All articles by Michelle Cohen

Michelle is a New York-based writer and content strategist who has worked extensively with lifestyle brands like Seventeen, Country Living, Harper’s Bazaar and iVillage. In addition to being a copywriter for a digital media agency she writes about culture, New York City neighborhoods, real estate, style, design and technology among other topics. She has lived in a number of major US cities on both coasts and in between and loves all things relating to urbanism and culture.

February 7, 2016

$6M Newswalk Duplex Loft Has a Private Screening Room

By Michelle Cohen

The somewhat anomalous Newswalk building at 535 Dean Street in Prospect Heights was developed by the somewhat notorious Shaya Boymelgreen (who, for the record, is not known for aesthetically pleasing designs) just before the neighborhood became popular. The condo conversion named for its former life as the 1927-built New York Daily News printing plant doesn’t fit into any of the latest crop of easily dismissible residential building categories. There’s a certain credibility to be had, both from an invasive and a pioneering spirit in this complex neighborhood. And that makes its residences unique if a little confusing. This latest offering is no exception. The two-bedroom penthouse loft's interior design looks more Manhattan than Brooklyn, which may help explain the asking price of $5.9 million. Private outdoor space goes on for days, as does the list of building amenities–and there are a few surprises.
So what's with that home theater?

Distinctive Homes

February 5, 2016

UES Townhouse With Hermès Leather Walls and Smoking Room Could Set Record at $84.5M

By Michelle Cohen

Somerset Partners’ Keith Rubenstein just put his 15,000-square-foot townhouse at 8 East 62nd Street on the market for $84.5 million, outdoing Carlos Slim's $80 million listing. The luxury-filled Upper East Side home is one of the city's priciest townhouse listings ever (h/t WSJ), and if it fetches the listing price it would set a Manhattan townhouse record, besting the Harkness Mansion’s 2006 $53 million sale. In addition to marquetry flooring inspired by those at Pavlovsk Palace in St. Petersburg, there are his and hers suites, a basement spa and gym, and a pretty unique modern art collection (see the massive KAWS bunny sculpture in the living room). Some off-the-wall features include red Hermès leather walls, a smoking room equipped with ventilation system, and a dressing room with a lighted handbag display and temperature-controlled fur vault.
Check out the rest of the zany house

February 5, 2016

432 Park Avenue’s First Recorded Sale Just Became Its First Listed Rental for $60K a Month

By Michelle Cohen

Less than a month after 432 Park Avenue recorded its first sale at $18,116,000, the first unit to close at the Billionaires' Row blockbuster has appeared on the rental market for $60,000 a month (h/t Curbed). As 6sqft previously reported, "The unit is #35B, a massive 4,003-square-foot, three-bedroom pad with four-and-a-half baths, a private elevator landing, and 10-foot by 10-foot windows providing southern and western exposures with park views." It was purchased via an LLC, 432 PARKVIEW, but now that it's been re-listed as a rental, it's also the first apartment whose interiors we get a peek at outside the generic, digitally-enhanced promotional images that accompany listings.
Take a look at the generic, non-digitally-enhanced interiors

February 5, 2016

Combine This Matched Pair of UES Townhouses for a $22M Mega-Mansion

By Michelle Cohen

Last year, three massive UES townhouses were marketed for megamansion potential and listed for $120 million, and Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich bought this sprawling townhouse combo for his own makeshift manse. Now, here's an opportunity to combine a pair of more modest–though by no means small–late-1800s townhouses for an Upper East Side mansion of your own, albeit on–let's call it a more human scale (forgetting for a moment that some lucky human gets to live in 6,700 square feet with 38 feet of frontage.). When you first see this matched pair of houses side-by-side at 159-161 East 82nd Street, you're struck by their charm and how much they epitomize the neighborhood's tree-shaded, brownstone-lined blocks. The fact that both four-story homes are for sale as a package deal for $22 million presents a mind-boggling list of options. There are even alternate plans that show you where to put a cellar pool (plus a sauna and a gym)!
Take a look inside

They Paved Washington Square Park and Put Up a Parking Lot

Image via NYU Local

February 4, 2016

They Paved Washington Square Park and Put Up a Parking Lot

By Michelle Cohen

It's true: Washington Square Park was, in part, Washington Square parking lot. In the 1960s, at the peak of the nation's car culture fixation, the Greenwich Village park was put into use as a parking lot, until cars were finally banished altogether in the 1970s, when the large circular plaza around the fountain was added. Some say the parking lot was an effort to keep hippies from gathering in the beloved public space.
Find out more

February 4, 2016

Sarah Jessica Parker Peeps Shephard Condo Conversion in West Village

By Michelle Cohen

She's no Little Bo Peep, but according to the Post, SJP and hubby Matthew Broderick may be flocking to the Shephard, a new condo conversion at 275 West 10th Street. The 19th century warehouse and former rental building is in the process of being converted to luxury condominiums by Naftali Group. On a pretty tree-lined West Village street, the 38-unit Shephard boasts interior design by Gachot and oversized arched windows; a definite possibility for Parker would be one of three penthouses currently listed at the building, starting at $18.5 million. The pair sold their Greenwich Village townhouse for $18.25 million last year (they'd bought it for $19 million in 2011–and apparently never moved in.)
See what's cool about the Shephard

Celebrities

February 3, 2016

Interactive Website Lets You Listen to New York City in the Roaring ’20s

By Michelle Cohen

We love looking at footage from 1920s New York City and watching the bustling street life from a bygone era, but we aren't nearly as familiar with its sounds. The Roaring Twenties, "an interactive exploration of the historical soundscape of New York City," created by historian Emily Thompson, compiles a wealth of historic data to re-create and share the city's sonic history, giving context to the sounds of the city in the 1920s and '30s. In an introduction, there’s a quote from a 1920 New York Times article that speaks of how the city was “defined by its din."
Learn what the site has to offer

February 3, 2016

For $23 Million You Can Be Donald Trump’s Downstairs Neighbor

By Michelle Cohen

A sprawl-o-rama of a penthouse a few floors below the Donald’s Trump Tower apartment is on the market for $23 million, but you’re paying for dizzying views and a palatial floor plan, not proximity to the building’s progenitor–though he did once own the apartment back when it was home to his mom and pop. It’s also rumored (according to Page Six) that Trump rented the pad out to his pal Michael Jackson and his new bride Lisa Marie Presley for $110,000/month back in the day, so you’ve got all sorts of party tidbits to go with your ridiculously enormous apartment. And if your dream is to re-live the '80s like a boss (and by that we mean nonagenarian dowager), the 3,725-square-foot, four-bedroom pad is ready for your key in the door. Otherwise you might want to do a little renovation.
See the whole spread

Distinctive Homes

February 2, 2016

Escobedo Solíz Studio’s Wild ‘Woven’ Design Will Fill MoMA PS1’s Summer Courtyard

By Michelle Cohen

MoMA has announced that the Mexico City-based architecture firm Escobedo Solíz Studio was selected as the winner of the 2016 Young Architects Program (YAP). Chosen from five finalists, the winning project,"Weaving the Courtyard," will create a "temporary urban landscape" for the 2016 Warm Up summer music series in MoMA PS1's outdoor courtyard in Long Island City, beginning in early June. The site-specific architectural intervention will use the courtyard’s concrete walls to generate both sky and landscape, with embankments in which platforms of soil and water suggest the appearance of a unique topography. The architects describe their project as "neither an object nor a sculpture standing in the courtyard, but a series of simple, powerful actions that generate new and different atmospheres."
Find out more

February 2, 2016

$985K Renovated UWS Co-op Checks a Lot of Boxes; Just Hope You Don’t Have to Carry Them

By Michelle Cohen

When you’ve got a recently- and well-renovated three-bedroom co-op on the Upper West Side, a block from Central Park with low monthly fees, and it’s under $1 million, it’s pretty safe to say "this won’t last!" This fresh-faced, turn-key, pre-war home at 113 West 96th Street was just listed at $985,000, and while there are pros and cons, it looks like a super-comfortable place to live in a classic Manhattan neighborhood that gets an A-plus for convenience.
Take a look around

Distinctive Homes

$3,400/Month Greenpoint Waterfront Mini-Loft Is Cozy and Cool With Killer Views

By Michelle Cohen

The once-sleepy waterfront neighborhood of Greenpoint is in the midst of a transformation into one of the most coveted and talked-about Brooklyn 'hoods. The Pencil Factory condominium at 122 West Street was one of the first conversions of the area's historic industrial buildings. Built in 1872 and expanded in 2012 from the original Eberhard Faber Pencil Factory complex, the name of the building was also used by artists, designers and other creatives who had studios in the building. The $3,400 per month rent may seem high for this sophisticated-yet-comfortable one-bedroom-plus pad, but with popularity comes higher rent.
Take a look around

Distinctive Homes

February 1, 2016

Why Is There a Sixth-and-a-Half Avenue in Midtown?

By Michelle Cohen

If you've never heard of it, that may be because this quarter-mile, pedestrian-only street is nearly hidden among the office towers of Midtown. Sixth-and-a-Half Avenue was the first fractional street in the city’s grid system, created in 2012 by the Department of Transportation to encourage people to use the public plazas and covered areas that form a path between 51st Street to 57th Street.
So where is it?

Graphs Show How Skyscrapers Relate to Their Cities–and Whether We Need More of Them

Graph: The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat

February 1, 2016

Graphs Show How Skyscrapers Relate to Their Cities–and Whether We Need More of Them

By Michelle Cohen

Tall buildings help make cities great. Except when they don’t. Citylab looks at a new study and graphs that show where skyscrapers fit into what makes cities great–and suggests that the middle is where the magic happens. 2015 was a record year for the skyscraper; 106 tall buildings (higher than than 656 feet) went up across the globe, according to The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), more than in any previous year; emergent countries that appeared at the forefront of the global economic stage with the dawn the 21st century (China, Indonesia, UAE, Russia) show a big uptick in building upward. The majority of newly-built skyscrapers have risen in Asian nations—especially China–but the United States is in sixth place, with just two skyscrapers completed in 2015.
More infographics this way

Architecture And Design

January 30, 2016

A Well-Considered Layout Makes This $3.8M Tribeca Loft Feel Like Home

By Michelle Cohen

Though $3.8 million is no bargain for a two-bedroom apartment–even a 1,900 square-foot loft in pricey Tribeca–the layout of this sixth-floor penthouse at 38-40 North Moore Street gives it some unusual advantages. On the one hand there really isn’t a whole lot of "extra" space to play with; on the other, as it’s currently configured, the bedroom, bath and laundry portion of the home seems pleasantly sheltered and removed from the vast rectangular living/dining/entertaining area, conferring the feeling that it's a private wing for private life.
Take the tour

Distinctive Homes

January 29, 2016

Interactive Graph Compares L Train Commute Times and Rents With Other NYC Neighborhoods

By Michelle Cohen

We're hearing lots of anguish and anxiety over the possibility of an L subway shutdown for repairs for as long as a year or more, and we've taken a look at some possible solutions. Now, we've asked the real estate data geeks at NeighborhoodX to go a little deeper beneath the grumbling to find out just how much convenience can be had along that thin grey line, and how it stacks up against other neighborhoods in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. So which other neighborhoods offer commute times similar to the L train stops—and—just as important when choosing a neighborhood–how do their rents compare? And if you're living along the L, in light of the shutdown, what neighborhood alternatives do you have in the city that provide a similar commute?
Find out here

Image via Jason Farrar

January 29, 2016

Developers Rushed to Get Nearly 8,000 Permits Ahead of 421-a Tax Break Expiration

By Michelle Cohen

With the fate of the city's 421-a tax abatement remaining uncertain, developers scurried to obtain permits before the year's end, resulting in a number of permits granted in December that was more than four times the number issued the previous month, reports the Wall Street Journal. According to new U.S. Census figures, permits for 299 projects containing 7,781 residential housing units were granted during the month of December, indicating that as New York City’s most lucrative property-tax abatement approached its last hours, architects and developers rushed to get building permits and begin construction.
Find out more

January 28, 2016

NYC Creatives Pimp Out Their Pad on Airbnb With ‘Netflix and Chill’ Theme

By Michelle Cohen

With Valentine's Day approaching, the "Netflix and chill" pick-up line is going to be getting a lot of use, but this Airbnb listing takes the meme to a whole new level. New Yorkers Tom Galle, who works in advertising, artist Moises Sanabria, and Alyssa Davis, an engineer who works for Art404, have decked out Sanabria and Davis’s one-bedroom West Village apartment as a “Netflix and Chill” zone and put it on Airbnb for $400/night.
Any takers yet?

January 27, 2016

This ‘Map of Every City’ in the World Is Hilariously Spot On

By Michelle Cohen

Click here for the full-size version >> This “Map of Every City,” penned by Chaz Hutton (via Big Think) supplies us with a bite-sized answer to the question we’ve probably all asked at one time or another -- why do all major cities seem to be carbon copies of one another? And chances are there's at least one burg in your borough that fits the description of "Cool Area That Your Parents Would Have Avoided in the '80s."
Look familiar? Check out the full-size map here

City Living

January 27, 2016

Intergalactic Mill Basin Mansion Returns for $17M With a Two-for-One Deal

By Michelle Cohen

The StarMansion from “Star Trek: Mill Basin” has landed on the market once again after few interplanetary laps–one of which included a precipitous price-drop from $30 million to $17 million in 2014–this time even bigger and better with some stellar cargo added. The slightly notorious former mob manse currently belonging to the family of “the Russian-American Paris Hilton” (h/t Curbed) is also the one-time second-most expensive home in Brooklyn (after this massive pad at One Brooklyn Bridge Park). With some seriously tricked-out custom interiors and features like a "circular meditation room,” 257 feet of waterfront, indoor parking for six cars, a Lalique fireplace mantel, 1,000-square-foot pool, spa, outdoor pavilion with kitchen, three-boat marina and water views from every room, the waterfront mansion is still asking $17 million, but with a sweet two-for-one deal attached: The next-door “guest house” property–formerly listed at $8 million–is included in the price.
Take the journey

January 27, 2016

$33K/Month Penthouse With a Custom Koi Pond Is a Bit of Bay Ridge in Trendy Tribeca

By Michelle Cohen

If you've always dreamed of interior features like a "dramatic floating staircase rising a full three stories from a custom koi pond," a dangerously high number of marble-covered surfaces, and lots of shiny lacquered wood, but didn’t want to give up the sophisticated surroundings of Manhattan’s downtown Gold Coast, this triplex penthouse atop the striking 19th century brick building at 11 Vestry Street could be your jacuzzi-positive dream apartment. For $33,000 a month, this super-luxe Tribeca rental has undeniable perks–like four different outdoor spaces with amazing views–and a few opulent additions that are usually reserved for more far-out 'hoods like Bay Ridge.
See more of this marble-clad pad

Distinctive Homes

January 26, 2016

What to Do if Your Sidewalk Hasn’t Been Shoveled

By Michelle Cohen

If you're trying to get somewhere this week and there's a mountain of snow left by the weekend storm in your path, Mayor de Blasio wants to help. On Monday, in response to complaints about businesses with unplowed sidewalks, the mayor said that the city would "definitely be focusing today on businesses that aren't doing that–we will be applying fines to any business that does not shovel out” (h/t DNAinfo). City code states that "every owner, property manager, tenant or other individual in charge of a lot or building must clean snow and ice from the sidewalks in front, on the side of and in back of their properties within a certain time frame." The snow officially stopped falling at 3:30am on Sunday, meaning that anyone with shoveling to do had until 11 a.m. Monday to get the job done before the possibility of getting hit with fines.
So whose job is it, anyway?

January 26, 2016

$25K a Month Is the Price of Near-Perfection in This West Village Townhouse Triplex

By Michelle Cohen

Sometimes with listings, pictures just speak for themselves. This 2,250-square-foot West Village townhouse triplex at 407 Bleecker Street is a fine example. In addition to being in one of the city’s most covetable neighborhoods, this pretty, historic home checks all the boxes that might be on a tenant wish list. Modern but not aggressively so, grand without ostentation—the $25,000 a month rental price doesn’t surprise, though it might well put the three-plus-bedroom home out of reach for many. One might just bring up the fact that you’re not, in fact, getting the whole house; there’s a retail store at the street level, and the home is on the three floors above. There’s no yard (though there’s a sun deck, which really is just as good); the oodles of recessed lighting and ceiling speakers might not be to everyone’s taste–but then again you’re not buying the house. At 2,250 square feet it’s not exactly huge. But by Manhattan standards it's palatial.
See what else this townhouse has going for it

Distinctive Homes

January 25, 2016

Maisonette Meets Loft in This Central Williamsburg Duplex Asking $5,500 a Month

By Michelle Cohen

This duplex apartment at the Sophia Lofts at 234 North Ninth Street, a former bakery converted to 11 loft residences in 2007, has a private entrance on Williamsburg's bustling crossroads of Roebling Street. You can come and go as you like from your own slice of prime 'burg, a 1,480 square-foot duplex that will put you right in the middle of where all the action is, for $5,500 a month. The interiors are loft all the way, though there are plenty of custom comforts and chic additions that give the classic converted space a distinct modern personality.
See what's inside

Distinctive Homes

January 25, 2016

QUIZ: Answer 9 Questions to Find Out Which NYC Neighborhoods Best Match Your Lifestyle

By Michelle Cohen

Some of us are all too familiar with matching services where you provide info about yourself and you get back a list of, er, interesting possibilities. But sorting data to find your ideal neighborhood match could be especially helpful when home-hunting in New York City, given the mind-boggling set of choices–it makes sense to get potential picks from things that actually exist (like parks and grocery stores), rather than being hopefully embellished. From the neighborhood data entrepreneurs at PlaceILive comes match.placeilive.com, a newly-launched lifestyle-based home finder that matches you with your ideal New York City neighborhoods based on your answers to nine quick questions.
Find out which neighborhood's right for you

City Living

January 25, 2016

NYC’s 190 Miles of Scaffolding a Result of ’80s Law and Billion Dollar Industry

By Michelle Cohen

It definitely seems that every day, more of New York City is covered by the ubiquitous wood and steel building shed scaffolding, making daily life an urban obstacle course of weaving and tunnel trekking. It's not just your imagination: Currently there are almost 9,000 sheds camped out over city streets, reports Crains, based on numbers from the Department of Buildings, up from around 3,500 in 2003. That adds up to 190 miles–one million linear feet—worth of sheds, enough to encircle Manhattan six times. The city’s maze of construction sheds are the result of a 1980s law and a billion dollar industry that keeps growing. "New York is insatiable right now when it comes to sheds," says George Mihalko, a shed-equipment supplier. "I've never seen anything like it in 30 years." This demand is driven in part by the new wave of construction spurred by the city's building boom. But there is apparently another, more important reason.
Why don't the sheds ever go away?

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All articles by Michelle Cohen

$6M Newswalk Duplex Loft Has a Private Screening Room

UES Townhouse With Hermès Leather Walls and Smoking Room Could Set Record at $84.5M

432 Park Avenue’s First Recorded Sale Just Became Its First Listed Rental for $60K a Month

Combine This Matched Pair of UES Townhouses for a $22M Mega-Mansion

They Paved Washington Square Park and Put Up a Parking Lot

Sarah Jessica Parker Peeps Shephard Condo Conversion in West Village

Interactive Website Lets You Listen to New York City in the Roaring ’20s

For $23 Million You Can Be Donald Trump’s Downstairs Neighbor

Escobedo Solíz Studio’s Wild ‘Woven’ Design Will Fill MoMA PS1’s Summer Courtyard

$985K Renovated UWS Co-op Checks a Lot of Boxes; Just Hope You Don’t Have to Carry Them

$3,400/Month Greenpoint Waterfront Mini-Loft Is Cozy and Cool With Killer Views

Why Is There a Sixth-and-a-Half Avenue in Midtown?

Graphs Show How Skyscrapers Relate to Their Cities–and Whether We Need More of Them

A Well-Considered Layout Makes This $3.8M Tribeca Loft Feel Like Home

Interactive Graph Compares L Train Commute Times and Rents With Other NYC Neighborhoods

Ricky Martin sells Upper East Side apartment for $6.15M

Developers Rushed to Get Nearly 8,000 Permits Ahead of 421-a Tax Break Expiration

NYC Creatives Pimp Out Their Pad on Airbnb With ‘Netflix and Chill’ Theme

This ‘Map of Every City’ in the World Is Hilariously Spot On

Intergalactic Mill Basin Mansion Returns for $17M With a Two-for-One Deal

$33K/Month Penthouse With a Custom Koi Pond Is a Bit of Bay Ridge in Trendy Tribeca

What to Do if Your Sidewalk Hasn’t Been Shoveled

$25K a Month Is the Price of Near-Perfection in This West Village Townhouse Triplex

Maisonette Meets Loft in This Central Williamsburg Duplex Asking $5,500 a Month

QUIZ: Answer 9 Questions to Find Out Which NYC Neighborhoods Best Match Your Lifestyle

NYC’s 190 Miles of Scaffolding a Result of ’80s Law and Billion Dollar Industry

482 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg

All articles by Michelle Cohen

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