Architecture And Design

Photo credit: Pete’s Precision Photo For the price of a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan, you can own an entire converted church in Connecticut. Located in the town of Essex, about a two-hour drive northwest of New York City, this 1849 building has been listed publicly for the first time in over 50 years. Asking $1,295,000, the 8,543-square-foot structure was converted into a three-bedroom home with soaring sanctuary ceilings, a large outdoor deck, and a solarium/roof patio in the former steeple.
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Brooklyn Bridge Park’s rebuilt Squibb Bridge will reopen on May 4

Photos © Jamie Warren, Brooklyn Bridge Park

April 29, 2020

Brooklyn Bridge Park’s rebuilt Squibb Bridge will reopen on May 4

After closing for good nearly two years ago, a new Squibb Bridge will open at Brooklyn Bridge Park on May 4 at 9am, as was first reported by Curbed. The 450-foot-long walkway over Furman Street connects the Squibb Park (which will also reopen) on the Brooklyn Bridge Promenade to Pier 1 in Brooklyn Bridge Park and has had quite a shaky history since first opening in 2013. Eric Landau, the president of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation, told Curbed, "The new bridge has the same overall aesthetic feeling of the previous bridge that people loved, with full functionality."
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Architecture And Design

Rockefeller Center revamp gets Landmarks approval

Rendering by Gabellini Sheppard Associates courtesy of Tishman Speyer; via Landmarks Preservation Commission

April 28, 2020

Rockefeller Center revamp gets Landmarks approval

A proposal to renovate Rockefeller Center's public realm was approved on Tuesday by the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Led by Tishman Speyer and designed by Gabellini Sheppard Associates, the project aims to restore the connection between the concourse and the sunken plaza, an element included in the original plans for the historic Midtown site. The design, which was revised following a public hearing in January, focuses on the pools of the channel gardens, the sunken plaza, and new seating and planting to maintain the plaza's well-defined edges.
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Celebrate NYC neighborhoods virtually with Jane’s Walk (from Home)

Courtesy of MAS

April 24, 2020

Celebrate NYC neighborhoods virtually with Jane’s Walk (from Home)

One of New York City's greatest annual events is going virtual. Jane's Walk honors urbanist Jane Jacobs with free volunteer-led walking tours across the city for one weekend every year. Adapting to the realities of the coronavirus pandemic, the Municipal Art Society (MAS) announced this week plans to host virtual activities that still celebrate the five boroughs, but safely from home.
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Coney Island nonprofit launches virtual face mask design contest

Photo by Julian Wan on Unsplash

April 24, 2020

Coney Island nonprofit launches virtual face mask design contest

With the Mermaid Parade officially canceled, the Coney Island nonprofit behind the event is hoping to celebrate creativity in another way this year. Coney Island USA announced on Friday plans to host a "Put on a Funny Face Design Contest," described as the "world's first-ever mask design contest." The virtual contest is being presented by Spectrum News NY1 and will be judged by yet-to-be-announced celebrities of Coney Island.
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Before + After: A Hudson Heights co-op goes from drab to a modern, family-friendly home

“After” photos by Kate Glicksberg for Sweeten

April 7, 2020

Before + After: A Hudson Heights co-op goes from drab to a modern, family-friendly home

When Erin and Chris first started their family, they bought a one-bedroom in Hudson Heights and fell in love with the neighborhood. But three kids and nine years later, Chris' job took them to the California Bay Area. After two years, they had the chance to come back to NYC and jumped at the chance to return to Hudson Heights. They found a three-bedroom in its "original, fifties-era condition," but knew the space and layout were perfect. Ahead, see how they came to Sweeten to find a contractor and took the co-op from drab to a contemporary and comfortable family home.
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$5.85M Tudor ‘castle’ in Westchester has a fireplace from the Vanderbilts and church bells from France

Photos courtesy of Houlihan Lawrence

March 24, 2020

$5.85M Tudor ‘castle’ in Westchester has a fireplace from the Vanderbilts and church bells from France

It's hard to know where to start with this incredible Westchester county mansion. Situated on the Manor Park and Beach in Larchmont, the Tudor-style home has a unique quadrangle shape with a huge interior courtyard. When it was built in 1901, it was the carriage house for the Crocker Estate, and from 1955 to 1996, it was home to New York Times drama critic Walter Kerr and "Please Don't Eat the Daisies" playwright Jean Kerr. During the 1920s, it's owner salvaged 35 truckloads of architectural materials from the demolished Vanderbilt Mansion, and these pieces, like the two-story fireplace, are perfectly preserved. Recently listed for $5,850,000, this waterfront "castle" is truly a property that you need to see to believe.
Don't miss this tour

March 19, 2020

A historic Crown Heights Kinko House has hit the market for $1.6M

What's a Kinko House you may ask? First off, the name comes from the developer--Kings and Westchester Land Company--who built them in the northern section of Crown Heights between 1905 and 1912, according to Brownstoner. Designed by architecture firm Mann & MacNeille, the two-family houses are unique in that each unit has its own front door, stairway, porch, and cellar. Each group of six houses also has its own architectural style, and 1040 Sterling Place, which just hit the market for $1,625,000, was done in a brick Arts and Crafts style. This home is being sold with both duplex units, so a new owner could potentially combine them for one large residence.
Find out more about this rare house

$18.3M sustainable playground breaks ground at the Battery

The “bluffs” zone includes five granite slides and boulder scrambles; renderings courtesy of BKSK Architects & Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners

March 13, 2020

$18.3M sustainable playground breaks ground at the Battery

As the threat of climate change grows, parks in New York City are working to become more resilient. Officials on Thursday broke ground on an $18.3 million waterfront playground at the Battery in the Financial District. The Battery Playscape, as it's being called, is expected to be one of the city's largest sustainable parks. It will triple the size of the current playground and will feature a rainwater runoff system and a wide variety of durable plants.
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Airbnb contest seeks world’s most outrageous home designs

Airbnb is searching for the world's most unique and unusual short-term rental home as part of a new contest. Ten people will be awarded $100,000 each to design a groundbreaking home that is both livable and a space for social good, the company announced on Tuesday. Proposals can include renovations to an existing Airbnb property, a project in progress that needs funding, or a totally unbuilt project.
More details here

All renderings by the Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU)

March 5, 2020

Renderings released for massive Sunnyside Yard project that will bring 12,000 affordable apartments

According to the master plan for the 180-acre Sunnyside Yard development in Queens, the former storage and maintenance hub for Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, New Jersey Transit, and Long Island Rail Road will include 12,000 affordable apartments, making it the largest affordable housing development to be built in NYC since the middle-income Co-op City in the Bronx was completed in 1973 (h/t Wall Street Journal). The plan by the New York City Economic Development Corp. (EDC) outlines a $14.4 billion deck over the train yard on which the complex would be built. Half the housing in the development would be rental apartments for low-income families earning less than 50 percent of the area median income, with the other half set aside for affordable homeownership programs through Mitchell-Lama. The Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU) was identified to lead the planning process, and they have just released renderings and maps of the massive development.
See them all here

Photo credit: Drew Dies of Rise Media courtesy of The Corcoran Group.

March 5, 2020

188-year-old Brooklyn Heights home with trophy-townhouse renovation wants $9.5M

This landmarked 188-year-old wood-clad house at 59 Middagh Street in historic and lovely north Brooklyn Heights is among the borough’s oldest homes. But behind its iconic facade–now fortified with block and steel, the listing tells us–is just about every turn-key 21st-century perk imaginable, from an elevator and "penthouse" rooftop to a ground floor guest suite, yoga room and sauna, central air, two wet bars, two laundry rooms, an additional kitchen and five outdoor spaces. It's asking $9,496,000.
Take the new-old townhouse tour

Listing photos courtesy of Morton Adams Photography

March 3, 2020

For just $839K, this 1730 stone house sits on 4 acres upstate and has two guest suites

Two hours north of New York City, right near hip New Paltz and the Mohonk Preserve, $839,000 will get you a meticulously preserved and restored farmhouse built in 1730 (h/t CIRCA). Not only that, but it sits on 3.9 acres and comes complete with a lower-level guest suite (which has been serving the current owners with Airbnb rental income) and a detached guest cottage.
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Renderings courtesy of Terreform ONE, Mitchell Joachim, PhD

March 2, 2020

An eight-story monarch butterfly sanctuary may be the façade of a new Nolita building

Architecture and urban design research group Terreform ONE has offered a proposal for a 12-story commercial building in the works across from Petrosino Square in Nolita that goes beyond any of the city's existing architectural curveballs, angles, and anomalies. The non-profit group has revealed plans to create an eight-story-high monarch butterfly sanctuary, or "Lepidoptera terrarium," that would serve as the building's façade and line its atrium.
More sanctuary in the city, this way

Before + After: How an Upper West Side couple renovated their 440sqft studio after a building fire

Photos by Pixy Interiors for Sweeten

February 27, 2020

Before + After: How an Upper West Side couple renovated their 440sqft studio after a building fire

When a blaze broke out on the rooftop of Dianna and Todd's Upper West Side co-op building they luckily sustained no major damage, but their walls and floors did suffer some impairment. Since moving into the high-floor duplex three years prior, the couple had been planning to renovate their home, and after the incident, they took the plunge. Because the 444-square-foot studio duplex had an efficient layout, their contractors advised them to keep the current setup and focus the budget on modernizing the kitchen and bathroom, brightening up all the rooms with paint and stain jobs, and incorporating colorful decor and functional furnishings.
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Museum of Natural History’s new Halls of Gems and Minerals will open this fall

A conceptual rendering of the Allison and Roberto Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals, opening in fall 2020 at the American Museum of Natural History. Rendering courtesy American Museum of Natural History.

February 27, 2020

Museum of Natural History’s new Halls of Gems and Minerals will open this fall

The American Museum of Natural History announced this week that the new Allison and Roberto Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals will be opening in fall of 2020. Named for longtime museum supporters Roberto and Allison Mignone, the long-awaited redesign will be a dazzling showcase for one of the greatest collections of its kind. The new Halls will be connected to Studio Gang’s 235,000-square-foot Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education and Innovation.
More about the exhibitions and gallery, this way

February 24, 2020

Public gardens revealed at former Jehovah’s Witnesses HQ in Brooklyn Heights

As the former Jehovah's Witnesses headquarters continues its transformation into a modern, five-building mixed-use complex in Brooklyn Heights, photos of the project's first phase have been revealed. Designed by landscape architecture firm terrain, the former Watchtower complex, now known as Panorama, features three public gardens at grade level, as well as an architectural staircase. An open-air courtyard facing Furman Street will serve as a landscaped pocket park steps from the Brooklyn Bridge and Brooklyn Bridge Park.
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Architecture And Design

A hydroponic farm, mini golf, and rock climbing: Inside Bushwick’s sprawling Denizen development

Images by Eric Laigel and Imagen Subliminal, Courtesy of ODA

February 20, 2020

A hydroponic farm, mini golf, and rock climbing: Inside Bushwick’s sprawling Denizen development

By Alexandra Alexa

Five years in the making, the sprawling Denizen Bushwick is now complete. The 1.2 million-square-foot complex designed by ODA New York and developed by All Year Management stands on part of the former Rheingold Brewery Site and covers two city blocks with addresses at 54 Noll Street and 123 Melrose Street. Perceived as a monolith from the street, the complex’s interior features a series of interconnected courtyards and a green promenade. Also of note are 15 large-scale murals painted throughout the building’s circulation corridors by local artists. With an extensive amenities package that seems to include everything under the sun, it’s no wonder the project has been described as a “city within the city.”
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Plan to renovate Central Park North rink and pool opposed by local skaters and swimmers

Rendering courtesy of Susan T. Rodriguez Architecture | Design and the Central Park Conservancy

February 19, 2020

Plan to renovate Central Park North rink and pool opposed by local skaters and swimmers

The $150 million plan to build a new pool and ice rink at the northern end of Central Park is facing backlash from local swimmers and skaters. Last September, the Central Park Conservancy revealed a project to replace the aging Lasker Rink and Pool and create space for year-round recreation. But a group of hockey players and swimmers is asking the conservancy to revise its plan, which they claim would reduce the space they can use, eliminating some of the programs offered.
Details here

Architecture And Design

The Lowline goes into ‘dormancy’ as funds dry up

Lowline Lab via 6sqft

February 19, 2020

The Lowline goes into ‘dormancy’ as funds dry up

By Alexandra Alexa

Ambitious plans to transform the abandoned Williamsburg Bridge Trolley Terminal on the Lower East Side into the world's first underground park are no longer viable due to waning funds, Crain's reports. The founders of the Lowline—Dan Barasch and James Ramsey—dreamed up the idea more than a decade ago and as of last year, the $83 million project was under construction with an expected opening date in 2021.
What happened?

Architecture And Design

Image by Scott Frances for Related-Oxford

February 19, 2020

See the views from NYC’s highest outdoor residential space at 15 Hudson Yards

Adding to Hudson Yards' height superlatives, the city's highest outdoor residential amenity space has opened at 15 Hudson Yards. Rising 900 feet in the air, "Skytop" features 6,000 square feet of curvy indoor-outdoor space, which follows the shape of the building's crown. Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro with interiors by Rockwell Group, the amenity space offers unobstructed views of the Hudson River and beyond.
See the sky-high views

See inside The Wing’s fifth NYC location in Williamsburg

Photos by Tory Williams; courtesy of The Wing

February 14, 2020

See inside The Wing’s fifth NYC location in Williamsburg

By Alexandra Alexa

Female-focused coworking space The Wing has opened another gorgeous outpost for its growing membership, this time in trendy Williamsburg. Located in a new building at 71 North 7th Street, the space spans two floors and 12,000 square feet (with just under half of that being outdoor space). It's The Wing's fifth location in New York City and second in Brooklyn.
Have a look around

February 12, 2020

LPC approves Rafael Viñoly’s revamp of National Academy building, but without rooftop addition

The plan to restore a historic Upper East Side townhouse and transform it into a new art gallery was partially approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission Tuesday. The neo-Renaissance townhouse at 3 East 89th Street in the expanded Carnegie Hill Historic District, as well as two connecting buildings, was formerly home to the National Academy Museum. Salon 94 owner Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn purchased the property last summer with the intention of consolidating her three art galleries at the property. Led by Rafael Viñoly Architects, the revamp includes a facade rehabilitation, new central gallery space, and a restoration of the original porte-cochere from 1915. While there was overwhelming support for the new gallery space, the LPC rejected the project's proposed sixth-floor rooftop addition, with most commissioners having issues with its bulk and visibility.
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Architecture And Design

City launches design competition to fix Brooklyn Bridge congestion problem

Image by Ali Vidler from Pixabay

February 11, 2020

City launches design competition to fix Brooklyn Bridge congestion problem