Architecture And Design

REVEALED: New renderings of Domino Sugar Factory’s waterfront park and esplanade
April 5, 2018

REVEALED: New renderings of Domino Sugar Factory’s waterfront park and esplanade

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Almost a year to date since the first renderings were revealed for Domino Park, the 11-acre park and waterfront esplanade that will anchor the three-million-square-foot Williamsburg mega-development at the Domino Sugar Factory site, a new batch of views has been released by developer Two Trees, and they showcase everything from an urban "beach" to a better look at how preserved artifacts from the historic factory will be incorporated throughout. Designed by James Corner Field Operations (of the High Line fame), the park is scheduled to open this summer, ahead of most of the buildings.
All the renderings and details ahead
‘Pixel Facade’ concept creates flexible, green office towers designed for millennials

Image © Mengyi Fan

April 5, 2018

‘Pixel Facade’ concept creates flexible, green office towers designed for millennials

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Pixel architects, Oliver Thomas and Keyan Rahimzadeh, designed “pixel façade,” a flexible biophilic façade system for the next generation of offices, acknowledging millennials strong desire to be happy in a conducive, natural workplace. Inspired by a Metals in Construction competition challenge, the duo designed a hypothetical building in Williamsburg with a strong connection to nature to house tech startups. Thomas told designboom: “the idea was to propose conceptual but realistic ideas for built products for the future.”
Find out more
Renderings revealed for Annabelle Selldorf’s $160M Frick Collection expansion
April 5, 2018

Renderings revealed for Annabelle Selldorf’s $160M Frick Collection expansion

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The Frick Collection has unveiled its $160 million Selldorf Architects-designed upgrade and expansion, which will open up the private living quarters of Henry Clay Frick's original 1914 home to the public for the first time. As the New York Times explained, the renderings illustrate a plan to expand the existing building's second level, add two set-back stories above the music room, and an addition behind the library that will match its seven-story height. These will house a 220-seat underground auditorium, an education center with classrooms, in addition to a renovated lobby and larger museum shop.
More details and renderings ahead
Take a tour of artist Cj Hendry’s ‘MONOCHROME’ rooms in a Brooklyn warehouse
April 4, 2018

Take a tour of artist Cj Hendry’s ‘MONOCHROME’ rooms in a Brooklyn warehouse

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Australian-born, New York-based hyperrealist artist Cj Hendry--whose past work, which is often sold out through Instagram and has been quite dominated by blacks, whites and grays--created an amazing color exploration in a 22,000-square-foot Brooklyn warehouse. In each of the seven single-colored rooms, the self-described “fashion fangirl” Hendry’s MONOCHROME exhibit creates a color sensory experience centered around her new images of crumpled Pantone swatches. Everything from the walls to floors to clothes hanging to plants are the same color. It looks as if she was inspired by the 2018 Pantone color of the year, ultraviolet, for the bathroom. The rooms are built with lego-like Everblocks, creating somewhat prison-like walls in the most colorful jail ever.
Take a tour
Sting is reportedly renting at Zaha Hadid’s High Line-hugging condo

Photo © Hufton+Crow; Sting photo via Wiki Commons

April 4, 2018

Sting is reportedly renting at Zaha Hadid’s High Line-hugging condo

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Just six months after selling his huge Central Park West penthouse for $50 million, Sting has reportedly moved on to an equally swanky residence. According to Page Six, he and wife Trudie Styler are "renting a large terraced apartment on a high floor" in Zaha Hadid's recently-completed, curvy, High Line-hugging condo at 520 West 28th Street in Chelsea. Though his former home was in a classic Robert A.M. Stern-designed building (he must really have a thing for starchitects), it was decked out in an uber-contemporary style, so it makes sense that he'd want to move over to one of the city's most futuristic buildings.
READ MORE
David Adjaye’s first New York skyscraper begins its 800-foot rise in the Financial District
April 4, 2018

David Adjaye’s first New York skyscraper begins its 800-foot rise in the Financial District

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Four months after revealing renderings for his first NYC skyscraper, esteemed British architect David Adjaye is finally seeing the project get off the ground. CityRealty reports that construction at 130 William Street has reached street level, with a red kangaroo crane in the ready to begin its nearly 800-foot-tall rise. The Ghana-born architect, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and named one of TIME’s 2017 most influential people, has said the condo tower was inspired by the historic masonry architecture of the Financial District.
Find out more ahead
ODA’s proposed Chinatown ‘Dragon Gate’ pavilion interweaves tradition and modernity
April 4, 2018

ODA’s proposed Chinatown ‘Dragon Gate’ pavilion interweaves tradition and modernity

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As many other New York City ethnic neighborhoods have diminished or disappeared over the years, Chinatown continues to grow and prosper. Roughly bound by borders at Hester and Worth Streets to the north and south, and Essex and Broadway to the east and west, Chinatown is home to largest ethnic Chinese population outside of Asia. With this in mind, architecture firm ODA New York, known for prioritizing people over architecture, has proposed a unique and beautiful new gateway to the neighborhood at the Canal Street Triangle. ODA’s typical designs can be a bit boxy, constructed with heavier materials, but there is always a lightness to them, whether through the infusion of glass, archways, or greenery. Combining new technology with traditional Chinese symbolism, “Dragon Gate” will delicately weave the duality of Chinatown’s old and new into a strong structure, both in symbolism and material.
More renderings and details ahead
Bjarke Ingels’ Nomad office tower reveals itself and nearly doubles in height

Rendering via BIG Architects

April 3, 2018

Bjarke Ingels’ Nomad office tower reveals itself and nearly doubles in height

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Despite switching architects from Moshe Safdie to Bjarke Ingels of BIG Architects in September, HFZ Capital Group is still on track with its office tower planned for 3 West 29th Street. New renderings obtained by YIMBY reveal a much taller building than filed in September, which called for 33 or 34 stories. The designs are showing a roughly 60-story tower, officially dubbed "29th and 5th," planned for the Nomad neighborhood, with a footprint of potentially 600,000 square feet.
Take a look
Daniel Libeskind’s first New York City building may be affordable senior housing in Bed-Stuy

Rendering of the Sumner Houses Senior Building, courtesy of the Architect, Studio Libeskind (via NYC Housing Authority)

March 29, 2018

Daniel Libeskind’s first New York City building may be affordable senior housing in Bed-Stuy

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Though he has called New York home for decades, noted Polish-American architect Daniel Libeskind has yet to see a NYC building to completion. But it appears that may soon change, as CityRealty reports that his first ground-up building will be a 197-unit affordable housing project on Site 2 of the Sumner Houses in Bed-Stuy. A January press release announcing the selection of the project’s developers credits Studio Daniel Libeskind as the designer of the 10-story building-to-be, and a rendering shows an angular white-colored building done in the firm’s signature un-orthogonal style.
Find out more
A baronial co-op belonging to designer Francine Coffey asks $2.25M on the Upper East Side
March 27, 2018

A baronial co-op belonging to designer Francine Coffey asks $2.25M on the Upper East Side

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Designer Francine Coffey brought an elegant aestheitc--inspired by American history and the Federal era--to her co-op spanning the full parlor floor of the Upper East Side mansion at 36 East 69th Street. The prewar, baronial-feeling home spans 1,425 square feet, all of it dripping with lavish details that include fireplaces, French doors, wood moldings and decorative ceilings. Coffey has listed the grand spread for a grand total of $2.25 million.
Go inside
Brooklyn Heights wood-frame, once Truman Capote’s muse, still on the market a year later for $2M less
March 27, 2018

Brooklyn Heights wood-frame, once Truman Capote’s muse, still on the market a year later for $2M less

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The  wood-frame house at 13 Pineapple Street in Brooklyn Heights was previously noted by 6sqft for having inspired Truman Capote's words about the neighborhood in 1959: "Cheerfully austere, as elegant and other-era as formal calling cards, these houses bespeak an age of able servants and solid fireside ease; of horses in musical harness," wrote the author, referencing the 1830 Federal-era home around the corner from his own. The house, owned by the same couple for 26 years, hit the market in January of 2017 for $10.5 million. After a new price chop, the home's second in just over a year, the grey-shingled muse is asking $8.4 million.
Have another look
Ahead of next year’s opening, TWA Hotel’s second tower tops out

Photo by Max Touhey

March 26, 2018

Ahead of next year’s opening, TWA Hotel’s second tower tops out

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MCR and Morse Development's repurposing of Eero Saarinen's historic TWA Flight Center at JFK Airport into a hotel, event space and dining destination continues to move full speed ahead. The second crescent-shaped tower of the TWA Hotel officially topped out this week, nearly a year ahead of its spring 2019 opening. The hotel will contain 505 rooms, a rooftop pool, an observation deck, eight bars and restaurants and 50,000 square feet of event space. Saarinen's landmarked TWA Flight Center terminal building will serve as the hotel lobby, a 200,000-square-foot space with retail, restaurants and bars.
Find out more
New looks at Manhattan West and Empire Station developments show the future Midtown West

Via Visualhouse

March 26, 2018

New looks at Manhattan West and Empire Station developments show the future Midtown West

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Imagine a future Midtown West with state-of-the-art retail and office towers, an abundance of open green space and an attractive, efficient transit station. While plans to bring all of that is in the works, it could be years away from becoming reality. As CityRealty learned, one of the neighborhood's busiest developers, Brookfield Properties, is giving us a preview of what the area will eventually look like, with new renderings for its expansive, six-building Manhattan West project. Plus, the developer also created a CGI video that provides a virtual tour of the Empire Station, the hall currently undergoing renovations at Penn Station.
Take a peek
Brooklyn architect lists her modern Connecticut retreat for $650K
March 23, 2018

Brooklyn architect lists her modern Connecticut retreat for $650K

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Lynn Gaffney, a LEED accredited and certified Passive House designer based in Brooklyn, is selling her 2,500-square-foot, three-bedroom Sharon, Connecticut weekend retreat named “The Bog” for $650,000. Gaffney has a lot of emotion attached to her home. “It's very personally designed. My husband was my client and my friend built this house.” She particularly loves the space between the garage and the house, “There’s a gateway where the two buildings almost touch and it creates the most wonderful courtyard. Conceptually, the idea was to build a metal shell toward the road and create an envelope for a private warm house based on the garden.” She describes the metal shell as a modern "interpretation of an agrarian shed."
Check it all out
Original Park Slope ‘brownstoner’ lists his Victorian wonderland for $4M
March 20, 2018

Original Park Slope ‘brownstoner’ lists his Victorian wonderland for $4M

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When Clem Labine bought the townhouse at 199 Berkeley Place in Park Slope for $25,000 back in 1966, Brooklyn was a very different place. Among the original wave of "brownstoners" who bought dilapidated townhomes to give themselves more living space and put years of sweat equity into restoring them, Labine, now 81, went on to found Old-House Journal (“Restoration and Maintenance Techniques for the Antique House”), and live in the painstakingly-preserved home for over 50 years (h/t Brownstoner). The Neo-Grec-style house was was built in 1883 along with 10 other homes. A much-subdivided rental SRO when Labine rescued it, it's now an impressive two-family home listed for $3.895 million.
Gaze at this well-preserved brownstone treasure
Noho’s Wormhole apartment brings ‘Batman’s cave’ to a Second Empire space
March 19, 2018

Noho’s Wormhole apartment brings ‘Batman’s cave’ to a Second Empire space

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The multidisciplinary architecture/design firm Dash Marshall does it again. Before they evoked water with their “Raft Loft” in Tribeca, and now they turn to the soil with the “Wormhole” in Noho, which takes inspiration from dark tunnels underground that emerge into the bright sun. Inspired by science fiction, like "2001: Space Odyssey," and clients who were amenable to the stories they create, Ritchie Yao, one of the firms’ co-founders explained, “We built a Wormhole above Bond Street by invading a historic structure with futuristic bits to create a world within a world: new inside of old, dark inside of bright, minimal inside of maximal.”
See the whole place
On the first day of Spring, NYC will reopen five parks after $24M in renovations

Photo of Arrochar Playground via Department of Parks and Recreation

March 19, 2018

On the first day of Spring, NYC will reopen five parks after $24M in renovations

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Tomorrow, March 20th, the first day of spring--otherwise known as the day before another half-a-foot of snow gets dumped on us--NYC will celebrate five park re-openings, one for each borough (h/t amNY). The Department of Parks and Recreation’s ribbon cuttings represent a total of $23.9 million in capital improvements ranging from park landscaping, new play areas, exercise spaces for adults, water features, and new comfort stations. The parks are: Staten Island's Arrochar Playground; Queens' Grassmere Playground; Brooklyn's Hilltop Playground; the Bronx's Lyons Square Playground; and Manhattan's Martin Luther King, Jr. Playground in Harlem.
All the details
New photos show Zaha Hadid’s stunning 520 West 28th Street in all its completed glory

Photo: © Hufton+Crow

March 16, 2018

New photos show Zaha Hadid’s stunning 520 West 28th Street in all its completed glory

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6sqft last brought you photos of the amazing amenity spaces at Zaha Hadid's first New York City project, 520 West 28th Street. Now, Archinect reports that Zaha Hadid Architects have released new Hufton + Crow exterior facade images of the late starchitect's recently-completed High Line-adjacent condominium development.
More photos, this way
In Tribeca’s ‘Raft Loft’ a hanging, architectural staircase joins two apartments
March 15, 2018

In Tribeca’s ‘Raft Loft’ a hanging, architectural staircase joins two apartments

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Stairs can be purely functional and totally uninspiring or they can be the stuff dreams are made of (just ask MC Escher). Dash Marshall, a multi-disciplinary architecture and design studio based on the Lower East Side, designed a stunning staircase made of brass and stainless and blackened steel, which rises from its brick foundation and is suspended from the second-floor ceiling in order to join two units in Tribeca (h/t Dezeen). By suspending the stairs from the second floor, that freed up a lot of space below in the living room, giving the firm even more space to work their renovation magic.
See the whole place and hear from the architects
Crown Heights’ oldest house debuts as a condo conversion, with two units each priced over $2M
March 15, 2018

Crown Heights’ oldest house debuts as a condo conversion, with two units each priced over $2M

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Crown Heights oldest home--long considered a neighborhood eyesore--has undergone a complete transformation. The Susan B. Elkins House is a circa-1850s wood frame at 1375 Dean Street, and the only home in the neighborhood that dates back to when the area was rural. In later years, the individual landmark fell into serious disrepair, only to be purchased in 2014 for a condo conversion. Now it's ready for residents after a complete and total renovation overseen by nC2 Architecture and Komaru Enterprises. The house has been split into four duplex units, ranging from 2,000 to 2,600 square feet. Two have just hit the market, with the eye-popping price tags of $2.3 and $2.7 million.
The interior was gutted
Design contest winner would turn Park Avenue into a concert venue and basketball court

Rendering of “Park Park” courtesy of Maison

March 14, 2018

Design contest winner would turn Park Avenue into a concert venue and basketball court

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Last month, Fisher Brothers unveiled the 17 finalists for its “Beyond the Centerline” design competition, a call for creative and ambitious ideas for how to transform Park Avenue's traffic medians between 46th and 57th Streets. Proposals called for everything from an Alpine mountain to a High Line-esque walkway to a massive aquarium, but in the end, it was the "Park Park" entry that the jury selected as the winner. This proposal, courtesy of Ben Meade, Anthony Stahl, and Alexia Beghi of design firm Maison, transforms the iconic thoroughfare via a series of raised platforms that hold a concert space, art galleries, gardens, a restaurant, and a basketball court, "intended to inject new energy into the currently staid Park Avenue landscape."
More details and the runner up
Nomad’s current tallest tower tops out: See new photos
March 13, 2018

Nomad’s current tallest tower tops out: See new photos

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We’ve watched the tower-to-be at 277 Fifth Avenue rising skyward over the past year on its way to a heady– though brief–moment as the tallest spire in Nomad, and now, CityRealty reports, the 55-story building is now topped out at 663 feet. Designed by Rafael Viñoly, the building's understated façade consists of striped masonry bands with four open-air clerestories offering some of the loftiest private outdoor spaces in Manhattan. Though the new tower may only be the 79th tallest in the city, its central Fifth Avenue location will grant its residents singular wide-angle views across the Manhattan skyline and beyond. Photoblogger Field Condition helped to celebrate the topping-out by capturing these impressive views from within the tower's frame.
See new photos and find out what's to come
MTA $1M Genius Transit Challenge winners suggest faster trains and robot workers to fix subway hell
March 12, 2018

MTA $1M Genius Transit Challenge winners suggest faster trains and robot workers to fix subway hell

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The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has announced the winners of the agency's MTA Genius Transit Challenge; eight winners will split a $1 million prize for their ideas and concepts on how to upgrade the city's creaky and complaint-riddled subway system. The contest is part of an effort to bring the subway's capacity and reliability up to speed. The challenge is a joint venture between the MTA and Partnership for New York City. The challenge received over 400 submissions from around the world.
Check out these genius ideas
Versailles-inspired Long Island mansion lists for $60M, Baccarat crystal chandeliers included
March 9, 2018

Versailles-inspired Long Island mansion lists for $60M, Baccarat crystal chandeliers included

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This palatial Long Island mansion has been named Maison des Jardins--or, "house of gardens"--and it's been closely modeled after the Palace of Versailles. According to Mansion Global, entrepreneur Raphael Yakoby "developed a love for everything French when he started his business there." And so, he spent $3.25 million in 2010 for an 8.4-acre plot in Old Brookville and started building his dream palace. It really looks like something out of a dream, with 22-foot-high iron gates, gardens, and courtyards. Inside, over 22,000 square feet, there are eight bedrooms, a grand ballroom, $2.5 million of Baccarat crystal chandeliers, six 19-century marble fireplaces, and imported furniture, fixtures, and fabrics.
You've gotta see this
INTERVIEW: AphroChic’s founders pursue a passion for storytelling, design, and African American history

Photos © AphroChic/Patrick Cline

March 8, 2018

INTERVIEW: AphroChic’s founders pursue a passion for storytelling, design, and African American history

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Photos © AphroChic/Patrick Cline "Modern.Soulful.Style." This is the term coined by Crown Heights-based husband-and-wife team Jeanine Hays and Bryan Mason when they started their home design blog AphroChic in 2007. These three little words really must have resonated; just over a decade later, Jeanine and Bryan have taken the design world by storm, starting their own product line (which includes their "Brooklyn in Color" paint collection, the first paint line by an African-American design brand), designing interiors, authoring the book "REMIX: Decorating with Culture, Objects and Soul," and hosting HGTV's "Sneak Peek with AphroChic." 6sqft recently chatted with Jeanine and Bryan to learn how they went from careers in criminal justice to interior design, how African American influences factor into their work, and what's to come from this unique couple who "embraces culture and the unique admixture of the traditional and the contemporary that helps to define us all."
Our interview with AfroChic
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