Architecture And Design

October 29, 2018

The former Swedish American Athletic Club in Park Slope is now a $6M townhouse

Situated on an elegant Park Slope corner lot where Sixth Avenue meets Garfield Place, the house at 267 Sixth Avenue has a rare and unusual history. Built in the 1870s, the building is the former home of the Swedish American Athletic Club. In its current incarnation, the 7,200 square-foot house is comprised of a 5,400-square foot owner's triplex over a 1,800-square foot three-bedroom rental apartment–asking $5.999 million. In its athletic club days, the building featured a 90-foot ballroom, a billiard room, a bowling alley and a lounge with a 15-foot cocktail bar. The bar remains intact and the bowling alley (not pictured, unfortunately) lives partially unaltered on the home's lowest level.
Take the grand tour

Image credit: Binyan Studios

October 29, 2018

FXCollaborative reveals new renderings of slender Fidi condo tower

By Michelle Cohen

Trinity Place Holding’s new residential tower rising at 77 Greenwich Street in lower Manhattan has just released a teaser site and new renderings showing the 500-foot-tall building in all its future glory. With architecture by FXCollaborative and interiors by Deborah Berke Partners, the tower is four stories in to its 42-story height; sales are scheduled to begin in spring of 2019.
More details and renderings, this way

October 25, 2018

Transformed from a wreck into pricey condos, Crown Heights’ oldest house is renting for $9.25K/month

By Michelle Cohen

The historic Elkins House at 1375 Dean Street, an 1850s wood-frame home in Crown Heights, is officially the neighborhood's oldest house–and you can rent one of its duplex units from January to April of 2019 for $9,250 a month. The landmarked wood-frame building has been completely renovated with 2,033 square feet of living space including five bedrooms (two with private balconies) and a private top-floor deck. The home's newly-converted condos were last seen on the market last spring, with two duplex units–including this one–asking $2.3 and $2.7 million.
Take a tour

October 24, 2018

For less than $600K, you can own this Gilded Age NJ mansion with NYC skyline views

By Dana Schulz

Here in NYC, if you want skyline views, you're going to have to cough up some serious dough. But just 45 minutes away, in South Orange, New Jersey, you can get that, plus an entire historic mansion sitting on more than two acres, for less than $600,000 (h/t CIRCA). That is if the bidding doesn't get too out of control. This 11,000-square-foot Georgian-style home is headed to auction on November 18th and the minimum bid is set at $575,000. The winner will be living in Gilded Age glamour, as the 1924 home retains five ornate fireplaces, coffered ceilings, marble Corinthian columns, and an entire ballroom.
See inside

October 24, 2018

At $4.8M, this historic Upper West Side townhouse costs less than a Midtown condo

By Michelle Cohen

With its crimson brick facade, stepped gables, and graceful archways, this four-story 1886 townhouse at 383 West End Avenue is one in a row of eight. It's a legal two-family dwelling (so there's rental income potential) currently being used as a single-family home. The building's stained glass transoms, original fireplaces, and winding staircase reflect the artistry and Victorian stylings of designer Frederick B. White. Currently asking $4.795 million, it's a house in one of the city's most beloved neighborhoods with plenty of room for living, and it rings in at far less than the average luxury condominium, where you probably wouldn't even get a sunken garden and a magical third-floor terrace.
Gorgeous townhouse tour, this way

Updated looks for COOKFOX’s Domino Sugar building, Williamsburg’s will-be tallest

A previous rendering (left) and new rendering (right) of 1 South First via DBOX for Two Trees Management

October 19, 2018

Updated looks for COOKFOX’s Domino Sugar building, Williamsburg’s will-be tallest

By Devin Gannon

Fully above ground, the second tower to rise at the massive Domino Sugar site has a pair of new renderings. Designed by COOKFOX Architects, 1 South First (previously 260 Kent Avenue) is a 42-story mixed-use tower on the Williamsburg waterfront development, which was formerly home to the sugar manufacturing facility. When 1 South First opens next fall, it will join already opened 325 Kent Avenue and Domino Park, all developed by Two Trees Management.
See them here

To kick off Halloween weekend, watch NYC architects face off in a pumpkin-carving contest

Bjarke Ingels Group’s pumpkin tower from 2017; photo by Daniel Cole for Center for Architecture

October 19, 2018

To kick off Halloween weekend, watch NYC architects face off in a pumpkin-carving contest

By Devin Gannon

Don't expect to see typical Jack-o'-lanterns at the Center for Architecture's pumpkin-carving event this Halloween. On Oct. 26, 20 New York City-based architecture firms will face off at Pumpkitecture!, the center's third annual competition, which tests the ability of architects to create amazing designs across any medium (ie: a round, orange gourd). Attendees can watch the architects live-carve inventive structures and vote for the People's Pumpkin.
More on the gourds

October 18, 2018

Style icon Beatrix Ost’s $4M Hotel Des Artistes duplex is just as fabulous as you’d imagine

By Annie Doge

Designed as an artist's cooperative apartment building and the largest "studio" building in the city, the Hotel Des Artistes at 1 West 67th Street on the Upper West Side is one of NYC's most famous and illustrious buildings. As one of a constellation of style stars in Ari Seth Cohen's "Advanced Style" universe, former model, artist and muse to fashionistas of all ages Beatrix Ost is beloved for her perfect balance of creativity, confidence and cool. In a rare confluence of New York City fabulousness, the apartment Ost has shared with her husband, Ludwig Kuttner, since 2006 is on the market for $4 million–and the offbeat but ridiculously stylish space is every bit what we'd expect.
Take the tour

October 18, 2018

‘Real Housewife’ Jill Zarin prepares to downsize, lists Upper East Side condo for $3.3M

By Annie Doge

After her late husband, Bobby Zarin, passed away earlier this year, original "Real Housewives of New York" cast member Jill Zarin has put her Upper East Side condo on the market for $3.3 million, after living there for 18 years. Since her daughter is also out of the house, she told Forbes, "it's time for a change of scenery," which likely be warmer weather since she added, "Since I love tennis, I want to spend more time in a climate that is suited for it." Likely in anticipation of selling, Jill renovated the three-bedroom apartment at 401 East 60th Street less than a year ago, working with designers at Schoeller + Darling on a contemporary makeover.
Check it out

October 17, 2018

PHOTOS: See how the Statue of Liberty’s new museum is shaping up

By Devin Gannon

With the construction of the new Statue of Liberty Museum in its final stages, 6sqft on Tuesday toured the 26,000-square-foot site and its landscaped rooftop. This is the first ground-up building overseen by the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, the nonprofit which has raised $100 million in private funds for the project. Designed by FXCollaborative with exhibits created by ESI Design, the angular-shaped museum will feature three immersive gallery spaces with one wing showcasing the Statue of Liberty's original torch and the iconic monument framed behind it through floor-to-ceiling glass.
See its progress

1940s Upper East Side Modernist mansion gets a price chop to $35M

By Michelle Cohen

Known as the Sherman Fairchild Mansion, the modern-fronted townhouse at 17 East 65th Street is one of those New York City sights that might cause you to do a double-take in the middle of an otherwise sedate Upper East Side sidewalk. The current façade of this five-story home was designed by William Hamby and George Nelson in 1940 for aviation pioneer/inventor Sherman Fairchild. Well-known architect Michael Graves was commissioned to design yet another facade for the home in 1979, but that version was never built. The 25-foot-wide, 9,440 square-foot modern townhouse has been on and off the market since 2014, beginning last year at $40 million. Now, this unique townhouse has engineered yet another re-debut with a discount, asking $35M.
Have another look inside

October 16, 2018

This $8.8M Park Slope limestone beauty was in ‘Boardwalk Empire’ and ‘The Age of Innocence’

By Michelle Cohen

Even in a neighborhood of grand and spectacular homes, 108 8th Avenue is a standout. The Park Slope townhouse has the scale and level of stunning historic detail that is, as the listing boasts, rarely found in a private home. It is also quietly possessed of 21st-century luxuries like central air and meticulously tended outdoor spaces, making it an even rarer gem that's now on the market for the first time in decades, asking $$8.8 million. Built in 1900, this limestone-clad mansion has a wealth of historic details like filigreed mahogany woodwork, original wood floors, delicately carved mantels and stained glass from world-renowned artists. Martin Scorcese's "The Age of Innocence" and HBO's "Boardwalk Empire" have made use of this opulent home to capture the essence of gracious living from a bygone era.
Take the grand tour

October 15, 2018

The Village’s beloved pink townhouse lists as an $11M fixer-upper

By Michelle Cohen

Often noted for its unusual studio window and bright coral hue, the five-story townhouse at 114 Waverly Place was built in 1826 as part of a row of nine houses constructed for Thomas R. Mercein, who was at the time city comptroller and president of New York Equitable Fire Insurance Company. A dramatic overhaul in 1920 designed by William Sanger for portrait painter Murray P. Bewley is responsible for the building's quirkier design elements, which are credited to a German Expressionist style known as Jugendstil, a mix of English Art Nouveau and Japanese applied arts. This unusual Village house is now on the market for $11 million–with a few caveats.
Check it out

How a Greenwich Village brownstone became known as the ‘House of Death’

Photo of 14 West 10th Street via Wikimedia; Photo of Mark Twain via Wikimedia

October 12, 2018

How a Greenwich Village brownstone became known as the ‘House of Death’

By Devin Gannon

Despite its picturesque exterior, the building at 14 West 10th Street in Greenwich Village has a not-so-cute history. Since being constructed in the 1850s near the start of the Civil War, 22 people have died in the home, referred to as the House of Death. And as the New York Post reported, some of their spirits allegedly have never left. Residents have reported sightings of the spirit of Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain, who lived at the building between 1900 and 1901, and other bone-chilling ghosts who have haunted the Greenwich Village block for over a century.
More on the haunted home here

October 12, 2018

Marvel Architects reveal condo conversion of 200-year-old Nolita school

By Devin Gannon

Marvel Architects has completed its school-to-condo conversion in Nolita, bringing seven condos and one private townhouse to the former site of the Old St. Patrick's School on Prince Street. The project restored the facade of the four-story building, which was built in 1826, as well as its dormer windows and arched doorways. Because the interiors of the building, dubbed the Residences at Prince, were not landmarked, the architects were able to add new modern elements like steel columns and white oak floors while retaining original brick walls and roof timbers.
See it here

October 11, 2018

$8M mansion is a ‘waterfront Mediterranean villa’ in Queens

By Michelle Cohen

On the gilded coast of Queens along the East River in Beechhurst, just north of Whitestone, this 10,000-square-foot manse is asking $7.988 million. At the end of a quiet waterfront street where you might find an angler's retreat, behold instead this Mediterranean-style villa complete with an elevator, a four-car garage, a Florida room, a 20-foot mahogany foyer, a magnificent crystal chandelier, a fabulous pool, a dock for a 60-foot boat and a full outdoor kitchen. All in a gated community, natch. Did we forget the gazebo?
Take a fascinating $8M tour

October 10, 2018

Get a peek at the new sculpture garden going up next to Zaha Hadid’s High Line condo

By Michelle Cohen

Back in May 6sqft reported on plans for the 15 new gallery spaces in the works next to the Zaha Hadid-designed condo at 520 West 28th Street along the High Line, with the Paul Kasmin Gallery to anchor the project, which will expand into a 5,000-square-foot space with a sculpture garden designed by Future Green on its roof. With the official opening of the new building and inaugural exhibitions of works by Walton Ford and Joel Shapiro come new photos of the gallery and of the sculpture garden being installed.
More photos this way

Architect Richard Meier steps down following sexual harassment allegations

Photo via Richard Meier & Partners Architects

October 9, 2018

Architect Richard Meier steps down following sexual harassment allegations

By Devin Gannon

Famed architect Richard Meier is stepping down from his eponymous architecture firm following sexual harassment allegations made earlier this year, his office announced on Tuesday. According to a press release from Richard Meier & Partners Architects, Meier will "step back from day-to-day activities and support the leadership transition of the firm he founded in 1963." In March, five women accused Meier of sexual harassment and said he groped them, exposed himself, and other similar inappropriate incidents, the New York Times first reported.
More here

Architecture And Design

October 9, 2018

1823 Greek Revival manor on the Hudson offers life the way it used to be for $1.7M

By Michelle Cohen

On the Hudson River in Athens, N.Y., the grounds of this 1823 Greek Revival manor touch the water's edge, with 350 feet of rare riparian (riverbank) rights included. In pristine condition and surrounded by park-like grounds and gardens, this fine example of timeless architecture, asking $1.7 million, offers a chance to remember a past era in a home equipped for modern living (h/t CIRCA).
Take the grand historic tour

New renderings show Vornado’s Pompidou Center-like office plans for Chelsea

260 Eleventh Avenue expansion (Vornado Realty Trust)

October 5, 2018

New renderings show Vornado’s Pompidou Center-like office plans for Chelsea

By Michelle Cohen

A high-tech future awaits the 235,000-square-foot building at 260 Eleventh Avenue that served as headquarters for the iconic Otis Elevator company from its construction in 1911 until the company's move to midtown 1974. For the site's next life, REIT Vornado Realty Trust plans to renovate and expand the property, which they purchased in 2015, for commercial tenants. Now, CityRealty reports, a trio of renderings from Vornado's latest investor report provide a peek at the planned design overhaul by British architect Richard Rogers. Evoking the "inside-out" structure of the Pompidou Center in Paris and the high-tech Lloyd's of London building, the new addition displays exposed structural and circulation systems and a multi-story atrium beneath glass-enclosed floors.
More Renderings this way

October 4, 2018

For $795,000, live out your ‘Lord of the Rings’ fantasies in this energy-efficient hobbit house

By Dana Schulz

Lucky for him, this "Lord of the Rings" superfan is a civil engineer who works in construction, so when he had the urge to build his very own hobbit house in the Dutchess County town of Pawling, it wasn't just a pipe dream. After spending more than six years constructing the residence, and even building it to Passive House standards, Jim Castigan has put the home on the market for $795,000, according to Gothamist. In addition to being built right into a hillside, the home shares other details with its Tolkien inspiration BagEnd, such as faux circular door and geometric patterns etched into the interior concrete.
Get the scoop

October 4, 2018

10 of NYC’s most impressive Terra-cotta buildings

By Lucie Levine

Terra-cotta, Latin for "fired earth," is an ancient building material, made of baked clay, first used throughout early civilizations in Greece, Egypt, China the Indus Valley. In more modern times, architects realized that "fired earth" actually acts as a fire-deterrent. In the age of the skyscraper, terra-cotta became a sought-after fire-proof skin for the steel skeletons of New York’s tallest buildings. In the early part of the 20th century, the City’s most iconic structures were decked out in terracotta. You’ll find terra-cotta on famous facades from the Flatiron to the Plaza, but the material often flies under the radar of pedestrians and architecture buffs alike because it can mimic other materials, like cast-iron or carved wood. Now, this long-underappreciated material is getting its due. On October 24th, the Historic Districts Council will present its annual Landmarks Lion Award to the terra-cotta firms Boston Valley Terra Cotta and Gladding, McBean, which work to keep terra-cotta alive worldwide, and to the preservation organization Friends of Terra Cotta, which has worked to preserve New York’s architectural terra-cotta since 1981. The ceremony will take place at Grand Central’s Oyster Bar, under the magnificent Guastavino terra-cotta ceiling recently restored by Boston Valley Terra Cotta. Fired up about finding “fired earth” around town? Here are 10 of the most impressive examples of New York terra-cotta!
Learn more about New York's Terra Cotta Treasures

October 2, 2018

Renderings revealed for $2B revamp of St. John’s Terminal in Hudson Square

By Devin Gannon

Oxford Properties Group this week unveiled the first renderings of its project to transform an old freight terminal in Hudson Square into a 12-story office building. The Canadian developer bought a section of the St. John's Terminal site, located at 550 Washington Street, in January for $700 million from Atlas Capital and Westbrook Partners. Oxford Properties then tapped COOKFOX Architects to design a 1.3 million square foot 12-story office complex. New renderings reveal a modern structure with floor-to-ceiling windows, planted roofs and terraces, 100,000 square-foot floor plates, and waterfront access.
See the design

Lower East Side Coastal Resiliency Project will get fast-tracked with an updated design

A previous rendering by Bjarke Ingels Group of ESCR, courtesy of the Mayor’s Office of Recovery & Resiliency

October 1, 2018

Lower East Side Coastal Resiliency Project will get fast-tracked with an updated design

By Dana Schulz

In July, Rebuild by Design released an RFP for a stewardship partner for the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project (ESCR), a reconstruction of the 64-acre, 1.5-mile East River Park, a flood protection system conceived in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. ESCR is the first of three phases in Bjarke Ingels' Big U, a series of self-sufficient flood zones stretching from West 57th to East 42nd Streets. Under the city's new mandate, construction on ESCR, which spans the loop from Montgomery Street on the Lower East Side to East 25th Street, will begin in spring 2020. Roughly 70 percent of the design will be updated, allowing flood protection to be in place one year earlier, by summer 2023, with the entire project wrapping up six months sooner. According to a press release from the Mayor's Office, the updated $1.45 billion design will also "raise the entire East River Park, with the flood wall at the water’s edge integrated with the bulkhead and esplanade that does not obstruct views to the water."
More details on the updated plan

Bjarke Ingels is tapped for his first residential project in Brooklyn

Courtesy of LIVWRK; Photo of Ingels via Wikimedia

September 28, 2018

Bjarke Ingels is tapped for his first residential project in Brooklyn

By Emily Nonko

Bjarke Ingels' architectural dominance of New York City is growing -- the Danish starchitect has got his first commission in Brooklyn, reports Crain's. Developer Aby Rosen tapped Ingels' firm Bjarke Ingels Group to draft plans for a large new apartment project on the banks of the Gowanus Canal. The site in question -- at 175-225 3rd Street, pictured in the aerial shot above -- is currently a parking lot.
Read more details