All articles by Dana Schulz

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

By
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

By
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

By

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

By
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

By

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

By
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

By

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

By

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

By
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

By
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

By

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

By
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?

By

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

By
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

By
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
New Report Says Landmarked Districts Don’t Protect Affordable Housing

Historic brownstones in Brooklyn Heights via City Realty

September 15, 2015

New Report Says Landmarked Districts Don’t Protect Affordable Housing

By
The war wages on between the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) and citywide preservationists. Many thought the contention between the groups over whether or not historic districts lessen affordable housing was a personal sentiment of former REBNY president Steven Spinola. But his successor John Banks has released a new report that claims landmarking doesn't protect affordable housing. The report looks at the number of rent-stabilized units in landmarked and non-landmarked districts between 2007 and 2014, finding that "citywide, landmarked properties lost rent stabilized units (-22.5%) at a much higher rate (-5.1%) than non-landmarked properties." Of course preservationists quickly fired back. Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) calls the study "bogus" and says it does nothing to address how many units would have been lost had these areas not been landmarked.
More on the report
Russian Castle on Long Island With 35 Bathrooms Asks a Whopping $100M
September 14, 2015

Russian Castle on Long Island With 35 Bathrooms Asks a Whopping $100M

By
Imagine stepping into an overly opulent palace in St. Petersburg where you find an indoor lazy river, myriad fountains, a two-story built-in dollhouse, a private shooting range, 13 bedrooms and 35 bathrooms. You'd probably guess you had stumbled upon the estate of a former czar. But then imagine you weren't actually in Russia, but on Long Island, New York, and the property's owner had no royal lineage, but rather made his fortune in the NYC real estate market. This is the Estate at Kings Point, an over-the-top estate designed to resemble the Peterhof Grand Palace in St. Petersburg, built in 1928 by the late Soviet Union billionaire Tamir Sapir as a display of his wealth (and possibly his ego). An unknown buyer (shielded by an LLC) bought the palace from Sapir in 2013 for $15.85 million, and they're now looking to make an unfathomable profit, re-listing the home for $100 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Check out the unbelievable estate
Explore the Met From Your Desktop With This Interactive Hand-Illustrated Map
September 14, 2015

Explore the Met From Your Desktop With This Interactive Hand-Illustrated Map

By
Now that adult coloring books are sweeping the nation, we don't have to hide our love for youthful illustrations and activities--like this new hand-drawn map of the Metropolitan Museum of Art called MetKids Map. The fun interactive platform is dotted with yellow and red circles for which children search and click, opening a separate window full of information about a gallery or work of art.
See more of the fun illustration and learn how it works
Weekly Highlights: Top Picks From the 6sqft Staff
September 12, 2015

Weekly Highlights: Top Picks From the 6sqft Staff

By

Mapping the Never-Built Highways of NYC from Robert Moses and Others You Can Call One of Manhattan’s Last Skybridges Home Hamptons Island Could Go for $1B, Despite Being Contaminated With Foot-And-Mouth Disease Norah Jones Is Buyer of $6.25M ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ Carriage House in Cobble Hill Turn Hot Coffee to Iced in Minutes With the […]

‘True Size Map’ Will Change Everything You Think About World Geography
September 11, 2015

‘True Size Map’ Will Change Everything You Think About World Geography

By
"Did you know that California is more than four times the size of Portugal? Or that you could fit China, the U.S. and India into the continent of Africa, with room to spare?" The Huffington Post shares these mind-blowing facts in a reveal of the "True Size Map," which shows countries in their true, relative sizes and lets users move them (along with states) around to compare sizes. This layout is as opposed to the Mercator projection, our typical map, which, because it's translating a spherical planet into a flat 2D representation, distorts many countries. For example, nations near the poles appear larger than they actually are while those close to the equator are smaller.
Check out new views of the world here
Times Square Characters and Performers May Get Confined to Designated ‘Activity Areas’

Map courtesy of the Times Square Alliance

September 11, 2015

Times Square Characters and Performers May Get Confined to Designated ‘Activity Areas’

By
It looks like Mayor de Blasio's wish of coralling the costumed characters and topless performers in Times Square may be coming true. The Daily News reports that the Times Square Alliance has endorsed the "Times Square Commons" plan, which Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and Councilmen Daniel Garodnick and Corey Johnson publicized in an op-ed in the paper yesterday. The proposal would rezone Times Square's pedestrian plaza so that instead of being mapped as a street it would become a special district called Times Square Commons. This area would be divided into three zones: general civic zones, which would feature tables and chairs and arts events; pedestrian traffic flow zones, areas to walk with no physical obstructions; and the aforementioned designated activity zones, small slivers of space that "would allow any activity involving the immediate exchange of money for goods, services or entertainment."
More this way
Pitch a story icon

Pitch a Story

We love to hear from you!

"*" indicates required fields

Interested in seeing the property in person?

It’s free, with no obligation.

CityRealty Logo

"*" indicates required fields

or Call (212) 755-5544

Interested in seeing the property in person?

It’s free, with no obligation.

CityRealty Logo

Distinctive Post Form

"*" indicates required fields

or Call (212) 755-5544
Contact us image

Get in Touch

We love to hear from you!

"*" indicates required fields

Send us a tip image
Delivering New York stories focused on design, lifestyle & real estate.

Send us a Tip

We love to hear from you!

"*" indicates required fields

Interesting in learning more about purchasing a new home?

Let us know what you are looking for and we’ll help you find the home of your dreams. It’s free, with no obligation.

CityRealty Logo
or Call (212) 755-5544

Thinking about selling your home?

We’ll provide current market comps and connect you with a trusted expert.

CityRealty Logo

Sell a Home (Footer)

"*" indicates required fields

or Call (212) 755-5544

Before You Move On
from this Page.

Subscribe for NYC's Lastest Design, Lifestyle,
and Real Estate Trends!

No Worries. We Don’t Spam.

By providing your email address, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
You can unsubscribe at any time.

Your Passport to NYC:
Subscribe for Local Insights and Stories!

No Worries. We Don’t Spam.

By providing your email address, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
You can unsubscribe at any time.