to see in the residential realm. Located at 99 Clinton Street in the old Presbyterian Church, the architecture is downright holy, with many of the 19th century cathedral details like stained glass windows incorporated into the interior. And the exterior still boasts its historic stone facade.
Take a look
March 31, 2016

FDNY Fireboat Getting Turned Into a Restaurant; Nostalgia Trains for Baseball Season

A new interactive map lets you find buildings in your neighborhood with lead paint violations. [Huff Post] The 62-year-old fireboat that the city was auctioning off for $510 was ultimately purchased for $57,400 by two Westchester restaurant owners who plan to use it for another eating establishment. [Gothamist] This smart luggage can weigh itself, charge phones, and let […]

March 31, 2016

Take a Virtual Tour of Don Draper’s Mod Park Avenue Apartment from ‘Mad Men’

It's been almost a year since "Mad Men" ended its seven-season run, but if you're jonesing for a fix of mid-century nostalgia, it's your lucky day. ArchDaily, in collaboration with Archilogic, has created a virtual tour of Don Draper's swanky Upper East Side apartment that he moved into in season five with his new wife Megan. From the sunken living room and orange kitchen cabinets to the white carpet and retro window treatments, set designer Claudette Didul didn't miss a beat when designing an authentic 1966 residence. But as ArchDaily points out, she also managed to create "a psychogram of a man who is about to fall apart at the seams."
See and learn more about Don Draper's pad
March 31, 2016

Rent Governor Cuomo’s Former Douglaston Manor for $6,000/Month

Last year, Governor Cuomo's former mansion in the suburban waterfront enclave of Douglaston, Queens hit the market looking like something straight out of the Great Gatsby. Cuomo lived in the sprawling home with his ex wife Kerry Kennedy, but sold it in 1993, when he joined the Clinton administration. It's a six-bedroom, Mediterranean-style manor that was constructed in the 1920s and was asking $2.7 million. In January, the home sold for a cool $2.4 million. And the new buyers have listed it for rent, asking $6,000 a month. In Manhattan, $6,000 a month could definitely get you a nice apartment, but it couldn't get you a mansion and outdoor space this impressive. It's enough to lure a person way out to Douglaston.
Take a look around
March 31, 2016

Demolition Begins for 50-Story Midtown East Skyscraper, New Rendering Released

Just northeast of Grand Central Terminal at 141 East 47th Street, Brooklyn-based New Empire Real Estate (NERE) is moving ahead with plans to build a svelte 49-story condominium tower. New building permits were filed yesterday, an updated rendering has been released, and removal of the site's low-slung structures has commenced. NERE's skyscraper will rise mid-block along the northern blockfront of 47th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues. Up until the still-under-construction hotel rising at 147 East 47th Street, the block was one of the few remaining in Midtown East that had been spared the imposition of a post-war high-rises.
Get the scoop
March 31, 2016

$8M Park Slope Brownstone Is Historic and Luxurious With a Professional-Grade Gym

It's pretty rare to come across an historic home that manages to be "sophisticated and elegant" with "prolific original architectural details" and also be a block from Prospect Park. But this amazing Park Slope townhouse, a restored Romanesque brownstone, "perfectly integrates historic detailing with a modern sensibility" and boasts a professional-grade gym in the basement and a private landscaped rose garden. The 6,000 square feet of perfection at 178 Eighth Avenue, which probably already has plenty of offers over its $8 million ask, is luxurious in the best possible way, from gorgeous chandeliers to wall treatments that have plenty of flair but never veer into the whimsical or look "decorated." There's not an ostentatious frill or questionable architectural choice in sight; no Hermès leather walls. No spotlit purse-cochere. It's almost too understated in places, but not even close to austere.
Take a look at the house and fail to drool.
March 30, 2016

A Closer Look at ODA’s 75 Nassau Street & Other Nearby Towers Planned For Fulton Street

Capitalizing on a revitalized Financial District, Fulton Street is bursting with residential development activity. With a re-imagined Fulton Street Transit Hub open and the second coming of the World Trade Center shopping center and Pier 17 on the horizon, at least five sizable towers are jostling to join the street's renaissance. Most interesting of the bunch is a 40-story residential skyscraper set to rise at 75 Nassau Street. Developed by Lexin Capital and designed by ODA Architects, its 307,000-square-foot, slab-like massing is distinguished by fragmented and nibbled-away edges that run vertically along the tower's corners. At its more than 500-foot-high pinnacle, a forest of trees will top the structure, giving the high rise a profile that will recall the iconic finials of the district's skyscrapers.
More on ODA's tower and its four other neighbors
March 30, 2016

Controversial Zoning Change Would Fill Lower Manhattan Public Plazas With Retail

Whether you consider them "dead-end" corridors devoid of street life or nifty urban shortcuts (or just convenient rain shelters), the city's covered public walkways and arcades are finding themselves in something of a spotlight, reports the Wall Street Journal. This recent focus is on the covered walkways that run alongside skyscrapers in the Water Street corridor in lower Manhattan. A proposed zoning change, which would affect property owners in the Water Street Subdistrict, would allow retail to open up shop in these arcades.
Find out why some object to new retail additions
March 30, 2016

Though Pint-Sized and Pricey, This $1.15M Village Studio Has Tons of Charm and Storage

While space in this Greenwich Village studio at 12 West 9th Street definitely has its limits, there's plenty of loveliness and luxury–not to mention clever storage and well-planned placement–in this small package. For $1.15 million, you get one of the best addresses in the city, gorgeous light, convenience, and a sweet, if diminutive place to call home. The apartment's current owners purchased the studio just a few years ago in 2013, according to records, for a shockingly pocket-sized $455,000. For a prime Village property, even a studio, that's nearly a steal, and the sellers are certainly hoping to make the most of it.
Check out its crazy closet and more stealthy storage
March 30, 2016

The Country’s First Botanic Garden Was on 20 Wooded Acres at Today’s Rockefeller Center

Today, New Yorkers get to enjoy lush landscapes and beautiful plantings at the 250-acre New York Botanical Garden and the 52-acre Brooklyn Botanic Garden, but these outdoor oases weren't founded until 1891 and 1910, respectively. About 100 years prior, a public botanic garden sprouted up on 20 acres of land at what is today Rockefeller Center, and it was the first such garden in the nation. Elgin Botanic Garden was founded in 1801 by Dr. David Hosack, a physician, botanist, and educator, perhaps best known for serving as the doctor to Alexander Hamilton after his duel with Aaron Burr in 1804. He used his own money to purchase and landscape the grounds, and by 1805 it was home to more than 1,500 plant species, which he studied for medicinal purposes.
The full history of Hosack and the Elgin Botanic Garden
March 30, 2016

Richard Meier-Designed Tower Finally Begins Construction at Turtle Bay South Complex

Construction has finally begun on the westernmost lot of Sheldon Solow's Turtle Bay South master plan, 16 years after the developer purchased the site. Excavators are picking away at the 30,000-square-foot site at 685 First Avenue that has long held a surface parking lot and is just a small portion of a larger, long-planned development straddling First Avenue between East 35th and 41st Streets. Last August, plans were filed for 685 First, which will be a girthy 42-story residential tower with 555 rental units and 800,000 square feet of gross floor area. The tower is being designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Richard Meier, a surprising choice given the American architect is best known for his modest-scaled projects and white exteriors, while Solow is best known for their monolithic towers sheathed in black glass curtain walls. Nevertheless, when complete, the tower will be Meier's largest ever project in New York and will be just one of four residential towers and a pavilion he is scheduled to design for the billionaire developer.
More details and renderings ahead
March 30, 2016

$3.3M Williamsburg Condo in a Converted Brick Church Has Soaring Cathedral Ceilings

When this listing calls this condo "one of a kind," they aren't kidding: This apartment was carved from the former Pentecostal Church at 541 Leonard Street
 in Williamsburg. (These day's it's not at all uncommon for religious buildings to go residential.) The building holds three apartments total, all with three bedrooms and three bathrooms, boasting keyed elevator access, 20-foot wood-beamed ceilings and access to private outdoor space. This particular apartment is now on the market for $3.3 million.
See the rest of the interior
March 30, 2016

Apply Today for Two $939/Month One Bedrooms Near the Best Bronx Attractions

The Bronx is having a moment, thanks in part to popular institutions like the Bronx Zoo, New York Botanical Garden, and Italian food mecca along Arthur Avenue. If you want to get in on the action, you can now enter the lottery for newly constructed, $938/month affordable apartments nearby at 863 Fairmount Place in Tremont. There's just one little catch -- only two units are available.
Find out if you qualify
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March 30, 2016

POLL: Are Floating Parks the Future of Public Space in NYC?

Yesterday, 6sqft uncovered conceptual renderings for a nine-acre island/pier in the Hudson River that would serve as a final terminus for the High Line. It would be a circular-shaped cultural and recreational center, dotted with five interconnected pyramid-shaped buildings, as well as an elevated promenade and a marina. It’s quite similar in design and theory to Barry Diller’s […]

March 30, 2016

Is Buying a House With Your Friend a Good Idea?

With deals below a million dollars few and far between, home ownership in NYC is out of reach for the majority. But what about pooling your money with a friend to make a big ticket purchase? This might come as a surprise, but taking the plunge and purchasing a property with pals—not a family member—is […]

March 29, 2016

Across from Hudson Yards, Architect Proposes 9-Acre Floating Island As an Encore to the High Line

New York architect and longtime visionary Eytan Kaufman has drawn up a conceptual plan to connect the final leg of the High Line to a new island/pier in the Hudson River. Currently, the High Line gets tantalizingly close to the waterfront in its final spur around Hudson Yards, but then swerves inland towards an anticlimactic end at the Jacob Javits Center. Kaufman's scheme called Hub on the Hudson would build a pedestrian bridge over the West Side Highway, shuttling people from the elevated park to a sprawling, circular-shaped cultural and recreational center. It's quite similar to Barry Diller's proposed Pier 55 floating park, which is planned for a Hudson River site slightly farther south in the Meatpacking District. Extending more than 700 feet into the river, and spanning nearly nine acres in size, the pie-in-the-Hudson plan would build five interconnected pyramid-shaped buildings, comprised of an art center, restaurants, and publicly accessible open spaces. A circular elevated promenade would encircle the island, which Kaufman says would contrast to the linear procession of the High Line. At ground level there will be a central reflecting pool with a promenade leading out to a marina. The pentagonal, pyramidal and circular themes expressed in the plan make its spiritual intentions quite clear: To sail the High Line's tourists back home.
Check out all the renderings this way
March 29, 2016

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

What if your home was more than just a place to live? What if it took care of the tedious parts of everyday life (like cleaning, paying utility bills, and shopping for the basics) and there were always a bunch of interesting and like-minded people hanging out in your living room? Brad Hargreaves, CEO of Common, has structured his co-living housing company to be just that. While we've reported on Common before (as well as WeWork's similar new shared housing setup in FiDi), today we're going behind the scenes at Common's first outpost located in Crown Heights. We asked three residents why they chose to live at Common, if this catered style of co-living beats the standard New York roommate setup, and, of course, what we all really want to know—with 10 different personalities under one roof, just how "Real World" do things get?
Meet residents Jason, Kamilah and Adam here
March 29, 2016

The Official 2016 NYC Bike Map Has Arrived

The Department of Transportation just released the downloadable 2016 New York City Bike Map ahead of a paper version due next month. This year's map shows 70 miles of new or "upgraded" bike-specific lanes, twelve of which are protected (physically separated from auto traffic). Also on the map are seven miles of newly-created off-street bike lanes.
Check out the map
March 29, 2016

Middle-Income Housing Lottery Opens for 16 Newly Renovated Apartments in Harlem

The Third Party Transfer Program (TPT) is an initiative of the NYC Department of Housing and Preservation Development that was created in 1966 where the city forecloses on properties with unpaid taxes and eventually transfers ownership to a developer who must rehabilitate the building if necessary and manage it as affordable housing. Two Harlem buildings, 152 West 124th Street and 70 East 127th Street, were renovated under this program and are now offering 16 middle-income units through the city's housing lottery. They range from $1,040/month studios to $2,165 two-bedrooms for persons earning anywhere between $36,995 and $107,875 annually, depending on household size.
Find out if you qualify
March 29, 2016

Bel and Bel Transform Lifeless Vespas Into Stylish Italian Office Chairs

No doubt Vespas are fun to ride, but what happens to these popular motorbikes when they're no longer fit for the road? Designers Carles and Jesus Bel, founders of the design studio Bel & Bel, take the retired bikes and transform them into stylish office furniture. The Barcelona-based design duo breathes new life into the old rides by attaching legs and leather upholstery to the existing frame, rescuing the hip Italian scooter from what would be an otherwise unglamorous future.
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