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.

Cynthia Nixon’s Rent Justice for All platform would extend rent stabilization and boost tenant protection

Cynthia Nixon image; image

May 4, 2018

Cynthia Nixon’s Rent Justice for All platform would extend rent stabilization and boost tenant protection

By Michelle Cohen

Cynthia Nixon, the "Sex and the City" actress-turned-Democratic gubernatorial candidate, has unveiled a Rent Justice for All platform that would bolster protection for tenants statewide. Curbed reports that Nixon, who is running against Governor Andrew Cuomo as a Democratic candidate, announced Rent Justice for All, a series of measures intended to address the growing burden placed on New York's renters, of which there are many: Nixon said in a statement, “Half of our state residents are renters, and under Governor Cuomo, New York’s renters have been left behind.”
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May 3, 2018

$4M Flatiron duplex was 19th century starchitect Richard Morris Hunt’s studio

By Michelle Cohen

This $3.925 million combined sale in an historic Flatiron building is a unique opportunity for more than one reason. The 1870s Italianate townhouse at 28 East 21st Street, now a co-op, served as the studio of architect Richard Morris Hunt, whose designs include the Met as well as the Biltmore estate, The Breakers and other notable Gilded Age properties. It's also a chance to acquire an 1,850-square-foot duplex with three bedrooms plus a dreamy townhouse backyard complete with flowering dogwood and magnolia trees and a 250-square-foot artists' studio in the heart of the Flatiron district.
Take the tour

Historic West Harlem firehouse theater is for sale for $13M as part of development lot

Image via Google Maps.

May 2, 2018

Historic West Harlem firehouse theater is for sale for $13M as part of development lot

By Michelle Cohen

The Beaux Arts firehouse that has been the home of the Faison Firehouse Theater since 1999 (with a celebrated "official" inaugural opening in 2007 that included a presentation by Maya Angelou) is for sale as part of a development property package, asking $13 million. The building at 6 Hancock Place in West Harlem is being offered with a neighboring vacant lot and a four-story townhouse, which together add up to a total of 30,000 square feet. The Faison Firehouse Theater was founded by Tony award winning choreographer George Faison and his partner, Tad Schnugg, and has been operated by the American Performing Arts Collaborative (APAC).
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May 1, 2018

John Varvatos’ design director lists fashionable Financial District condo for $725K

By Michelle Cohen

This elegantly designed studio in the Greenwich Club at 88 Greenwich Street belongs to Martin Dimen, who is the design director for the iconic contemporary men’s brand John Varvatos–and the home's interiors reflect the brand's aesthetic of masculine opulence. The Financial District condo is asking $725,000.
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Distinctive Homes

Agencies announce May town hall meetings to discuss impending L train shutdown

Photo of the L-train via Wiki Commons

May 1, 2018

Agencies announce May town hall meetings to discuss impending L train shutdown

By Michelle Cohen

If you've got some choice words to say about the impending L train shutdown, you'll soon get a chance to make them public. The MTA and the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) have announced two town hall meetings that will be held this month to discuss the Canarsie Tunnel Reconstruction project–aka the L train shutdown–with members of the community who will be affected by the April 2019 service interruption that will knock the line out of commission for 15 months. The meetings, which will be held in Manhattan and Brooklyn, are the latest in a series of public meetings and workshops intended to quell public trepidation about the impending shutdown.
When, where, what to expect

April 30, 2018

For $11.5M, this meticulously renovated historic West Village townhouse has the perfect yard for a picnic

By Michelle Cohen

This 1836 Greek Revival townhouse at 150 West 11th Street in the West Village received an extensive renovation that updated the home for modern living but considered every historic detail, using traditional methods and quality materials to the sum of an $11.5 million asking price. In addition to these picture-perfect interiors, the three-bedroom home boasts a yard that incorporates the neighborhood's historic charm.
Explore this historically correct home

Distinctive Homes

April 30, 2018

See new renderings of ‘Ocean Dreams,’ Coney Island’s wavy Surf Avenue rental towers

By Michelle Cohen

New renderings have been revealed showing real estate mogul John Catsimatidis' Coney Island rental project at 3514 Surf Avenue known as Ocean Dreams, shown here courtesy of CityRealty. The American Institute of Architecture (AIA), which is currently taking votes for their People's Choice award in Brooklyn, has included the 425-unit rental complex among the contenders. The building is being developed by Catsimatidis' Red Apple Group. Catsimatidis, who has big dreams indeed for the development, proposed a trolley-like streetcar service to access the Stillwell Avenue subway station, and once said he wanted to make the development look like Miami Beach.
More renderings this way

April 30, 2018

Matt Lauer’s no-longer-needed Upper East Side commuter pad sells for $7M

By Michelle Cohen

Just weeks after ex-"Today" anchor Matt Lauer’s Upper East Side co-op at 133 East 64th Street hit the market asking $7.35 million, the four-bedroom, 11-room apartment has sold for just upwards of $7 million, the New York Post reports. The disgraced newsman used the apartment as a city home during the week while working at NBC. Lauer’s Sag Harbor home (one of his three Hamptons properties) is also for sale.
Have a look

April 27, 2018

$40.5M penthouse at Renzo Piano’s 565 Broome has a 20-foot-long rooftop pool

By Michelle Cohen

Big numbers are the order of the day at the palatial penthouse atop Pritzker Prize-winning Renzo Piano Building Workshop’s first residential building in New York City, 565 Broome Soho. On the market now for $40.5 million, the newly-minted four-bedroom duplex spans 6,655 square feet with a 2,500 square-foot roof terrace. The four-bedroom condo above one of two 30-story glass towers has the kind of jaw-dropping 360-degree views you'd expect. Less expected is the fact that you can experience them from a private heated outdoor rooftop pool.
Take the grand tour

Central Park Boathouse returns this week with a new look, a new menu and a $2.9M makeover

Image: Andrew Batram via Flickr

April 27, 2018

Central Park Boathouse returns this week with a new look, a new menu and a $2.9M makeover

By Michelle Cohen

The Central Park Boathouse restaurant has been spruced up with $2.9 million in renovations and upgrades and is perfect-date-ready just in time for outdoor weather. The New York Post reports that the familiar structure near the park's Fifth Avenue entrance at East 72nd Street has gotten much needed capital improvements like more seats (185 instead of 160) a new flood-proof tile floor and insulated glass that keeps the lakefront chill out along with a contemporary new look, new colors and lighting and better sightlines of the Central Park West skyline and rowboats gliding by. Even better, there's more room for customers at the new ADA-compliant bar.
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Asking $1.4M, this renovated Castle Village co-op is a candy-colored uptown oasis

By Michelle Cohen

Tucked away in the prime line of the captivating Castle Village co-op at 260 Cabrini Boulevard in Hudson Heights, this two-bedroom home is blessed with high-bluff vistas and a riot of colorful interiors that qualifies it as, to quote the listing, a "residential work-of-art." Even without its definitely-non-beige decor, the light and views in every room make this unique home a one-of-a-kind oasis even in a city of millions,
Take a whirlwind tour

April 25, 2018

Perfectly patina-ed Chelsea artist’s loft asks $2.75M

By Michelle Cohen

Sometimes an "authentic artist's loft" is exactly that. That's the case with this fabulously patina-ed co-op at 139 West 17th Street in Chelsea, which is as much known for vanishing artists' lofts as it is for art galleries. The $2.75 million listing starts out, "Bring your architect..." The space has as much need for transformation as it has vintage charm. Its current owners, a creative couple with a passion for culture and design, have made it their own, and it could be the perfect canvas for the next owner to do the same. The artist-in-residence has lived here for 40 years–we're guessing it was converted to a co-op during that time, as this is the first time it has been on the market.
Check it out

Distinctive Homes

Cuomo’s new bill would ban plastic bags in New York by next year

Image: Michael Kowalczyk via Flickr.

April 24, 2018

Cuomo’s new bill would ban plastic bags in New York by next year

By Michelle Cohen

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo introduced a bill on Monday to outlaw single-use plastic bags in the state of New York. The New York Times reports that Cuomo announced the three-page post-Earth-Day bill as part of the effort to fight the “blight of plastic bags" and their "devastating toll on our streets, our water and our natural resources.”
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April 24, 2018

After landmarking news, historic Carroll Gardens schoolhouse is back on the market for $5M

By Michelle Cohen

An unusual Carroll Gardens building, once the first freestanding kindergarten to be built in Brooklyn, is seeking a new owner, asking $4.95 million, now that it may not be headed for the wrecking ball. The Landmarks Preservation Commission calendared the building (along with the apartment building next door), now a unique single-family residence, at 236 President Street for landmark status consideration on Tuesday. Neighborhood residents and concerned citizens–including folk hero Joan Baez, whose grandfather once lived next door–have been rallying to stop the building's planned demolition as Brooklyn Paper reported last month.
Imagine the possibilities

April 23, 2018

Contemporary artist buys ‘Aaron Burr House’ in the West Village for $4.8M

By Michelle Cohen

Back in 2016, a row house in the West Village that was once owned by third U.S. vice president and famous duel participant Aaron Burr arrived on the market for $5.75 million. The Federal-style brick home at 17 Commerce Street–a fittingly historic block consisting of land that Burr owned just north of his country estate during the turn of the 18th century–has finally sold, to American painter and printmaker Walton Ford, Mansion Global reports, for $4.8 million.
More history and a last look

April 23, 2018

Upper East Side townhouse with an artistic pedigree, an artists’ studio and a curb cut asks $19M

By Michelle Cohen

If you're a painter, a sculptor or a writer–or you just like to be in close proximity to their kind–you'd be in good company with this 7,200-square-foot townhouse at 167 East 69th Street in the Upper East Side. The 25-foot-wide Neo-Georgian former carriage house is currently owned by Ann Brashares, the author of young adult series "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" and her husband, painter Jacob Collins. The property itself was used by the Sculpture Center for "close to half a century," according to the listing, and neighbors have included Mark Rothko and art dealer Larry Gagosian. It's asking $18.95 million–curb cut and garage included.
Take the tour

Distinctive Homes

April 20, 2018

Limestone mansion with a sunroom and garage in Prospect Lefferts Gardens asks $4M

By Michelle Cohen

Situated just two blocks from Prospect Park at 125 Maple Street in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, this 25-foot-wide limestone beauty was built by noted Brooklyn architect Axel Hedman in the Renaissance Revival style. Built on a corner lot, the house gets enough sun to feature a stained-glass-wrapped solarium, and moody, dramatic interior details appear luminous rather than dark.
Take the tour

Distinctive Homes

City to move ‘Fearless Girl’ to new home across from New York Stock Exchange

Fearless Girl and Charging Bull statues on Wall Street; via Anthony Quintano’s Flickr

April 20, 2018

City to move ‘Fearless Girl’ to new home across from New York Stock Exchange

By Michelle Cohen

Mayor Bill De Blasio announced today that the “Fearless Girl” statue currently staring down the iconic Wall Street "Charging Bull" will be getting a permanent home in front of the New York Stock Exchange in the Financial District. Since the diminutive statue's temporary installation more than a year ago a day before International Women’s Day, sending a message to Wall Street for the need of gender equality in the financial world, the statue has become a major attraction, drawing millions of tourists and locals.
What about the bull?

Events & Things To Do

April 20, 2018

This $29M restored 1880s mansion is one of only three townhouses left on Central Park West

By Michelle Cohen

Built in 1887 by local builder William Noble, this remarkable Queen Anne mansion at 248 Central Park West has been painstakingly restored by its owners in a $10 million gut renovation, with its stunning details preserved and every modern luxury–including an elevator, a 50-foot lap pool in the cellar, a top floor penthouse, a home theater and a gym. As the New York Times tells us, it's one of only three houses built in the surrounding Upper West Side historic district at the time. On the market for the first time since 2004, it's asking $29 million.
Take the grand tour

April 19, 2018

After regulation overhaul, Landmarks Preservation Commission head announces resignation

By Michelle Cohen

Photo via CityRealty Earlier this year, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) unveiled a series of new proposed rules, which the group said would streamline the application process and improve transparency. But the regulation overhaul, as 6sqft recently reported, has caused concern among preservationist groups, who fear that more oversight by LPC staff but less time for public review won't allow enough input for public opinion and limit the opportunity for testimony and comment on applications. Following a backlash from the rule change, it was announced today that LPC commissioner Meenakshi Srinivasan will step down from her post.
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Policy

April 19, 2018

Pre-war beauty in Riverside’s ‘Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ building asks $1.8M

By Michelle Cohen

Morningside Heights' the Strathmore, the Bing & Bing co-op at 404 Riverside Drive designed by architects Schwartz and Gross, is so iconic that it was used as Midge and Joel's home in the 1950s period series "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel." The unit used as a backdrop for the show is the childhood home of architect Allegra Kochman, who also owns–and designed the interiors of–this one-bedroom beauty, now on the market for $1.825 million (h/t NYP).
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Distinctive Homes

April 18, 2018

For only $950K, this tiny townhouse in Stuyvesant Heights has a backyard shed and modern updates

By Michelle Cohen

We’re sensing a tiny-townhouse-as-condo-alternative trend here; and why not? Low taxes, backyard space, and basement storage are hard to pass up. This particular version is a stylishly renovated three-bedroom home at 264 Bainbridge Street in pretty Stuyvesant Heights, with an even tinier–but no less adorable–backyard shed in the covetable backyard. It's asking a diminutive-seeming $950,000.
Take a look around

Distinctive Homes

April 18, 2018

Living Lots map helps New Yorkers transform vacant land into community spaces

By Michelle Cohen

It's time to think about gardening–a seasonal rite that's something of a challenge for most city-dwellers. Living Lots NYC is a clearinghouse of information that New Yorkers can use to turn vacant land into community spaces. Begun as a pilot project that ran from 2011 to 2015, which led to the to the official transformation of 32 vacant lots, Living Lots NYC was created by community organization 596 Acres as a database that New Yorkers can use to find, unlock, and protect the shared resource of the city's vacant lots. According to the map, at this particular moment, there are 877 sites throughout 626 acres of vacant public land, 18 sites on 8 acres of private land opportunities, and 559 sites on 211 acres to which people have access.
Check out the city's green opportunities

Construction restarts at Pier 55 offshore park with new walkways in place

Rendering by Pier55 Inc/Heatherwick Studio

April 17, 2018

Construction restarts at Pier 55 offshore park with new walkways in place

By Michelle Cohen

After years of drama, during which the project was declared dead, then given new life, construction on the public park anchored in the Hudson River (also known as Pier 55 and Diller Island), is now moving forward as evidenced by a site photo taken by CityRealty this week showing two walkways leading to the pier from Hudson River Park now in place. As 6sqft reported last October, the Pier 55 project spearheaded by media mogul Barry Diller was rebooted with Diller's renewed commitment, complete with the backing of his recent legal foes, former ointment-fly Douglas Durst and Governor Andrew Cuomo.
More pictures this way

Architecture And Design

City orders Central Park statue of ‘hero’ M.D. who performed experiments on slaves be removed

Statue of Dr. J. Marion Sims in Central Park. Image: Wikimedia Commons.

April 17, 2018

City orders Central Park statue of ‘hero’ M.D. who performed experiments on slaves be removed

By Michelle Cohen

New York City’s Public Design Commission voted unanimously Monday in favor of removing a statue of 19th century surgeon J. Marion Sims from its Central Park pedestal, the New York Times reports. It was recommended that the statue of the controversial doctor, who conducted experimental surgeries on female slaves without their consent (and without anesthesia), be removed from its spot at 103rd Street in East Harlem after Mayor Bill de Blasio asked for a review of “symbols of hate” on city property eight months ago. 6sqft previously reported on the request by Manhattan Community Board 11 to remove the East Harlem statue of Sims, who is regarded as the father of modern gynecology. The statue, which will be moved to Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery where the doctor is buried, represents the city's first decision to make changes to a prominent monument since the review.
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