All articles by Devin Gannon

May 17, 2023

Architecture critic Paul Goldberger lists Central Park-facing Beresford co-op for $8.95M

An architecture critic is selling his apartment in one of New York City's most beloved buildings. Paul Goldberger, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his architecture criticism in the New York Times and has authored several books, has put his nine-room co-op at 211 Central Park West on the market for $8,950,000. The spacious apartment at The Beresford benefits from pre-war proportions and character, a recently renovated chef's kitchen, Central Park views, and an iconic address.
Take the tour
May 16, 2023

Billy Joel lists 26-acre North Shore estate for $49M

Billy Joel is selling his 26-acre estate on Long Island's North Shore for $49,000,000. The "Piano Man" bought the first 14 acres of the sprawling property on Oyster Bay Harbor in 2002 for $22,500,000, and has since acquired more parcels of land, piecing together much of an original estate that was split up in the 1950s, as the Wall Street Journal reported.
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May 15, 2023

Rosie O’Donnell’s ritzy Midtown East penthouse hits the market for $8.3M

Rosie O'Donnell is trading Manhattan for Malibu. The comedian put her Midtown East penthouse on the market last week for $8,300,000, following a move to the West Coast, as the New York Times first reported. The Long Island native and longtime New York City resident paid $8,000,000 for the apartment in 2017. The home, located atop 255 East 49th Street, measures nearly 3,600 square feet across three levels, including an impressive private rooftop.
Take a look here
May 12, 2023

Novelist Erica Jong lists Upper East Side apartment for $4.25M

Novelist Erica Jong is selling her high-floor Upper East Side home for $4,250,000. Jong, who has written more than 25 books but is best known for her 1973 feminist novel "Fear of Flying," bought the apartment with her husband for $1,490,000 in 1990, according to the New York Post. Located on the 27th floor of the Emery Roth-designed Imperial House at 150 East 69th Street, the apartment measures nearly 3,000 square feet, boasts a charming solarium with sweeping Central Park views, and has custom bookcases filled to the brim, fit for any writer.
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May 10, 2023

El Dorado childhood home of Beastie Boys’ Mike D finds a buyer after $4.5M price chop

The childhood home of Beastie Boys rapper Mike D has found a buyer, after a year on the market and a $4.5 million price cut. The apartment at the Upper West Side's enviable El Dorado building belonged to the estate of Hester and Harold Diamond, owners of one of the world’s finest art collections and parents of Mike Diamond. The duplex co-op hit the market in May 2022 for $19,500,000 and relisted this past March for $14,995,000 before entering contract on Tuesday, as first reported by the New York Post.
Details here
May 9, 2023

NYC designates Bushwick’s first historic district

A block in Bushwick with a collection of intact rowhouses has been designated as the neighborhood's first historic district. The Landmarks Preservation Commission on Tuesday voted to landmark a stretch of Linden Street between Broadway and Bushwick Avenues that represent several architectural styles of the late 19th century, including Queen Anne, Renaissance Revival, and neo-Grec. According to the commission, the Linden Street Historic District represents the neighborhood's transition from farmland to residential and boasts a "unified streetscape with a strong sense of place."
Details here
May 3, 2023

Rent increase between 2% and 5% likely for NYC’s stabilized apartments

The roughly two million New Yorkers who live in rent-stabilized apartments will likely see rents go up by the largest percentage in 10 years. In a preliminary vote on Tuesday, the Rent Guidelines Board, a nine-member panel responsible for adjusting the cost of rent for stabilized apartments, approved increases on one-year leases between 2 and 5 percent and increases on two-year leases between 4 and 7 percent. A vote determining the final increases will take place in June; the board historically has adopted rent hike proposals that fall within the preliminary range.
Details here
May 1, 2023

Lottery opens for 70 mixed-income units at High Line-facing rental in Hudson Yards, from $772/month

A new high-rise tower in Hudson Yards launched a housing lottery last week for 70 mixed-income apartments. Dubbed the 30th and 11th Apartments, the mixed-use building at 606 West 30th Street sits across from the High Line and just south of New York City's newest neighborhood. Qualifying New Yorkers earning 40, 60, and 100 percent of the area median income can apply for the apartments, priced from $772/month studios to $2,592/month two-bedroom apartments.
Find out if you qualify
April 26, 2023

Lincoln Center to host public celebration of Harry Belafonte’s life

New Yorkers will come together this week to remember one of their own. Harlem native Harry Belafonte, who died Tuesday at the age of 96, was not only a legendary performer and EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) winner but a political activist who befriended and supported Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement. At 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Lincoln Center will host a public celebration of Belafonte's life and his influence.
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April 20, 2023

7 ways to celebrate Earth Day in NYC

New Yorkers have been celebrating Earth Day ever since the holiday was created over 50 years ago. During the first observation on April 22, 1970, the city closed Fifth Avenue to traffic from Union Square to Central Park as part of an "ecological carnival." For the last several decades, New York City has marked Earth Day with environment-focused events, volunteer opportunities, and educational workshops. This year, honor Mother Nature by attending the city's largest-ever car-free celebration, taking in artwork that explores our relationship with Earth, learning about NYC's edible plants, shopping sustainably, volunteering at a park clean-up, and more.
Our picks here
April 18, 2023

Carnegie Hill co-op owned by FDR’s granddaughter lists for $7M

The Upper East Side home of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's granddaughter hit the market this week. Sara Delano Roosevelt Whitney Wilford, the daughter of Betsey Cushing Roosevelt Whitney and James Roosevelt, the oldest son of FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt, lived in this nine-room residence at 1120 Fifth Avenue in Carnegie Hill. Wilford, who died in 2021, was a psychologist and professor at Sarah Lawrence College for more than three decades. Asking $6,995,000, the 3,000-square-foot co-op has picture-perfect views of Central Park and the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir.
Details this way
April 17, 2023

New Penn Station overhaul proposal adds Vishaan Chakrabarti to design team

Earlier this year, Vornado Realty Trust shelved plans to redevelop the area around Penn Station with several office buildings, citing poor economic conditions. Revenue from the proposed 18-million-square-foot redevelopment of Midtown West was expected to help fund the renovation of the despised transit hub. With that proposal on hold, an alternative plan has materialized that promises to leave Madison Square Garden in place and cost less money than the original project. And on Monday, the design team announced a new addition: Vishaan Chakrabarti of Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU).
Details here
April 14, 2023

Yankees’ Aaron Judge reportedly scores Chelsea penthouse

New York Yankee captain Aaron Judge has bought an apartment at a brand new luxury condo in Chelsea, possibly his home for at least the next nine years. According to the New York Post, the American League home run leader bought a condo at The Cortland at 555 West 22nd Street, a tower designed by Robert A.M. Stern near the Hudson River waterfront.
A real estate home run
April 12, 2023

NBA star and former Nets coach Steve Nash lists Cobble Hill townhouse for $6.25M

About five months after he was fired as head coach by the Nets, Steve Nash has listed his Brooklyn townhouse for $6,250,000. As first reported by the New York Post, the NBA star bought the home at 82 Amity Street in Cobble Hill in November 2020 for just under $5 million. The 20-foot-wide five-bedroom townhouse measures roughly 4,200 square feet across four stories, in addition to a lovely private garden and a roof deck. A recently completed gut renovation makes the home move-in ready.
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April 11, 2023

Princeton manor designed by Mar-a-Lago architect lists for $4.3M

Over the course of his 50 year career, American architect Marion Sims Wyeth designed more than 700 projects in Palm Beach, Florida, including Mar-a-Lago, former President Donald Trump's current residence. Wyeth also designed this grand Princeton, New Jersey home, recently listed for $4,250,000. Built in 1927, the seven-bedroom manor at 91-93 Edgerstoune Road sits on a little more than three acres and boasts a bucolic backyard with an outdoor pool and a pond with a pagoda.
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April 6, 2023

The Upper East Side historic district’s oldest home asks $13.9M

This remarkable Gothic Victorian rowhouse on the Upper East Side was built during the Civil War, making it the oldest building in the neighborhood's historic district. The red-brick townhouse at 129 East 70th Street was completed in 1863 as one of a group of five matching homes, of which only no. 129 remains. Located on a stretch of Lenox Hill called "millionaires' row," the home joins a block known for its mansions, affluent residents, and proximity to Central Park. Asking $13,900,000, the three-story, four-bedroom home has five wood-burning fireplaces, a front and back yard, and a stunning double-height conservatory.
Get a closer look
March 31, 2023

A Bronxville home on the estate where the Kennedys lived asks $5.75M

A home on the Bronxville property where President John F. Kennedy once lived has hit the market. The Kennedy family lived on the six-acre estate known as Crownlands from 1929 to 1941. While the residence JFK called home for 12 years was demolished about a decade after the family moved, the property was later subdivided to make way for three new homes, as the New York Post first reported. One of the homes, a renovated 1950s Colonial, is now available for $5,750,000.
See it here
March 30, 2023

Ride a vintage subway car to Yankee Stadium for the home opener

Yankee fans headed to the team's home opener on Thursday can arrive in the Bronx in style. The New York Transit Museum will run its historic 1917 IRT Lo-V train and the beloved Train of Many Colors from Grand Central-42nd Street to 161st-Street Yankee Stadium. The trains will depart at 11 a.m. sharp, giving eager baseball fanatics plenty of time before the first pitch at 1:05 p.m.
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March 29, 2023

A new stinky corpse flower will soon bloom at the New York Botanical Garden

New York City's famed foul-smelling flower is preparing to bloom. The Amorphophallus titanum, known as the "corpse flower" for the rancid odor it emits, is expected to bloom in the "next week or so" at the New York Botanical Garden. The unique flower, the largest unbranched inflorescence in the plant kingdom, takes years to form flower buds and has a bloom life cycle of just one or two days.
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March 22, 2023

7-mile Harlem River Greenway expansion connects Randall’s Island to Van Cortlandt Park

New York City is expanding the Harlem River Greenway to the Bronx. Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday announced plans for a seven-mile continuous walking and biking path linking Randall's Island and Van Cortlandt Park. The new greenway aims to reconnect Bronxites to the Harlem River waterfront, which has been largely inaccessible since the construction of the Major Deegan Expressway in the 1930s.
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March 16, 2023

Bill Murray’s former 19th-century home in Snedens Landing asks $2M

A 150-year-old Gothic Revival-style New York home that once belonged to actor Bill Murray is for sale. Built in the late 1860s, the charming four-bedroom abode at 124 Washington Spring Road sits within Snedens Landing, a quiet hamlet in Rockland County known for its many celebrity residents and Revolutionary War history. Murray lived at the home for several years during the 1980s before selling it in 1990, according to the New York Post. The home, known as "The Manse," is asking $2,075,000.
Take a closer look
March 15, 2023

Everything you should know about NYC’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade

One of New York City's longest-standing traditions returns this week. On Friday, March 17, the city's 261st annual St. Patrick's Day Parade will kick off on Fifth Avenue and 44th Street and travel up to 79th Street, with roughly 150,000 marchers in tow and two million onlookers. New York City hosted one of the world's very first St. Patrick's Day parades on March 17, 1762, more than a decade prior to the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Plan your St. Patrick's Day
March 10, 2023

Newark unveils monument honoring Harriet Tubman and the city’s Underground Railroad history

A new monument to abolitionist Harriet Tubman was unveiled in a Newark, New Jersey park this week. Designed by NJ native and architect Nina Cooke John, Shadow of a Face comprises a two-story welded outline of Tubman with a circular wall that features a carving of Tubman's face, along with educational text and audio. Located in the recently renamed Harriet Tubman Square on Broad Street, the new monument replaces a statue of Christopher Columbus that the city removed in 2020.
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March 10, 2023

Eugene Kohn, co-founder of prolific architecture firm KPF, dies at 92

Eugene Kohn, who co-founded the influential international architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox, died on Thursday at the age of 92. Founded in 1976 by Kohn, William Pedersen, and Sheldon Fox, KPF has designed hundreds of buildings across the globe, with numerous notable skyscrapers in New York. Recent additions to the New York City skyline by KPF include One Vanderbilt, 10, 30, and 55 Hudson Yards, Brooklyn Point, and Two Waterline Square, among others.
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March 7, 2023

Artist Ai Weiwei lists Chelsea condo for $2M

Artist and human rights activist Ai Weiwei is selling his New York City apartment for $2,000,000. The oversized one-bedroom at 420 West 25th Street measures 1,400 square feet and features a flexible floor plan and an abundance of natural light. As first reported by Bloomberg, the condo has been staged with several of Ai's works, none of which are for sale but highlight the home's gallery-like space.
See inside