Situated within the amenity-filled Morningside Gardens co-operative complex, this two-bedroom home at 70 La Salle Street in Morningside Heights was renovated less than a year ago. The result is a cheerful and chic mix of color, pattern, and well-configured space that’s highlighted by an abundance of natural light. With ceilings of over nine feet tall and floor-to-ceiling windows, this corner unit, asking $807,000, maximizes space with plenty of closets in addition to large and livable rooms.

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Queensbridge Houses. Photo credit: Metro Centric via Wikimedia Commons

The New York Times recently told of a pair of visitors from Boston who signed up for a sweet Airbnb deal on a Chelsea pad for $90 a night–and were surprised to have it turn out to be a seventh-floor unit in the neighborhood’s 11-building NYCHA Fulton Houses complex. The would-be guests noticed that “something seemed off,” starting with the roach trap next to the bed. The travelers tipped off the company, who refunded their money, and their story quickly became internet history as yet another way homestay platforms are being taken advantage of and another log on the fire of the debate that rages over what to do about it.

Airb-n-beware?

Photo of the Arthur Avenue Retail Market by Leonard J. DeFrancisci via Wikimedia Commons 

The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) last week unveiled a new brand strategy for the city’s network of six public markets, which includes a multilingual ad campaign, a dynamic new website and social media presence, direct mail campaigns and more, all of which are designed to consolidate a network of historic markets under one city-wide brand. It’s all part of the organization’s comprehensive initiative to promote NYC’s public markets–including Essex Market, the Bronx’s Arthur Avenue Market, and Williamsburg’s historic Moore Street Market–as “world class destinations for both local residents and tourists.”

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Rendering of architectural lighting: Silman via NYC Parks

After five years of halting progress, NYC Parks officially broke ground last week on a $24 million project that will preserve the Philip Johnson-designed New York State Pavilion Observation Towers in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. The current project represents the first major effort to preserve the Pavilion’s structures since their construction for the 1964 World’s Fair.

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Photo credit: Warburg Realty

This combined two-unit co-op in the architectural gem that is the Emery Roth-designed San Remo at 145 Central Park West (where Demi Moore’s former pad just hit the market for $50M), asking $25 million, has the Central Park and Manhattan skyline views you’d expect from the iconic building’s north tower. Inside, the over-5,500-square-foot corner residence is just as impressive, with an architect-led renovation and interiors by renowned designer Bunny Williams that has preserved the home’s Art Deco character while sparing no expense on modern convenience. The 14-room home, currently owned by money manager Peter W. May and his wife, Leni May (h/t New York Times), is configured as three bedrooms and a library with an additional study and a media room.

Sky mansion tour, this way

Aerial view of the developer’s planned updates. Credit: Davis Brody Bond

Manhattan Community Board 10 voted Wednesday night against a developer’s plan that would substantially rezone the Lenox Terrace neighborhood in Central Harlem and pave the way for construction of five new 28-story luxury towers and big-box retail stores. The rezoning application, filed by the Olnick Organization, asked the city to rezone Lenox Terrace from its current residential status to the C6-2 designation found in “the central business district and regional commercial centers,” according to the city’s zoning resolution. The community board’s vote sided with the Lenox Terrace Association of Concerned Tenants (LT-ACT), which opposes the rezoning and has demanded the developer withdraw the application.

More on the resolution this way

Photo credit: Steve Rossi Photography for Sotheby’s International Realty.

88-year-old veteran television talk show host Regis Philbin (“Live! With Regis and Kathie Lee/Kelly,” “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” “America’s Got Talent”) and his wife, Joy, have put their Greenwich, Connecticut home on the market for $4.595 million (h/t WSJ). The ask is a significant drop from the home’s purchase price a decade ago when the couple moved in. The 13,661-square-foot residence was built in the style of an English Manor, complete with a pool, tennis court, and a garage that holds five cars. The Philbins are selling in order to spend more time with family in California; Ms. Philbin said in a statement that “this house will always be our favorite…There was always room for everyone.”

Tour the manor

Rendering of Essex Crossing via Moso Studio

The New York Times recently suggested that the boxy, ordinary-looking Essex Crossing, with its Trader Joe’s, Target, movieplex, historic Essex Street Market and subsidized affordable housing was the “anti-Hudson Yards,” a convincing foil to the buzzy midtown tourist magnet. The obvious contrast between the glittering far-west-side megaproject that in the right light resembles Dubai on the Hudson and the six-acre $1.9 billion development abutting the Williamsburg Bridge speaks to each one’s intended audience, of course. But a diversity of options for both locals and visitors and a broad offering of affordable housing could make Essex Crossing more than just Liverpool on the Lower East Side.

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Photo credit: VHT, courtesy of The Corcoran Group

This late 19th-century Italianate brownstone has the good fortune of occupying a corner lot at 471 State Street in Boerum Hill. That means the four-story, single-family home is filled with light all year ’round from northern, southern, and eastern exposures. Currently asking $6.195 million, the 20-foot-by-50-foot residence sits on a 100-foot-deep lot, with 14 rooms–including four bedrooms–within; those rooms are filled with as many pristine historic details, state-of-the-art contemporary finishes, and high-tech comforts as it’s possible to put under one smart-looking ebony-corniced roof.

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