By Lucie Levine, Thu, October 10, 2019 Jacob Ruppert’s Knickerbocker Beer, 1912, via Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division
If you spent the first weekend of October hoisting lager and Oomph-ing it up for Oktoberfest, then you joined a long and proud tradition of German beer production and consumption in New York City. In fact, New York’s German-owned breweries were once the largest beer-making operations in the country, and the brewers themselves grew into regional and national power-players, transforming Major League Baseball, holding elected office, and, perhaps most importantly, sponsoring goat beauty pageants in Central Park. While brewing flourished in both Manhattan and Brooklyn throughout the 19th century, the city’s largest breweries were clustered in Yorkville. In fact, much of the neighborhood’s storied German cultural history can be traced to the rise of brewing in the area, and the German-language shops, cultural institutions and social halls that sprang up to cater to the brewery workers.
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By Michelle Cohen, Mon, September 16, 2019 This Yorkville studio at 340 East 83rd Street may not be spacious inside, but the private backyard paradise just outside of the living room window is a study in hidden charm in the city. Asking $425,000, the cozy co-op spans 400 square feet of quiet, back-of-the-building efficiency.
More of that fabulous patio, this way
By Devin Gannon, Mon, June 17, 2019 Previous rendering of the original project; Via NYCHA
The New York City Housing Authority has ditched plans to build a private 47-story apartment building on top of a playground on the Upper East Side, agency officials said Friday. The original plan called for a 300-unit tower to replace the playground at the Holmes Tower public housing complex with half of the units affordable and the other half at market-rate, the latter meant to raise funds for repairs at the tower. The new plan for the site will increase the number of market-rate apartments in order to collect more money, NYCHA officials told THE CITY.
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By Nicole Mondrus, Tue, June 11, 2019 Photos courtesy of the LPC
Members of the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted Tuesday in favor of landmarking two historic sites in Yorkville–the First Hungarian Reformed Church of New York at 344 East 69th Street and the National Society of Colonial Dames in the State of New York at 215 East 71st Street. As 6sqft previously reported, the Hungarian Reformed Church was designed in 1916 by esteemed architect Emery Roth as one of his few religious buildings and his only Christian structure. The Colonial Dames headquarters is housed in an intact Georgian Revival-style mansion built in 1929.
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By Alexandra Alexa, Fri, April 5, 2019 American songwriter Irving Berlin moved into the duplex at 130 East End Avenue—an Emory Roth-designed co-op in Yorkville right across from Carl Schurz Park— in 1931, where he went on to write hits like “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” and “Say It Isn’t So.” As Berlin’s biographer Laurence Bergreen described, the formal residence featured antiques and floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that “quietly suggested the home of [a] wealthy, cultivated businessman possessed of exacting, if severe, taste.” Though the Berlin’s moved out in 1944, the stately residence with East River views retained it’s formal decor when the unit last hit the market in 2017 for $7,900,000. Over the past two years, the apartment has undergone a modern renovation and is back seeking a much reduced $3,995,000.
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By Alexandra Alexa, Thu, February 28, 2019 Rendering via DDG; Construction shot of 180 E 188th in early January via CityRealty
The highly anticipated tower rising at 180 East 88th Street recently topped out, taking the title of the city’s tallest building north of 72nd Street, as CityRealty first reported. Developed by DDG, the 524-foot structure will bring 48 expansive condos to the Upper East Side and is expected to open this Spring. Photos from a recent construction visit show crews adding the final pieces of the concrete-enclosed rooftop bulkhead. Crews are still working to fully cover the facade of the 32-story tower in hand-laid Kolumba brick (there are 593,987 individual bricks) which will be accented by bronze-colored window frames.
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By Dana Schulz, Wed, February 13, 2019 Rendering via Curtis + Ginsberg
At the corner of Second Avenue and 92nd Street, just a few short blocks from the Second Avenue Subway, Extell Development has completed their first all-affordable housing project. Located at 1768 Second Avenue and designed by Curtis + Ginsberg, the development is comprised of two separate buildings, one 11 stories and the other six stories, for a combined 28 units of below-market-rate housing. These units are reserved for households earning 70 or 80 percent of the area median income, ranging from $1,018/month studios to $1,740/month three-bedrooms.
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By Dana Schulz, Thu, January 24, 2019 A little over a year ago, 6sqft discovered a listing for one of three co-op units at 229 East 81st Street, a rare 19th-century white clapboard house. This duplex was listed for $695,000 and recently went into contract for $500,000. Now, the one-bedroom unit on the first floor has also hit the market, asking $499,000. In addition to the house’s magical patio and prime Yorkville location, the apartment benefits from several skylights, modern appliances, and a spacious layout.
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By Michelle Cohen, Tue, January 22, 2019 Google Street View of the church
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) has voted in favor of giving a calendar spot in the landmark designation process to the First Hungarian Reformed Church of New York, one of few religious properties designed by the noted New York City architect Emery Roth–himself a Hungarian immigrant. The church is also significant for its importance to the Hungarian-American community that settled in the Upper East Side‘s Yorkville neighborhood.
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By Emily Nonko, Tue, December 18, 2018 Photos courtesy of Roey Yohai Studio
Gracie Mansion, the residence of Mayor Bill de Blasio, is officially in full holiday spirit. The historic home, which dates back to 1799, is showing off decorations that promote some of the mayor’s top initiatives, plus the overall theme of togetherness. It’s all the work of New York City’s First Lady Chirlane McCray and renowned event planner Bryan Rafanelli, who have been refining the vision since this summer. This is Rafanelli’s second year working with McCray to decorate the people’s home of New York. For 2018, they selected jewel-toned colors, lots of ribbon, and even worked in some participation from New Yorkers.
Keep reading to figure out how the pair made it happen, an effort that includes bringing a 17-foot-tall tree through a narrow French door into the mansion’s ballroom. The images are sure to put you in a New York holiday spirit.
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