All articles by Dana Schulz

Times Square ‘Activity Areas’ Move Closer to Reality; NYers Work 24 Hours to Afford an iPhone 6s
October 1, 2015

Times Square ‘Activity Areas’ Move Closer to Reality; NYers Work 24 Hours to Afford an iPhone 6s

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Did you know all NYC rats today are the same species: the Norwegian rat? Read this and nine other amazing facts about our rats. [Business Insider] A plan to keep Times Square performers and characters corralled within designated “activity areas” is gaining traction. [NYDN] The area between Hells Kitchen and Chelsea is kind of a black hole. […]

October 1, 2015

POLL: Should Coachella Come to Queens?

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Yesterday it was announced that the team behind Coachella, the wildly popular California desert music fest, was eyeing Flushing Meadows Corona Park for a possible NYC outpost as early as next year. Tentatively called Panorama (after the actual panorama of the city from the 1964 World’s Fair in the Queens Museum), the plans are drawing concern […]

Construction Kicks Off at Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Eight-Acre Marina Atop a Subway Line
October 1, 2015

Construction Kicks Off at Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Eight-Acre Marina Atop a Subway Line

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Most of the conversation about Brooklyn Bridge Park has been centered around the residential Pierhouse and the controversy surrounding its height, but right next door, an entirely different part of the urban development is taking shape. The Wall Street Journal reports that construction on the eight-acre $28 million marina between Piers 4 and 5 has commenced, with an opening planned for next spring. Officially called One° 15 Brooklyn Marina, its sailing club already has 145 pre-registered members. In addition to the fact that it will bring 140 slips to Brooklyn Heights, the project is most notable for its unconventional construction. Normally to build a marina, dock builders drill piles into the waterbed to support the docks, but at this site the R subway line is directly below. "The solution was to sink 160 giant concrete blocks, weighing 10 tons each, to the bottom of the East River," says the Journal. Then, "a large, elastic bungee cord-like mooring system called Seaflex will be used to connect the dock on the water’s surface to the concrete block below."
More details and renderings
The Bronx May Get Its Own Lowline-Style Park at Abandoned Mott Haven Rail Tracks
September 30, 2015

The Bronx May Get Its Own Lowline-Style Park at Abandoned Mott Haven Rail Tracks

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Ever since the High Line became an international phenomenon, there have been countless proposals across the city for elevated parks and public spaces made from abandoned train tracks. The latest comes from the Bronx, where Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. is asking Mayor de Blasio to transform a piece of unused railway in Mott Haven that is currently a "homeless encampment populated by drug users," according to the Daily News. Because the "litter-and-needle-strewn" trench is below street level, it's being called a lowline, after the underground park taking shape on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
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Canadians Buy More NYC Property Than Any Nationality in the World

Skyline image via Joey Lax-Salinas/Flickr

September 30, 2015

Canadians Buy More NYC Property Than Any Nationality in the World

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Talk around foreign real estate buyers in New York City has been centered around the Chinese in recent months, but as it turns out, investors from China are only the third largest nationality represented in the market. The top spot goes to our neighbors to the north, according to the Post, as Canadians have poured $15.37 billion into the city's commercial property market over the past decade. This is almost double the $8.8 billion that came from runner up the United Arab Emirates and third-place China's $8.1 billion.
More details
Own Puppeteer John Henson’s 137-Acre Hudson River Farm and Mansion for $12M
September 30, 2015

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

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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
New Yorker Book Review Calls 432 Park the Oligarch’s Erection
September 29, 2015

New Yorker Book Review Calls 432 Park the Oligarch’s Erection

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"Cities can’t win. When they do well, people resent them as citadels of inequality; when they do badly, they are cesspools of hopelessness." This is the opening line to Adam Gopnik's New Yorker review of three forthcoming urban history books: Gerard Koeppel's "City on a Grid: How New York Became New York," which tells the history of the city's famous 1811 street grid plan and explores how that forever shaped life in the city; Evan Friss' "The Cycling City: Bicycles and Urban America in the 1890s," which recounts the rise and fall of bicycle culture in the late 19th century; and David Maraniss' "Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story." These very specific topics lend themselves to larger themes about the current state of our city, and in exploring these, Gopnik came out with an incredible one liner: The things that give cities a bad conscience are self-evident: seeing the rise of 432 Park Avenue, the tallest, ugliest, and among the most expensive private residences in the city’s history—the Oligarch’s Erection, as it should be known—as a catchment for the rich from which to look down on everyone else, it is hard not to feel that the civic virtues of commonality have been betrayed.
More thought-provoking themes from the review
Supermodel Gigi Hadid Sells $2.45M Nolita Apartment
September 29, 2015

Supermodel Gigi Hadid Sells $2.45M Nolita Apartment

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The model of the moment Gigi Hadid has sold her Nolita apartment at 250 Bowery, which was last listed for $2.45 million, according to the Post. The supermodel, who made national headlines yesterday for shutting down online body shamers, bought the ultra-modern pad in 2014 for $1.92 million after moving from LA to NYC to attend the New School, but decided to unload it when a stalker almost broke in. The two-bedroom condo is full of floor-to-ceiling windows and has a custom Carrara marble kitchen, along with white oak flooring and imported Italian white matte lacquer Lualdi pivot-hinge doors.
See more of Gigi's former digs
New Details and Final Rendering for 45 Park Place, Condo Tower at ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ Site

Rendering of 45 Park Place via Williams New York (L); Aerial view of 45 Park Place in the downtown skyline via CityRealty

September 28, 2015

New Details and Final Rendering for 45 Park Place, Condo Tower at ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ Site

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In July, 6sqft revealed that 12,000-square-foot lot at 45 Park Place in Tribeca (the former site of the controversial Ground Zero Mosque that was shelved four years ago by developer Sharif El-Gamal) was cleared to make way for a huge new condo. The lot is owned by El-Gamal’s SoHo Properties, who, just today, unveiled the final design for the slender, SOMA Architects-designed tower, along with new details, including its 665-foot height and sky-high pricing. As Bloomberg reports, the 70-story glass tower "will include at least 15 full-floor units of 3,200 to 3,700 square feet, and average prices higher than $3,000 a square foot... Prices at that level would be at least 13 percent more than the second-quarter average for new-development listings in the borough."
More details ahead
City Will Use Eminent Domain to Seize Coney Island Land for New Amusements

Image © Daniel Fleming

September 28, 2015

City Will Use Eminent Domain to Seize Coney Island Land for New Amusements

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Eminent domain, defined as "the right of a government or its agent to expropriate private property for public use," is typically enacted to build projects such as bridges, highways, or schools. But the De Blasio administration plans to use it to erect an amusement park. According to the Post, the city is "frustrated by stubborn Coney Island landowners" and "plans to seize property under the city’s rarely used power of eminent domain in order to spur long-stalled economic development in the People’s Playground." The land in question is three vacant beachfront sites and two smaller adjacent sites on West 12th and West 23rd Streets that total 75,000 square feet, largely comprised of the 60,000-square-foot site where the original Thunderbolt once stood (immortalized in Woody Allen's "Annie Hall"). Under the plan, the Parks Department will oversee new amusements and amenities, details of which haven't been shared.
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Photographing the Sukkahs of Brooklyn; Details Revealed for Anthony Bourdain’s Food Market
September 28, 2015

Photographing the Sukkahs of Brooklyn; Details Revealed for Anthony Bourdain’s Food Market

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The city might be getting intelligent street lights that can take photos and collect data on driving patterns. [DNAinfo] Happy Sukkot! Take a photo tour of sukkahs around Brooklyn. [Brownstoner] Anthony Bourdain’s 100-vendor food market will open in 2017 at Pier 57 at 15th Street. Its “heart and soul” will be a Singapore-style hawker market. [NYT] Remember […]

Weekly Highlights: Top Picks From the 6sqft Staff
September 26, 2015

Weekly Highlights: Top Picks From the 6sqft Staff

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VIDEO: The History of the Upper East Side Mansion Where the Pope Is Staying Richard Silver’s Vertical Panoramic Photos of New York Churches Are Vertigo-Inducing Andy Cohen Picks Up Fourth Co-op in West Village Building, Is Now Neighbors With Sally Field Downtown’s Beekman Residences Tower Is Ready for Its Crowns – Now 50 Percent Sold […]

VIDEO: Why Did the Nazis Want to Destroy This Secret Power Substation Below Grand Central?
September 25, 2015

VIDEO: Why Did the Nazis Want to Destroy This Secret Power Substation Below Grand Central?

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"In the past, if you'd stepped into this elevator by mistake, you faced being shot at the other end, in case you told anyone what you saw," says the narrator of this video from the Science Channel. And this is, essentially, what happened to two German spies when they tried to attack this hidden power substation below Grand Central. But let's back up. When Grand Central was built in 1913, part of the plan was to add a top-secret power substation. After tunneling down through ten stories of solid bedrock, engineers blasted and carved out a top-secret chamber known as M42, almost as wide as the terminal itself and covering 22,000 square feet. Here, nine rotary converters each weighing 15 tons and reaching heights of 20 feet, transferred 11,000 volts of alternating current to power the trains above. In 1941, when America joined WWII, the secrecy paid off.
Find out how Adolf Hitler almost destroyed the substation
Study Shows That 75 Percent of Manhattan’s All-Cash Buyers Have Chinese Last Names
September 25, 2015

Study Shows That 75 Percent of Manhattan’s All-Cash Buyers Have Chinese Last Names

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For wealthy Chinese, Manhattan real estate has long served as a secure place to stash their cash, with these investors gobbling up high-end properties. In fact, "foreign direct investment in U.S. real estate rose to $104 billion in a 12-month period ending March 2015, a 10.4 percent rise over the prior year," according to The Real Deal. Of these foreign buyers nationwide, the Chinese make up 16 percent. And accompanying this rise, at least in NYC, is the rise of the all-cash buy. To show just how prominent this trend has become, RealtyTrac released data that shows in the first half of the year, 75 percent of Manhattan's cash buyers had Asian surnames.
More details here
Richard Silver’s Vertical Panoramic Photos of New York Churches Are Vertigo-Inducing

L to R: Church of St. Francis Xavier, Church of St. Vincent Ferrer, St. Monica’s Church

September 24, 2015

Richard Silver’s Vertical Panoramic Photos of New York Churches Are Vertigo-Inducing

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When 6sqft has mentioned vertigo-inducing photographs in the past, it's been in reference to the daredevil Instagrammers who climb to the top of some of the city's tallest structures. But this mesmerizing series (h/t Colossal) does the exact opposite, taking forward- and upward-looking vertical panoramic shots of New York City churches. And though they're not looking down a thousand feet, these photos still might send your head spinning. Photographer Richard Silver, a born-and-bred New Yorker, is known for his architectural and travel shots, where he likes to "present our everyday world in an altered visual context" through techniques such as Tilt Shift, Vertical Panoramas and Time Slice. And just in time for Pope Francis' historic visit to the city, he's released his church series.
See more photos and learn about Silver's process
$3M Mansion Has a 130-Foot-Long Bomb-Proof Underground Tunnel
September 24, 2015

$3M Mansion Has a 130-Foot-Long Bomb-Proof Underground Tunnel

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At first glance, this Voorhees, NJ home known as the Alton Estate seems like your average, over-the-top, suburban mega-mansion, with its ridiculous amenities like a Grecian-inspired pool, two-story pool house that connects to the main house via an above-ground ramp, 12-person Jacuzzi, DJ booth, full gym with cedar-lined sauna, soundproof movie theater, and 42-seat bar. But then it gets really interesting. First noted by Curbed, the listing touts a 130-foot-long, solid concrete, underground bomb-proof tunnel. It's not clear why the owners installed this insane panic room, but for those who live in fear of the Apocalypse, and have $2.9 to spare, here's your dream home.
See the rest of this eccentric mansion
Wild Walk, an Upstate Treetop Trail, Was Inspired by the High Line
September 24, 2015

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

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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
Infographic Shows How Much Income Tax People Pay in the World’s Major Cities
September 23, 2015

Infographic Shows How Much Income Tax People Pay in the World’s Major Cities

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You might want to think twice before complaining about your tax statement this year. While Americans, and New Yorkers especially, tend to think they're coughing up a ludicrous amount of their salary to Uncle Sam, this infographic (h/t Business Insider) shows how much other major cities across the world pay in income tax and social security contributions. For example, income taxes in Copenhagen are at 44.7 percent and in Stockholm at 27 percent, while New York City is 13.8 . On the other end of the spectrum, the rate in Dubai, Buenos Aires, and Lima is 0 percent.
Check out the full infographic
These Lamps Are Made From Old Espresso Machine Boilers
September 23, 2015

These Lamps Are Made From Old Espresso Machine Boilers

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6sqft has featured lamps made from natural elements like mushrooms and seaweed, but it's always nice to see design that upcycles materials that would otherwise end up in the landfill. Though you wouldn't know it by looking at these beautiful pendant and standing lights, they were created from discarded espresso machine boilers. According to Design Milk, Finnish designer Willem Heeffer embarked on a project called "The City as a Mine," which explores ways to turn trash from local factories in Helsinki into stylish home decor products; these copper Boiler Lamps served their first incarnation for ten years at the Paulig coffee factory.
More on the lamps
September 23, 2015

POLL: Are You Going to See the Pope?

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The Pope has landed, and New Yorkers of all faiths are eagerly awaiting his arrival to the city tomorrow evening. But even some of the most devout Catholics won’t get a chance to see Pope Francis, either because they didn’t win tickets or they don’t want to deal with the possible chaos and mobs of […]

Go on a Scavenger Hunt in Woodlawn Cemetery; Best Apple Picking Spots Near NYC
September 23, 2015

Go on a Scavenger Hunt in Woodlawn Cemetery; Best Apple Picking Spots Near NYC

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“Hi, I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.” The caption that works on all New Yorker cartoons. [Slate] This Saturday, partake in a scavenger hunt in the Bronx’s historic Woodlawn Cemetery. [HDC] Milkshake squirrel is the new pizza rat. [Gothamist] Map shows that America’s leading immigrant cities also have best economies. [CityLab] Here’s the best […]

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