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.

Colorful decor pops against massive brick walls at this $6,950/month Gramercy rental

July 19, 2017

Colorful decor pops against massive brick walls at this $6,950/month Gramercy rental

By Michelle Cohen

If you love Gramercy and you're into classic lofts and/or pre-war apartments you'd have to be thick as a brick to pass up this $6,950 two-bedroom rental opportunity–because this sizable sunny second-floor walk-up at 116 East 19th Street is of all of the above. Gut-renovated and air-conditioned, the apartment's multitude of brick serves as a reminder that you're in a New York City building and not, say, a North Carolina time share.
More lofty brick this way

Distinctive Homes

‘Loop NYC’ proposes driverless auto expressways across Manhattan and a 13-mile pedestrian park

July 18, 2017

‘Loop NYC’ proposes driverless auto expressways across Manhattan and a 13-mile pedestrian park

By Michelle Cohen

Architecture/engineering firm EDG, noting that New York City faces a unique and complex set of challenges when it comes to navigating highways and byways, has offered an equally unique and innovative proposal: LoopNYC suggests the conversion of one lane of existing cross streets and highways into driverless automobile expressways. The result? A safe, sustainable and efficient "microhighway" automated traffic grid.
So how would it work?

Asking $6,800/month, this compact Nolita penthouse has a sweet rooftop terrace

July 18, 2017

Asking $6,800/month, this compact Nolita penthouse has a sweet rooftop terrace

By Michelle Cohen

This effervescent and efficient top-floor apartment at 14 Prince Street in chic downtown boutique district Nolita has just arrived on the rental market. For $6,800 a month the compact, smartly renovated "penthouse" spans 920 square feet, has one (big) bedroom and offers the rare-in-NYC bonus of a private terrace.
See the rest of this bright Nolita pad

First closings commence at Zaha Hadid’s 520 West 28th Street

July 17, 2017

First closings commence at Zaha Hadid’s 520 West 28th Street

By Michelle Cohen

The architect’s signature curves and organic indoor and outdoor architecture made the late Pritzker Prize winner Zaha Hadid’s 520 West 28th Street 6sqft’s Building of the Year. Now, closings have begun in the stunning Chelsea condo, starting with a pair of two bedroom units. Residences 9, which sold for $6 million, and 14, which sold for $6.2 million, are 2,147-square-foot two-bedroom homes with private balconies.
Find out more

Emma Stone’s former Chelsea townhouse gets a price chop and new looks inside

July 17, 2017

Emma Stone’s former Chelsea townhouse gets a price chop and new looks inside

By Michelle Cohen

Back in January 6sqft reported that the 25-by-85-foot landmarked Greek Revival townhouse at 436 West 20th Street--with 9,000 square feet of interior space and a fully-stacked celebrity pedigree--had been re-listed for $19.75 million. The home, whose residents have included Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield, Jason Statham and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Glenn Close, Courtney Love and Olivier Sarkozy, has been on the market since 2010. Returning this summer for $18.75 million, the Chelsea home's five-unit configuration might prove daunting to prospective buyers, though a thorough structural and aesthetic renovation in 2013 plus the promise of almost $600,000 a year in rent certainly sound like positive attributes.
Take a look

Nature informs modern design in this $6M upstate retreat with Scandinavian and Korean influences

July 14, 2017

Nature informs modern design in this $6M upstate retreat with Scandinavian and Korean influences

By Michelle Cohen

This unusual property at 156 Duell Hollow Road known as Hammersley Ridge is the culmination of the desires of the current homeowner to find the perfect spot to live, and the vision of the home’s architect, Anik Pearson, of integrating Scandinavian and Korean design principles into its unique surroundings (h/t Mansion Global). In the hamlet of Wingdale, NY about a 90 minute commute from Manhattan, the 5,000 square-foot home sits just below a mountaintop overlooking a nature conservancy, which means your stunning vistas across the valley floor won't be spoiled by any new neighbors.
See more of this amazing mountain retreat

From the land of lofts, this bright $1.3M DUMBO space awaits your room-shifting skills

July 14, 2017

From the land of lofts, this bright $1.3M DUMBO space awaits your room-shifting skills

By Michelle Cohen

While Soho and DUMBO might have to fight it out over which was the more original loft neighborhood, there's no doubt that they brought living in a big, airy, open former industrial space, with maximum flexibility and minimum furniture, to a whole new level of cool. This loft at 50 Bridge Street in the Brooklyn waterfront neighborhood brings both loft and luxury living up-to-date, and at a $1.3 millon price it doesn't rule out the entire creative class.
Get the loft tour

Distinctive Homes

Dry ice and solar power to be used in city’s $32M rat battle

July 13, 2017

Dry ice and solar power to be used in city’s $32M rat battle

By Michelle Cohen

Mayor Bill de Blasio declared Wednesday that he wanted "more rat corpses" in a $32 million crusade to rid the city's most plagued neighborhoods of the scurrying scourge. The New York Times reports that parts of lower Manhattan, the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn and the Grand Concourse in the Bronx are the focus of the latest campaign that hopes to reduce the number of rats in those areas by 70 percent by the close of 2018. Among the battle's newly-forged weapons are 336 $7,000 solar-powered rat-proof garbage bins and an EPA-approved–and apparently very effective–method of killing rats in their holes using dry ice.
Psst...hey...pizza over here

City Living

One of NYC’s rare rooftop ‘cottages’ is for sale, asking $3.5M in the East Village

July 13, 2017

One of NYC’s rare rooftop ‘cottages’ is for sale, asking $3.5M in the East Village

By Michelle Cohen

The listing calls the two-unit, three-story property that tops the condominium building at 72 East 1st Street "the most unique property in the East Village," and while it may not be the entire city's most interesting, it's definitely among them. The lower unit is a full-floor penthouse duplex, above which is perched a perfect replica of a New England cottage. The property is for sale for $3.5 million; while much has been written about the city's handful of rooftop cabins and cottages, they rarely appear on the market. In this case, the Nantucket-style cottage is an artists' studio, which makes it even cooler.
Check out this little sky cottage

First look at Central Park Tower’s palatial amenity spaces and apartment layouts

Central Park Tower renderings (Extell / AS+GG)

July 12, 2017

First look at Central Park Tower’s palatial amenity spaces and apartment layouts

By Michelle Cohen

We expected that Central Park Tower, the city's tallest-tower-to-be swiftly rising at 225 West 57th Street, would be giving Midtown record-smashers like 432 Park Avenue a run for their trophy-tower money. And now newly-revealed details uncovered from the building's EB-5 brochure offer a first glimpse of what the upcoming supertall's rivals could be up against. The preliminary overseas marketing images spotted by CityRealty show off the 1,550-foot-tall building's apartment layouts and the ultra-luxe amenity spaces that will sit high above the hotel and Nordstrom, the building's flagship retail tenant. Developer Gary Barnett's new condo development is the most expensive ever attempted in the city and is projecting a $4 billion sellout including retail and hotel tenants.
Sky palaces and amazing amenities this way

Popular Articles

For $1.2M this little Bed-Stuy townhouse is ready for front porch rocking and backyard croquet

July 12, 2017

For $1.2M this little Bed-Stuy townhouse is ready for front porch rocking and backyard croquet

By Michelle Cohen

Located on one of those charmingly scruffy Bed-Stuy streets that seems to span three centuries with some "Little House on the Prairie" thrown in, this seriously detached house at 659 Madison Street, though it's only two stories high and 2,244 square feet, sits on a 25-by-100-foot lot. Asking $1.2 million, the three-bedroom home is still a lot bigger than the average condo–and what condo comes with a wrap-around porch? Though the listing says it's a single-family, it's actually a two-unit building, so there's even income potential.
Have a look around

Distinctive Homes

July 11, 2017

Built from the ground up, this Hamptons retreat combines nature’s beauty and paradise imagined

By Michelle Cohen

This Sagaponack, NY home might just be the perfect antidote for the summer of hell; it would definitely make an insufferable commute worth it. Summerhill Landscapes, Steven Harris Architects and Rees Roberts + Partners designed the idyllic Hamptons retreat on a swath of meadowland where the tall grass is never far from the sea on the East End of Long Island.
See more of this Southampton summer vision

Architecture And Design

Sit by a crackling fire in this old-fashioned Greenwich Village co-op, asking $1.4M

July 11, 2017

Sit by a crackling fire in this old-fashioned Greenwich Village co-op, asking $1.4M

By Michelle Cohen

"Old-fashioned" can have any number of meanings: a euphemism for stodgy, or a signifier of cutesy and intentionally low-fi, for example. But the landmarked pair of 1883 Greenwich Village luxury co-op buildings named Portsmouth and Hampshire at 38-50 West 9th Street are exactly that–old fashioned–with no hidden subtext and plenty of charm. Rich in pre-war detail with two working fireplaces (summer will be over before you know it!), this one-bedroom apartment is up for sale for the first time in over forty years–and with the exception of important upgrades like a washer-dryer, and a $1.395 million asking price, it probably hasn't changed much over that time.
Have a look

Distinctive Homes

Interactive map reveals how your daily commute time compares with the nation’s worst

July 10, 2017

Interactive map reveals how your daily commute time compares with the nation’s worst

By Michelle Cohen

For something to ponder while trapped in subway hell or highway gridlock, a detailed visualization by statistician Chase Sawyer shows typical commute times clocked in every U.S. county, based on census data from 2011-2015. Citylab reports on the findings revealed therein; for example, we probably could guess that the top 10 easy-peasy commutes were in Alaska (where you can always find a seat on the subway), but you may not have guessed that Pike County, Pennsylvania has the worst transit time at an average of 44 minutes.
Find out how your daily trek stacks up

Rent this five-bedroom West Village dream townhouse for $25K a month

July 9, 2017

Rent this five-bedroom West Village dream townhouse for $25K a month

By Michelle Cohen

If you dream of living in a West Village townhouse with lofty, renovated rooms and charm-filled outdoor spaces, this 1845 beauty at 13 Gay Street could be your summer find. At $25,000 a month, that's $5,000 per bedroom, though it's not the sort of spot where you'd expect to find a bargain. At 19 feet wide with four stories of living space, the quintessential historic home has both original details and dreamy modern conveniences.
Take the four-story tour

Distinctive Homes

An architect’s 1969 nuclear shelter plan shows a mini-Manhattan built thousands of feet underground

July 7, 2017

An architect’s 1969 nuclear shelter plan shows a mini-Manhattan built thousands of feet underground

By Michelle Cohen

The 1960s Cold War years were America's peak fear/fantasy period as far as the threat of nuclear weapons being deployed. Related scenarios played heavily in science fiction works and frequently surfaced in art and writing. On occasion the line between sci-fi and urban planning tends to blur, at least in hindsight; such is the case for architect and city planner Oscar Newman's probably tongue-in-cheek vision of an enormous spherical underground replica of Manhattan located thousands of feet below the city itself, to be switched into action in the event of a nuclear event. Atlas Obscura reveals Newman's fantastical map to a subterranean metropolis where New Yorkers would wait out the fallout.
Head underground for a look-see

Fashion designer Reem Acra lists Chelsea condo combo with dramatic art for $5.5M

July 7, 2017

Fashion designer Reem Acra lists Chelsea condo combo with dramatic art for $5.5M

By Michelle Cohen

Fashion designer Reem Acra is selling her 3,200-square-foot spread in the Chelsea Atelier at 245 Seventh Avenue, Luxury Listings reports. The Lebanese-born designer, who made news for having created First Lady Melania Trump's inauguration-eve dinner gown, purchased two apartments in the building nearly two decades ago. The sprawling, loft-like space, asking $5.5 million, features dramatic art on the walls and ceilings including a wall-sized photo featuring a model wearing one of the designer's wedding dresses that was used in an ad campaign.
Take the grand tour

Locals employ new zoning strategy to keep skyscrapers from rising in Midtown East

New rendering of the entrance to 430 East 58th Street, also known as Sutton 58. Photo: Thomas Juul-Hansen

July 6, 2017

Locals employ new zoning strategy to keep skyscrapers from rising in Midtown East

By Michelle Cohen

In what they're calling an "unprecedented citizens' application," the East River 50s Alliance, a Sutton Place/Midtown community group, has mounted a renewed campaign to oppose an 800-foot tall condo tower that's rising at 430 East 58th Street, the Wall Street Journal reports. As 6sqft previously reported, the developers of the new tower, Gamma Real Estate, closed on the $86 million site earlier this year in a bankruptcy sale and hired Danish-born architect Thomas Juul-Hansen to design the new skyscraper. The group has filed an application for a zoning change that calls for a ban on tall towers in a 10-square-block area; developers regularly file for zoning changes that cover only the property they're looking to build on.
Find out more

New Developments

$2.5M Red Hook house has a Cali boho vibe–and an outdoor kitchen

July 6, 2017

$2.5M Red Hook house has a Cali boho vibe–and an outdoor kitchen

By Michelle Cohen

Topanga Canyon retreat? Stinson Beach surf shack? If you guessed either you'd be wrong, but this fully-detached single-family home at 71 Dikeman Street in Red Hook, asking $2.5 million, definitely has a California bohemian vibe that's perfect for the laid-back waterfront neighborhood. In addition to a well-executed renovation, the two-story house has a 50-foot landscaped garden with an outdoor kitchen that's the picture of summer leisure living.
Tour this laid-back beach shack

Distinctive Homes

Tenant holdout snarls developer’s plan to build Billionaire’s Row tower

Image via Google Street View

July 5, 2017

Tenant holdout snarls developer’s plan to build Billionaire’s Row tower

By Michelle Cohen

Image via Google Street View With a legendary tenants' rights lawyer on board, a longtime leaseholder is standing fast against a developer's 'dream tower' plans, claiming their business has a valid lease and is being wrongfully evicted, according to the New York Times. Irving and Samuel Morano, the antiques dealers who own Metropolitan Fine Arts and Antiques, are the largest remaining tenant at 10 West 57th Street, a prime location opposite Bergdorf Goodman. 89-year-old developer Sheldon Solow has been amassing properties along the "Billionaire's Row" strip, where the Solow Building, his office tower at 9 West 57th Street stands, since 1977. With grand plans in place to erect a sleek Skidmore Owings & Merrill-designed 54-story hotel and condominium tower, Solow has evicted tenants, erected scaffolding and started demolition on one of the properties along the strip.
Find out more

New Developments

Pretty pre-war co-op in Fort Greene has two bedrooms and stylish details for under $1M

July 5, 2017

Pretty pre-war co-op in Fort Greene has two bedrooms and stylish details for under $1M

By Michelle Cohen

In the heart of the lovely neighborhood of Fort Greene, Brooklyn at 141 Lafayette Avenue, just a block from Fort Greene Park and a few minutes from BAM, this graciously-sized and thoughtfully-appointed pre-war co-op is asking $995,000. With two real bedrooms, central A/C, and a nice renovation, that seems like a pretty good deal for this pricey neighborhood.
Take a look around

Distinctive Homes

Escape to a Bali retreat that’s no further than the Hudson Valley

July 3, 2017

Escape to a Bali retreat that’s no further than the Hudson Valley

By Michelle Cohen

If you're looking to get out of town but you're uninspired by the usual country inns, historic schoolhouses, and rustic log cabins, this unusual Hudson Valley vacation property could be just the tranquil escape for you (and up to nine of your closest friends). The Hudson Valley Bali House Retreat in Rosendale, New York combines a country setting with details that were inspired by vacations in Bali and Thailand. Built using materials imported from Indonesia, this exotic compound makes visitors forget they're only about 90 minutes from Midtown.
More this way

July 2, 2017

VIDEO: Drone footage takes this love letter to New York City to a new level

By Michelle Cohen

From the concrete canyons of Midtown to verdant outcroppings deep in Central Park and everything in between, NYC unfolds in a suitably epic series of moments in this live-action love letter created by Wasatch aerial drone photography specialists. A drone camera sails above it all on metal wings, capturing the city, its architecture and its creatures large and small at rest, work and play.
READ MORE

City Living

This Stuyvesant Heights brownstone with a perfect Brooklyn back yard asks $4,500/month

June 30, 2017

This Stuyvesant Heights brownstone with a perfect Brooklyn back yard asks $4,500/month

By Michelle Cohen

This compact brownstone rental in Bed-Stuy's pretty Stuyvesant Heights historic district of awaits summer festivities on a landscaped private back terrace. $4,500 a month gets you three bedrooms on two stories and a finished basement plus covetable private outdoor space in one of the borough's most buzzed-about neighborhoods.
Take the tour

Distinctive Homes

Lady Gaga tours a $6M oceanfront home at Montauk’s Gurney’s Residences

June 29, 2017

Lady Gaga tours a $6M oceanfront home at Montauk’s Gurney’s Residences

By Michelle Cohen

Lady Gaga–a.k.a. Stefani Germanotta–was recently spotted frolicking in the Hamptons with boyfriend/CAA-agent-to-the-pop-stars Christian Carino; the New York Post reports the pair were also seen touring a property in Montauk. The singer was apparently smitten enough with a $5.9 million three-bedroom unit at Gurney's Residences oceanfront resort at 272 Old Montauk Highway to return for a second look.
Take a peek

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