All articles by Dana Schulz

Dana is a writer and preservationist with a passion for all things New York.  After graduating from New York University with a BA in Urban Design & Architecture Studies, she worked at the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, where she planned the organization's public programs and wrote for their blog Off the Grid. In her free time, she leads walking tours about the social and cultural history of city neighborhoods. Follow her on Twitter @danaschulzNYC.
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 […]

Jude Law’s Former Greenwich Village Penthouse in Gorgeous Church Conversion Asks $12.5M
September 22, 2015

Jude Law’s Former Greenwich Village Penthouse in Gorgeous Church Conversion Asks $12.5M

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Remember all that hoopla over Jude Law flinging fruit from his Greenwich Village penthouse onto ogling NYU students? Well, here's where it happened, ironically, in a former house of worship. Built in 1860 as a Methodist church, 135 West 4th Street underwent an incredible condo conversion by FLAnk Architecture in 2006, where they beautifully preserved original church features such as stained glass windows and exposed beams, but added all the modern luxuries an A-list celeb would want. The aforementioned penthouse first sold for $6 million to entrepreneur Mark Kress and was then listed for resale for $8.5 million in 2009. It ended up selling the following year for a much-reduced $6.3 million, and then found a renter in Jude Law. Now, the duplex is back on the market asking $12,495,000, and it can be all yours (assuming you keep your orange lobbing at bay).
Check out the entire pad
Americans Are Spending More on Rent and There’s No Relief in Sight
September 22, 2015

Americans Are Spending More on Rent and There’s No Relief in Sight

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Complaining about high rents is nothing new for New Yorkers, but we're actually not alone in our misery. According to a new study from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies and Enterprise Community Partners, reported in the Washington Post, "nearly 15 million [U.S.] households could be 'severely cost-burdened' by 2025, meaning they'll be spending more than half their money on housing." Today, that statistic applies to 11.2 million households (one in four households), which increased by three million since 2012.
What's leading to this staggering rise?
Subway #PizzaRat Takes Over the Internet; New Play Recounts the Demolition of Penn Station
September 22, 2015

Subway #PizzaRat Takes Over the Internet; New Play Recounts the Demolition of Penn Station

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If you haven’t yet seen the video of a rat carrying an entire slice of pizza down the subway stairs, you must watch immediately. [DNAinfo] The Pope will cruise through Central Park in a tricked-out Jeep Wrangler. [NYP] Searching for the “grey market” foods of NYC, the allegedly illicit provisions that range from Fujianese rice wine to Mimolette cheese. […]

VIDEO: The History of the Upper East Side Mansion Where the Pope Is Staying
September 21, 2015

VIDEO: The History of the Upper East Side Mansion Where the Pope Is Staying

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Talk surrounding the Pope's Upper East Side crash pad has been mainly focused on street closures and insane security precautions, but this video by Regis High School (h/t Carl Quintanilla) provides the interesting history of the townhouse, providing a behind-the-scenes look at Pope Francis' "home away from Rome." Built in 1894, 20 East 72nd Street was originally home to Julia Murphy Grant, daughter of U.S. Senator Edward Murphy of New York, and Hugh J. Grant, the youngest man ever elected mayor of New York City. When Grant died in 1910, he left behind a $9 million estate to his wife. Being devoutly Catholic, she used the money to establish Regis High School before her death in 1944. In 1975, their son Hugh Grant, Jr. donated his parents' former home to the Archdiocese of New York. Since then, it's been the home of the Vatican's representative to the United Nations, and beginning with Pope John Paul II’s visit to New York City in 1979, it has served as the official residence of visiting pontiffs.
Watch the video here
Water-Filtering Garden Floats in the Gowanus; It’s the Best Month to Go to the Farmers Market
September 21, 2015

Water-Filtering Garden Floats in the Gowanus; It’s the Best Month to Go to the Farmers Market

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GrowOnUs, a water-filtering garden that also collects rainwater to irrigate the plants growing atop it, is floating in the Gowanus Canal. [Inhabitat] Speaking of the Gowanus, here’s an interview with Joseph Alexiou, author of the forthcoming history book about the polluted canal. [Brownstoner] Local politicians want to make Christopher Park, across from the Stonewall Inn, a […]

Units Finally Hit the Market at Jean Nouvel’s MoMA Tower
September 21, 2015

Units Finally Hit the Market at Jean Nouvel’s MoMA Tower

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The time has finally come. After years of setbacks and teasers, units at Jean Nouvel's 1,050-foot-tall MoMA Tower, now officially known as 53W53, have hit the market. Nine listings (out of 139) went up on Corcoran, according to Curbed, ranging from a $3.17 million one-bedroom 19th-floor unit to a $50.9 million four-bedroom, 63rd-floor unit. When construction started earlier this year, rumor had it that the listings wouldn't be made public, but now that we know otherwise, we've got plenty of floorplan porn to ogle, as well as lots more interior renderings courtesy of designer Thierry Despont.
Renderings and floorplans right this way
Weekly Highlights: Top Picks From the 6sqft Staff
September 19, 2015

Weekly Highlights: Top Picks From the 6sqft Staff

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VIDEO: Take a Sweeping Drone Tour of Bjarke Ingels’ West Side Pyramid Russian Castle on Long Island With 35 Bathrooms Asks a Whopping $100M Gorgeous Roof Garden Atop This $3M Flatiron Loft Has an Outdoor Cinema and Cinematic Views New Details of Tribeca’s Mysterious Skybridge House Emerge, Including Floorplan Lang Architecture Updates a Carroll Gardens […]

A NYC Brewery Map to Usher in Oktoberfest; Take a Nap at Work With This Clever Desk
September 18, 2015

A NYC Brewery Map to Usher in Oktoberfest; Take a Nap at Work With This Clever Desk

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This weekend, head to Photoville, a pop-up photography fair inside shipping containers on the Brooklyn Heights waterfront. [NYO] Find your closest Oktoberfest celebration on DNAinfo’s brewery map. [DNAinfo] How many adult ball pits does one city need? A second one is opening downtown. [Gothamist] Go inside the Tribeca loft of creative director and co-founder of online design marketplace Bezar. […]

SHoP Architects Are Bringing a Wooden Condo Building to Chelsea
September 18, 2015

SHoP Architects Are Bringing a Wooden Condo Building to Chelsea

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In March, an Austrian architecture firm announced plans to build the world's tallest wooden skyscraper in Vienna. They noted that by using wood as opposed to concrete they'd save 3,086 tons of CO2 emissions. Then, a study showed that timber buildings actually cost less to build. These benefits really must have stuck with SHoP Architects, who are developing plans for a ten-story residential building in Chelsea, overlooking the High Line at 475 West 18th Street, that will be made entirely of wood, according to the Wall Street Journal. SHoP's project came via a competition hosted by the United States Department of Agriculture, in partnership with the Softwood Lumber Board and the Binational Softwood Lumber Council, that asked architecture firms to design buildings at least 80 feet tall that employed wood construction technologies. SHoP's design, dubbed 475 West, won the competition along with a 12-story building in Portland. The firms will split a $3 million prize to "embark on the exploratory phase of their projects, including the research and development necessary to utilize engineered wood products in high-rise construction."
More on the project here
New York Public Library Hires Dutch Architecture Firm Mecanoo to Lead Renovation
September 17, 2015

New York Public Library Hires Dutch Architecture Firm Mecanoo to Lead Renovation

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On Tuesday, news surfaced that eight architecture firms were being considered for the redesign of the New York Public Library's main branch, the landmarked Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on 42nd Street, one of whom was starchitect Bjarke Ingels. The list also included Ennead Architects, Studio Gang Architects, and Robert A.M. Stern Architects. One name that wasn't mentioned, however, was the Dutch firm Mecanoo, but the New York Times is reporting that the architects from the Netherlands have been selected by the library to lead the $300 million renovation, which also includes a complete overhaul of the Mid-Manhattan branch at Fifth Avenue and 40th Street.
More details ahead
Inside Mast Brothers’ Williamsburg Chocolate Shop Revamp; Brooklyn Jumps on the Cat Cafe Train
September 17, 2015

Inside Mast Brothers’ Williamsburg Chocolate Shop Revamp; Brooklyn Jumps on the Cat Cafe Train

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Of course Brooklyn is getting a cat cafe. The Cat’s Meow will be in Fort Greene starting this Saturday and until October 24th. [Gothamist] The top ten hidden restaurants in NYC. [Untapped] With their upcoming move to the Barclays Center, the Islanders have gotten new Brooklyn-esque Jerseys. [BK Paper] On September 24th, the National Academy Museum […]

Long Island Equestrian Estate Featured in ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ Hits the Market for $4M
September 17, 2015

Long Island Equestrian Estate Featured in ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ Hits the Market for $4M

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If you secretly envied the life of Jordan Belfort in "The Wolf of Wall Street," you can now own a slice of his luxurious lifestyle. The sprawling Long Island estate that served as the backdrop for a scene where Belfort (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) is advised by Manny Riskin (Jon Favreau) and Max Belfort (Rob Reiner) to make a deal with the SEC and quit Wall Street. The Post reports that the seven-acre compound is on the market for $3.98 million. The Olympic-sized equine estate is called Mill Hill Farm and features a 5,000-square-foot, five-bedroom mansion, a 16-stall mahogany horse barn, four-stall quarantine shed, a giant fenced-in jumping space, and plenty of outdoor areas for spectating.
Take a tour around the stunning property
September 16, 2015

POLL: Is Brooklyn Heading Into a Housing Glut?

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Over the last year, building permits have risen by 156 percent, hitting levels not seen since 1963. And this percentage rises to 749 when compared with the 2010 post-slump low. This building boom is particularly rampant in Brooklyn, where, according to a report put out last month by CityRealty, northern Brooklyn alone will get 22,000 new […]

Never-Built Coney Island Globe Tower Would Have Been a Massive Boardwalk in the Air
September 15, 2015

Never-Built Coney Island Globe Tower Would Have Been a Massive Boardwalk in the Air

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In 1906, architect Samuel Friede announced his plans to build the Coney Island Globe Tower, a 700-foot-tall, 11-story structure that would have contained the Brooklyn neighborhood's attractions in one giant globe in the air. A New York Tribune cover revealing the project said investors were being offered "a ground floor chance to share profits in the largest steel structure ever erected...the greatest amusement enterprise in the whole world...the best real estate venture." Had the $1,500,000 plan gone through, the whimsical structure (part Unisphere, part Eiffel Tower) would have contained restaurants (one of which would rotate), an observatory, the United States Weather Observation Bureau and Wireless Telegraph Station, a vaudeville theater, the world's largest ballroom, bowling alley, roller skating rink, casinos, 50,000-room hotel, 5,000-seat hippodrome, and a four large circus rings.
Read the rest of the history
$20M Allocated to New Technology That Will Let NYC Vehicles ‘Talk’ to Each Other

Traffic jam photo via joiseyshowaa/flickr

September 15, 2015

$20M Allocated to New Technology That Will Let NYC Vehicles ‘Talk’ to Each Other

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Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced that $42 million will be allocated to new technology in New York City, Tampa, and the state of Wyoming that allows vehicles to "talk" to one another and their surroundings "in order to reduce congestion, prevent accidents, and cut emissions," according to Daily Intelligencer. The city is receiving $20 million of the funds, with which it will create "connected vehicles" that can hopefully reduce traffic accidents by up to 80 percent. By gaining access to real-time traffic data, both drivers and pedestrians will be alerted (or do the alerting) of potential hazards.
Learn about the specifics of what this technology entails
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