July 2, 2014

‘The Cloud’ Lamp Simulates a Thunder Storm Right in Your Living Room

Richard Clarkson’s incredible Cloud lamp brings the romantic intensity of a thunderstorm right into your living room. The interactive light fixture is a combination of a lamp and a speaker system that bursts with thunder and lightning in response to your step. The poofy cloud rumbles, grumbles and illuminates the space around you, but you won't run risk of getting soaked in an impending downpour.
More on the design here
July 2, 2014

$6.5M Flawless Merging of Two Gretsch Condominium Units is Music to Our Ears — and Our Eyes

In our humble opinion putting down roots in New York City should be on everyone’s bucket list. And that’s exactly what Friedrich Gretsch, an immigrant from Mannheim, Germany did in 1883, when he founded a small musical instrument shop in Brooklyn that later became a dynasty still in existence today. In 1916, as The Gretsch Company expanded, his son moved the operation to a mammoth ten-story factory at 60 Broadway in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, now the site of this luxury residential condominium conversion by architect Karl Fischer and interior designer Andres Escobar & Associates completed in 2003.
Read on to see why this apartment is music to our ears - and eyes
July 2, 2014

Former Warner Music Co-Chairman Michael Fleisher Sells Brooklyn Heights Town Home for $6.4M

Wayfair CFO and apparent fan of extramarital endeavors, Michael Fleisher has sold his Brooklyn Heights town home, and for 6.4 million according to city records. The former Warner Music co-chairman listed the home at 273 Hicks Street five months ago with Corcoran agents James Cornell and Leslie Marshall, asking a staggering $6.95 million. After two months, he reduced the asking price to $6.495 million before finally settling in at a sale price of $6.4 million.
Take a look inside the Brooklyn Heights Beauty here
July 2, 2014

CityLiving in Rome: From New York to Eat. Eat. Eat.

Like the author Elizabeth Gilbert of Eat. Pray. Love. fame, I’ve embarked on an international excursion that includes an extended stay in Rome. Unlike Ms. Gilbert, I’m not on a three continent journey in search of pleasure, enlightenment and emotional connections, nor will I be visiting any other lands beyond the peninsular confines of Italy. I’m here for five weeks to teach a creative writing class at John Cabot University, but I share a sense of her aspirations, if only in a somewhat adjusted manner, so I feel entitled to appropriate parts of her narrative into my CityLiving column while I’m here. This first dispatch will be about food.
Follow Andrew as he eats his way through Rome
July 2, 2014

Jane Kim Design’s Tribeca Loft Lifts the Bedroom to Create an Oversized Living Space

In an endless attempt to maximize space in tiny New York City apartments, the lofted bed has become a popular mechanism. This usually consists of a mattress hoisted up on wooden supports, leaving just about a foot of space below the sleeper's head and the ceiling. But in a beautiful Tribeca loft renovation, Jane Kim Design masterfully tackled this issue by lifting the entire bedroom volume only slightly off the ground, encasing it in an architectural glass cube, and installing cabinetry, bike storage, HVAC, and a washer/dryer beneath.
Take a look at the rest of this ingenious space
July 2, 2014

Demolition Permits Filed at 101 Murray – The Site of Downtown Manhattan’s Future Tallest Condo

Demolition permits have been filed with the Department of Buildings for the tallest condominium building south of 'Billionaires' Row.' The approximately 950-foot tower revealed by real-estate blogger YIMBY last month will house 129 condos within a dramatic champagne flute-like design by the architects Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates. Tentatively named 101 TriBeCa, the uppermost floorplates increase in size to take greater advantage of views uptown and towards the river that most likely will remain unobstructed years to come due to restrictive zoning in TriBeCa and Battery Park City.
more on the new tower here
July 1, 2014

Park Slope’s Slim and ‘Super Green’ Condo Building Features a Solar Panel-Clad Facade

A brand new building has popped up in Park Slope and it's got quite an interesting facade. Located at 443 Bergen Street just off of Flatbush Ave, this sleek new addition to the neighborhood boasts 5 stories of living space, a 7KW solar array, reclaimed IPE wood from boardwalks, and triple glazed Passive House windows and doors. According to the building permits, work started in the Fall of last year, and by the looks of things, construction has just about wrapped up.
More on the new solar powered building this way
July 1, 2014

Tranquil Fishers Island House by Thomas Phifer is a Study in Light and Transparency

When you arrive 11 miles off the tip of Long Island at the Fishers Island House you'll be instantly in awe of the Long Island Sound views, apple tree orchard, lush green landscaping, and colorful mix of flowers. You then might to start to wonder where the house is... until you realize you've been peering straight through its transparent glass frame the entire time. Thomas Phifer & Partners designed the simple, 4,600-square-foot pavilion to delicately blend in to the surrounding landscape and create a seamless interior/exterior transition. At two points in the otherwise rectangular floorplan, the outdoor space penetrates inward — once in the entry way, which emerges as a shallow reflecting pool that disappears into the Sound, and again with a tranquil, mossy rock garden at the other end of the home.
Don't miss the rest of this incredible work of architecture
July 1, 2014

Moorehead & Moorehead’s Chipboard Pendant Will Light Up Any Room With Its Sinuous Form

The Seattle-based lighting manufacturer Standard Socket teamed up with Robert and Granger Moorehead of Moorehead & Moorehead to create an uncomplicated, organic pendant light that takes on a shape much more complex than its basic construction. The result is the Chipboard Light — an elegant, sculptural fixture that complements both traditional and modern design esthetics.
More on the design here
July 1, 2014

Hear How Rafael Viñoly and Other Top Architects Tackle the Design of Buildings Over 100 Stories

There are skyscrapers going up left and right all over Manhattan, and in the race to build the loftiest and the glassiest, big name developers are seeking out even bigger name architects to brand their supertalls with iconic designs. As part of their ongoing Palaces for the People: Guastavino and the Art of Structural Tile series, the Museum of the City of New York will be hosting what's sure to be a riveting panel in which several of the world's leading architects and engineers will be discussing how they approach the design and construction challenges that come with building 100 stories and up.
Details on how to attend here
July 1, 2014

With a Shamir Shah Designed Interior, $5.25M West Chelsea Duplex Is a Work of Art

Smack dab in the middle of the West Chelsea Arts District sits this exquisitely appointed 3BR/3.5BA duplex at 456 West 19th Street. We couldn’t think of a more perfect location for this glorious work of art which showcases the wonderfully creative and tasteful touches of world-renowned interior designer Shamir Shah and offers huge canvases of wall space tailor-made for your own artistic influences.
Tour the home here
July 1, 2014

$3.45 Million West Village Loft Accented with Glazed Glass Sells for Asking

The sprawling 3,200-square-foot loft at 377 West 11th Street has just sold for asking, according to city records. Apartment 1A is currently configured as a 3BR/2BA loft, but one of the bedrooms can be a guest bedroom or study, depending on what the new owner desires. The $3.45 million airy loft is accented by glazed glass throughout, making for an even more light-filled space. This architect-designed co-op doesn’t do anything halfway, with a spectacular foyer greeting you and ushering you into a living/dining room with 15-foot ceilings, a wood-burning fireplace, and custom bookshelves. And we’re not talking just a few books, here. Get out your library card because these bookshelves have their own second story.
Want more? Look here
July 1, 2014

Movie Producer’s Brendan Coburn-Designed Williamsburg Home Sells for $3 Million

Producer Jason Sosnoff--who has worked on such films as Analyze This, The Good Shephard, and You Don’t Know Jack—has just sold his Williamsburg town home for $2.95 million, according to city records. Not only is this single family home at 154 Wythe Avenue a rare find in a neighborhood characterized by warehouse remodels, it also features three floors, a finished basement, a landscaped garden and a rooftop deck. Sosnoff had the 4BR/2.5BA townhouse redesigned by CWB Architect’s Brendan Coburn, who said, “let there be light” and–oh wait, was that another story?
Take a look inside the remodel here
July 1, 2014

The Air Up There: New Map Shows Untapped Development Potential of Every Manhattan Property

When Extell Development, Hines and JDS Development Group tapped into air space along West 57th Street to push their projects to well above 1,000 feet, preservationist groups were up in the arms. Their outrage prompted The Municipal Art Society, a non-profit whose mission is to “fight for intelligent urban design, planning and preservation through education, dialogue and advocacy”, to create a new map showing just how much untapped development potential exists in the square footage above every property in Manhattan.
More on how the map was developed
July 1, 2014

If at First You Don’t Succeed… Anne Hathaway Sells DUMBO Clocktower Loft the Second Time Around

After re-listing her DUMBO digs for the second time in early June, Anne Hathaway has found a buyer for her Clocktower loft, last priced at $4.25 million. Hathaway snagged the 2BR/3.5BA unit at 1 Main Street with then-fiancé Adam Shulman in February 2013 for $4.1 million, but reportedly never moved in, instead using the 2,592-square-foot apartment as an extremely oversized closet. The unit first hit the market in September 2013, but was removed shortly thereafter in December. The buyer hasn't yet been identified, but he or she will certainly not be disappointed with the giant master suite, library and media room, corner layout, and spectacular views of the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, and Manhattan skyline.
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