July, 2015 | 6sqft

July 8, 2015

Art Nerd New York’s Top Event Picks for the Week, 7/9-7/15

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 end of week picks for 6sqft readers! Summer jams mean we do things a little differently in the art world, assuming most of the population escapes the hot city streets each weekend. Thursday and Friday nights are the art-heavy celebrations of the art openings we love to see and be seen at. Explore the pop-color collage world of Anthony Iacono, or a real life Facebook status as performed by Katya Grokhovsky, or become part of the performance with Quinn Dukes' "Mapping Ritual." Friday it's time for the je ne sais quois, first with an exhibition and Edith Piaf's 100th birthday at Dejavu Gallery, then a free screening of a Tunisian love triangle, "Goha." If you're still around Saturday, spend the day meeting your makers at Open House New York's open studios across the city, or settle into the air conditioning of the Guggenheim and explore the wild wild world of Matthew Barney in an all-day film screening.
Get the details on all these events here

Events & Things To Do

July 8, 2015

VIDEO: Travel Through History to See How Transportation Has Changed

By Shiloh Frederick

The fact that skiing has gone from a major mode of transportation to a winter recreational activity says a lot about how getting from point A to B has changed over the course of human history. "Here to There," the latest video in the Atlantic's 10-part animated series (we previously featured an installment on housing through time), traces the history of transportation from the canoe in 8,000 B.C. to the recent debut of the hydrogen fuel-cell car. Covering more than 10,000 years in two-and-a-half minutes, this video shows that there is much more to the timeline of transportation than the switch from horses and buggies to motor vehicles.
Watch the video here

July 8, 2015

This West Village One-Bedroom with a Built-In Ice Cream Maker Is Cute Indeed

By Emily Nonko

A renovation at this one-bedroom apartment, located in the West Village co-op building at 82 Charles Street, has left the unit looking downright adorable. The listing promises it to be a "perfect blend of prewar character and modern conveniences perched on one of the most bucolic blocks in the city." It's hard to argue with the location. And we like how more traditional design elements (exposed brick) are paired with some surprising modern additions (built-in ice cream maker!). It's now on the market asking $899,000.
See more of the interior

Distinctive Homes

July 8, 2015

Will Michelle Williams Ruin Prospect Park South?; ‘Cobble Hook’ the Next ‘It’ Neighborhood

By Diane Pham

A Gowanus high-rise developer has been dumping muddy water into the already heavily polluted canal. [DNA Info] Will Michelle Williams be the downfall of Ditmas Park? The actress recently purchased a home in the area for $2.45M. [NYP] A restaurant owner is trying to make “Cobble Hook” happen. [Gothamist] A Lower East Side condo project […]

Real Estate Trends

July 8, 2015

Park Slope Townhouse by Etelamaki Architecture Uses a Nondescript Facade to Stand Out

By Dana Schulz

This renovation of a Park Slope townhouse by Etelamaki Architecture puts into practice the old saying "less is more." According to Contemporist, the recently completed project "maximizes the potential of a non-descript building shell, and limited budget, to create a modern, light filled home that acknowledges the building’s past, while envisioning the neighborhood’s future." Since the block is filled with a mix of early 20th century apartment buildings and newer condos, the architects didn't have to worry as much about maintaining a historic style, giving them the opportunity to create something totally new and bold. The top three floors were transformed into an owner's duplex and the ground-floor into a rental.
Get a look inside here

July 8, 2015

Over-the-Top Upper West Side Townhome Wants $30K/Month

By Aisha Carter

You know how there are some things that are ahead of their time? Well this five-bedroom residence at 48 West 85th Street is not one of them. If anything, it's straight from Liberace's vision board. The 6,000-square-foot home was listed for $13.8 million a year ago, but, alas, it must not have found a buyer. Now, for $30,000 a month you can travel back in time and enjoy over-the-top furnishings like "Baccarat crystal chandeliers" and "Tiffany dishes."
More pics inside

Distinctive Homes

July 8, 2015

Buy a Bag of Williamsburg Air for $40; Meet the East Village’s Last Pigeon Keeper

By Dana Schulz

Here are nine of New York’s most insane unsolved mysteries. [Refinery 29] An East Elmhurst couple turned their garage into a beach-inspired Tiki bar. [DNAinfo] Hurry on over to Ebay and buy your very own bag of Williamsburg air for $40. Just think, the “mystery oxygen” could’ve spent some time on the set of “Girls.” [BK Mag] […]

Uncategorized

July 8, 2015

Lawsuit Against City Wants to End Affordable Housing Allotments to Certain Communities

By Dana Schulz

Currently, the city allots half of its new affordable housing stock to residents of the specific community district where the project is being built and who meet the income requirements. But the Anti-Discrimination Center says this "community preference" policy violates the 1968 Fair Housing Act, "which prohibits discrimination in housing sales, rentals and financing based on race or national origin," according to an article today in the Wall Street Journal. The New York-based group filed a suit against the city on these grounds, claiming that it adds to existing segregation patterns. If they are successful, the verdict would undoubtedly impact Mayor de Blasio's plan of adding 80,000 new affordable housing units in the next ten years.
More details ahead

Distinctive Homes

This $15M penthouse is a 9,000-square-foot mansion in the Midtown sky

This $2.7M Chelsea duplex condo feels like a modern house with a private back garden

NFL luminary Chris Simms' Greenwich farmhouse asks $8M

Once a parking garage, this $85M Village penthouse is now in line to break neighborhood sales records

Doors of steel and glass make this $3M Soho loft feel like a box of light

Rare historic Greenwich Village 'Renwick Row' brownstone with intact details asks $12.5M

$4M Prospect Heights penthouse has three bedrooms, a wraparound terrace, and views in every direction

Park Slope 'pink house,' now in a more muted hue, asks $5M

This $2.85M Crown Heights townhouse is an unspoiled historic beauty on an extra-long lot

For $2.2M, this two-family Bed-Stuy townhouse has three levels of outdoor space

VIEW ALL

July 7, 2015

Jet-Setting Fashionista’s Sprawling Tribeca Loft Shines with Bold Decor

By Emily Nonko

This Tribeca loft, located at 90 Hudson Street, may be a one-bedroom unit but it's still huge. That means plenty of space for cool furniture and decor, which the current owner has definitely taken advantage of. The seller, Marika Wagle, manages merchandising and buying for designer fashion brands in New York City and also sells home decor, jewelry and clothing from her travels through India, Morocco, Turkey and Africa. That means that just because the apartment will come empty upon sale, you could still fill it with a similar design.
See the rest of the interior

Distinctive Homes

Gentrification Sale: Get a Single Hand-Cut Summer French Fry for Just $8.99!

Image via Bill de Bodega

July 7, 2015

Gentrification Sale: Get a Single Hand-Cut Summer French Fry for Just $8.99!

By Diane Pham

Jarritos with an $11.99 corkage fee, a hipster breakfast for $8.99? Act fast because you won't want miss out on all the great deals going on at the Washington Heights "Gentrification in Progress Sale." A row of mom and pops located along a stretch between 162nd and 163rd streets got a Williamsburg-worthy facelift on Monday as Brooklyn locals Doug Cameron and Tommy Noonan plastered storefronts with scathingly sardonic signage pointing to the area's demise. The campaign, first reported on by Vanishing NY, was created in response to the ousting of several of the block's 30-plus-year-old businesses by a new landlord in order to make way for commercial tenants willing to pay higher rents.
See more here

Policy

Before NYC’s Slave Market, Freedmen from Africa Were Allowed to Own Farmland

Map of freedmen’s farmland via Slavery in New York (L); Harper’s Magazine illustration of the New York City slave market in 1643 (R)

July 7, 2015

Before NYC’s Slave Market, Freedmen from Africa Were Allowed to Own Farmland

By Penelope Bareau

A stranger on horseback in 1650 riding up a road in Manhattan might have noticed black men working farmland near the Hudson River. It was not an unusual sight, and if he remarked on it at all to himself, he would have thought they were simply slaves working their masters' land. But no–these were freedmen working land they personally owned and had owned for six years. It was land in what is now the Far West Village and it had been granted to eleven enslaved men along with their freedom in 1644. In 1626, the year Manhattan was formally settled by the Dutch, these eleven African men had been rounded up in Angola and Congo and shipped to the New World to work as slaves clearing land and building fortifications. We know they were from there because the manifests of Dutch ships list them with names such as Emmanuel Angola and Simon Congo. Another of the eleven was named Willem Anthonys Portugies, suggesting that he may have been bought and sold in Portugal before reaching his final destination in New Amsterdam.
How did these men get the right to own land?

History

July 7, 2015

Norman Foster’s Next Condo Tower Will Be 900 Feet; How to Shed Affordable Tenants

By Diane Pham

Jennifer Lawrence continues her search for a NYC pad, now with Chris Martin in tow. [NYDN] Much to locals’ dismay, reports confirm that Norman Foster’s new condo tower planned for Sutton Place will indeed be 900 feet tall. [NYDN] Rising mortgage rates could block millennials from buying. [AOL] How to get rid of rent-stabilized tenants and make a killing. [The […]

Real Estate Trends

July 7, 2015

VIDEO: Port Authority Was Considered a ‘Milestone of the Century’ When It Opened

By Dana Schulz

When Port Authority bus terminal opened in 1950 it was considered "among the miracles of transport and the milestones of the century." Though we're pretty sure this sentiment is entirely lost today, it's still interesting to see how shiny and new Port Authority was regarded as 65 years ago. This video was a promotional newsreel for the terminal, and it notes that Port Authority wasn't just built to keep buses off the busy Manhattan streets, but because "the states of New York and New Jersey also wanted to make life pleasanter for the traveler."
Watch the video here

History

July 7, 2015

Epiphyte Lab’s Stripy Hsu House Is Designed to Mimic the Sky and Seasons

By Ana Lisa Alperovich

The Hsu House’s story began when Epiphyte Lab's Kevin Pratt was teaching with his studio co-founder Dana Cupkova at Cornell University. The pair were conducting a lecture and in the middle of class they noticed that a stranger had dropped in. The man sitting in the audience was Tony Hsu, a soon-to-be client that had been planning an ambitious, ultra-sustainable home but was in need some assistance. Once past the formalities, the trio quickly went about designing a unique retreat that not only catches the eye with its unconventional form and materiality, but also boasts tons of energy-efficient features like heat storage and rainwater harvesting.
Learn more about this home

July 7, 2015

Kimberly Peck’s All-White Union Square Loft Is Surprisingly Perfect for a Modern Family

By Shiloh Frederick

Normally, white is a color families shy away from in fear of kid-related accidents. But daring architect Kimberly Peck has brushed off the age-old design restriction in this Union Square loft renovation that makes white the central color. Addressing the growing family's needs, she carved a second bedroom and bathroom out of the loft's 1,375 square feet, in addition to enlarging the kitchen. Working with the space's characteristic wooden floors and exposed brick walls, Peck created a space that's stylish, yet still homey.
See the renovation here

July 7, 2015

Where the Hot Subway Cars Are; How to Fit an Entire Winery in a Cramped Apartment

By Dana Schulz

The C train has the most hot subway cars with broken-down HVAC units. The L has the least. [WNYC] This guy put an en entire winery in his 550-square-foot NYC apartment, and it produces ten different types of wine. [Thrillist] Meet an 89-year-old watch repairman in downtown Manhattan. [Mashable] Time Out is opening a culture and food […]

Uncategorized

July 7, 2015

Rent Topher Grace’s Stylish West Village Loft for $16,000

By Annie Doge

Actor Topher Grace of "That '70s Show" fame is shaking up his real estate game. After selling his Los Angeles home for $1.69 million, he's now looking to rent out his stylish West Village condo, according to the Daily News. This also comes on the heels of Grace's recent engagement to actress and model Ashley Hinshaw. He bought the two-bedroom, full-floor loft at 59 Bank Street for $2.2 million in 2006, but has been renting it out over the past several years, starting at $14,000 in 2011 and now going for $16,000.
Take a look around

$4M Live/Work Tribeca Loft Offers Endless Options and an Artsy Outdoor Space

By Aisha Carter

Here's a $3.995 million Tribeca loft with so much flexibility you can practically do whatever you want with it. The 2,833-square-foot duplex condo is a former art gallery that offers a perfect live/work opportunity. There's also a separate entrance for retail space on the ground floor (currently being used as a photography studio), as well as an artsy outdoor space with a charming European flair and funky glass floor. So when we say the options are endless, we actually mean it.
More pics inside

Distinctive Homes

July 6, 2015

Katie Holmes and Suri Renting a $25,000 Penthouse in Chelsea

By Annie Doge

Katie Holmes loves Chelsea. The Post reports that the actress has taken up residence in a sparkling new penthouse at 201 West 17th Street, paying $25,000 a month for the luxurious digs. Back in 2012, Holmes and daughter Suri called a $12,500-a-month rental at the Chelsea Mercantile their refuge while the actress took steps towards divorcing then-husband Tom Cruise. Although Holmes' new penthouse doesn't come with a secret entrance to Whole Foods, the picture perfect pad definitely makes up for the lack of organics with its stunning views and ample outdoor space.
Inside Katie's new penthouse

July 6, 2015

New Yorker Spotlight: Inhabitat’s Jill Fehrenbacher on Raising Two Kids on the Lower East Side

By Diane Pham

When you think about family-friendly neighborhoods, the last one to come to mind is probably the Lower East Side. But Inhabitat.com's Jill Fehrenbacher is here to tell you that this downtown stretch is more than just a breeding ground for bros and getting bombed. A LES resident for more than a decade, Jill moved into the area looking for cheap rents as a student but has stuck around to see it transform into both a cultural destination and a diverse community-driven neighborhood fueled by much more than just a bar scene. Ahead, Jill shares her thoughts on what makes this neighborhood such a special one for raising kids (she's got two boys of her own) and her NYC success story of hitting it big as the founder of one of the world's most visited design websites.
Our interview with Jill here

July 6, 2015

New York Was the First City to Dial 9-1-1 for Emergencies

By Dana Schulz

Around the country, little children are taught to dial 9-1-1 in case of an emergency as soon as they know their ABCs and 123s. But, believe it or not, this universal number hasn't even been around for 50 years. It was first implemented right here in New York City in July of 1968. Before that, New Yorkers had to call the police department's main phone line at 440-1234. At first, it was only for police calls; it wasn't until 1970 that the three-digit number also reached the fire department and ambulance services.
READ MORE

July 6, 2015

Man Blocked from His Dakota Apartment for 16 Years; WeWork Offices Coming to Brooklyn Navy Yard

By Diane Pham

A state court has ruled to shut down plans for a Willets Point Mall. [NYT] Developer Robert Siegel bought an apartment at The Dakota for $2M back in 1999 and he’s still waiting to move in. The building’s co-op board has been using half of it for tenant storage. [NYP] The first crane has arrived at the site […]

Real Estate Trends

July 6, 2015

Gambaccini Residence Rises from the Ashes of a Burnt Log Home

By Ana Lisa Alperovich

A fire marks an end, but also a new beginning, so when a wooden vacation home was completely burnt out, its owners took the event as a fresh start. The Gambaccini Residence by Jaklitsch/Gardner Architects stands on a clearing within a heavily wooded plot upstate in Columbia County, New York. As the whole new concept was based on "dematerialization," the shelter is made from only a few planar elements as if hiding for protection inside the landscape.
Learn more about this dematerialized home

Architecture And Design

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