Today’s residential real estate news in one digestible bite:

• Park Slopers would rather have a parking garage than a new luxury condo in their ‘hood. The typically crunchy locals are saying the 800 Union Street garage is “essential to the neighborhood”. [NYDN]
• Stern’s 82-story downtown hotel and residential condo tower is one-third constructed; while the installation of prefab units has resumed at the Atlantic Yards B2 tower. [Field Condition]
• Downtown Brooklyn School Solutions has mapped all the buildings and residential development sites going up in the neighborhood. [Curbed]
• NYU’s Brooklyn building at 370 Jay Street is getting a makeover. The new design will boast an eco-friendly update with window replacements, solar shades, a one-megawatt wind turbine, and a green roof. [Curbed]
• Lindsey Lohan was spotted looking at a dazzling townhouse at 9 Commerce Street in Greenwich Village. [NYP]
• Century 21 owners are selling a trio of buildings for $42M. The sale is likely to result in the construction of a 100,000-square-foot residential tower. [Crain’s]
• A boring building at 31 Bond Street could be converted into luxury residential units. The renovation is estimated to cost just $4.1M, despite architect Matthew Baird’s plan to add a seventh floor to the structure. [Buzz Buzz Home]

The Park Slope garage at hand (left); Downtown Brooklyn apartments map (right)

Today’s residential real estate news highlights in one digestible bite:

• Black House just closed on the $62M Hudson Yards site needed for Archilier Architecture’s lantern-like mixed-use tower. [TRD]
• A rare luxury residential building in Boerum Hill is on the sales block and could garner well over $50M. [NYP]
• Who says writers don’t make money? Author Jonathan Safran Foer wants $13M for his Park Slope home. [Curbed]
• The sale of Long Island College to Fortis Property Group has been finalized. Next up for the site? Luxury condos, of course. [Crain’s]
• A new 19-story mixed-use tower is rising in Kips Bay, plus 714 more condos for Downtown Brooklyn. [Curbed]
• The Landmarks Preservation Commission may not mind the Pastis building being topped off, but 290 West End Avenue won’t be getting a penthouse. [Curbed]
• A 5-story Greenwich walk-up apartment building just sold for double the price a seller bought it for three years ago. It took just a week and a half to find a buyer. [Crain’s]

Black House’s tower (left); The Jonathan Safran Foer pad (right}

We roundup today’s residential real estate news highlights for one digestible bite:

• Bed Stuy is getting a brand new 10-story mixed-use building complete with 50 apartments [Brownstoner]
• NYC gets a rent hike! Of 1%… The lowest ever recorded [New York Post]
• South Slope’s newest condo development just placed its units on the market. The cheapest is going for $725,000 and the steepest $1.2 million [Brownstoner]
• Evil be gone: A 206-year-old church is trying to stop Extell’s plans to build a 14-story condo on their site, saying they won’t be “walking doormats” [NYT]
• Sales are soaring at Brooklyn’s tallest tower, 388 Bridge. Just 16 days after launching sales, more than 40% of the 104 condominiums have been snatched up [Crain’s]
• Four Winds Real Estate wants $35 million for a LES rental building they bought for $19 million last year [The Real Deal]
• JDS is bringing an 11-story mixed-use project to Boerum Hill. 47 residential units and over 3,000 square feet of commercial space are planned for 613 Baltic Street address [The Real Deal]
• Pricing and floor plans for the Thomas Juul-Hansen-designed penthouses at 505 West 19th Street near the High Line have emerged [Curbed]

Bed Stuy’s new building (left); Brooklyn’s tallest tower (right)

US senator Alan Stuart “Al” Franken, and his wife Franni, have just sold their 2,600-square-foot co-op at 90 Riverside Drive for $4.05 million.

According to the listing held by Warburg Realty, the home features four bedrooms, hardwood floors, three dishwashers, and sunny southern exposures in a turn-of-the-century landmarked town home. From pictures, it looks quite quaint and charming, despite its multi-million dollar locale.

City records show that the politico and former SNL star handed the keys to his UWS digs over to James Stone, a managing director at New Mountain Finance, and Lisa Kiell, international director at Jones Lang La Salle.

Peek inside the former Franken pad here

Vestar Capital founder and co-president Robert Rosner and his interior designer wife have snapped up a 14th floor condo at 1095 Park Avenue.

The couple was previously in the former Stanhope Hotel, a 1926 Rosario Candela jewel box at 995 Fifth Avenue opposite the Metropolitan Museum of Art, that was converted into luxury condos. Their new abode features the same modern, streamlined aesthetic of their previous space — a style which Mrs. Rosner has once described as “a chic and sleek downtown sensibility in an iconic uptown setting.” Do you agree?

Get a closer look inside here

If Gucci was to start canning pickles, would that make eating them more appetizing? A new series by artist Paddy Mergui is re-imagining everyday foods as luxury products.

The collection, titled “Wheat is Wheat is Wheat”, wraps over a dozen common foods in designer patterns and well-recognized packagings, playing on our susceptibility to big names and brand recognition. “[Design is] so under the radar that people think it’s nice and that it’s giving them self esteem,” Mergui tells The Verge. “Actually, be aware that you’re being manipulated by the visual aspects of packaging.”

From Apple’s iMilk to Burberry ramen to Cartier coffee to a dozen Versace eggs, see all the products ahead.

More Images of the re-branded food ahead

After nearly six months on the market, Jon Stryker’s luxurious Central Park West penthouse has finally found its buyer. The penthouse changed hands this week for $42 million, falling $6 million short of the ask.

Stryker originally purchased the historic Prasada triplex for $12.8 million in 2002, and he took to renovating the 5,600-square-foot space shortly after with the help of Shelton, Mindel & Associates (Stryker is a trained architect himself). Over the years, the updated design has garnered plenty of accolades, including a spread in Architectural Digest, and in 2010, it nabbed the coveted AIA award for ‘Interior Architecture’.

A look inside the luxurious penthouse here

Just moments ago, Japanese architect Shigeru Ban was announced at the 2014 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate. The 56-year old architect, who has offices in Tokyo, Paris, and NYC, is known for his elegant and innovative applications of unconventional materials such as paper and corrugated plastic in his structures, for both private international clients and in disaster relief efforts. Jump ahead to see some of his best works, including the Metal Shutter Houses, located right here in NYC.

More Shigeru here