Architecture And Design

This gorgeous four-story townhouse in the East Village was designed by Redtop Architects for a young, growing family. The firm's visionary design combines elements of mid-century modern appeal with contemporary style for a unique look and feel that radically transformed this townhouse from drab to fab. The foundation for the home's interior spaces is designed around an open central channel connected by a wide steel staircase that provides ample natural light and space–a modern interpretation of the split-level home.
See it all, right this way

January 19, 2016

Sebastian Errazuriz’s Latest Creation Is a Cabinet That Functions As a Kaleidoscope

By Ana Lisa Alperovich

"The Space Between the Void (Kaleidoscope Cabinet)" is yet another attempt by New Yorker Sebastian Errazuriz to deconstruct the paradigm that a cabinet should simply be a box with two doors. 6sqft previously featured his Wave Cabinet and his Magistral Chest, but the psychedelic design of his latest creation deserves a special mention of its own. The Kaleidoscope Cabinet consists of a reflective storage unit that visually multiplies whatever is placed inside it, and it even has a peephole that functions just like its namesake children's toy.
Learn more about this mind-bending cabinet

Loophole Allows Developers to Build ‘Skyscrapers on Stilts’ to Give Residents Ocean Views

Image by CityRealty

January 18, 2016

Loophole Allows Developers to Build ‘Skyscrapers on Stilts’ to Give Residents Ocean Views

There has been plenty of heated discussion over the city’s latest supertall towers such as 432 Park Avenue, 111 West 57th Street, and 225 West 57th Street; they block light, alter the skyline and cast long shadows, for example. To add fuel to the fire, Crain’s reports today on a recent discovery in developers’ attempts to construct the tallest towers possible–with views above 700 feet that not only stretch south over Manhattan, but reach to the open Atlantic Ocean 14 miles in the distance. Currently, regulations govern how many square feet of livable space can be built on a development plot, which limits the height to which residential towers can rise. But rather than squandering those square feet on lower, less-in-demand floors, developers are vertically expanding the mechanical spaces used in their buildings–which don't count toward the square footage allotment. This allows them to start their apartments higher up, essentially "putting a skyscraper on stilts."
Start higher, build taller

January 15, 2016

Fox and News Corp. Ditch Plans to Move Into 2 World Trade Center

By Diane Pham

Big news on the 2 World Trade Center front. After several months of negotiation and hashing out design plans, News Corp. and 21st Century Fox Inc. have decided not to move into the new tower. The Post first broke the news, reporting that the media companies will remain at their Midtown headquarters at 1211 and 1185 Sixth Avenue where they currently have a lease in effect until 2020. "After much careful consideration we have decided to maintain our New York headquarters and other business operations. We have extension options that could continue our occupancy on Sixth Avenue through 2025,” the companies wrote in a joint statement. Sources added that the move would have been "a huge distraction for the companies' global operations."
FInd out more here

January 15, 2016

Get This Rusty ‘West Village’ Trashcan for a Mere $100 at Anthropologie

By Dana Schulz

Want to bring a piece of NYC nostalgia into your home? Look no further than this "handmade" pre-rusted trashcan, available for the very reasonable price of $99.95 (down from $148!) at Anthropologie. Benjamin Miller, former planning policy director for the city sanitation department, told DNAinfo that the "West Village Corrugated Can" resembles the metal trash receptacles the entire city used (i.e. not just the West Village) up until 1969. They were called "ash cans," as they collected the wood and coal used to heat homes at the time, and were certainly not trendy or valuable.
Is it worth $100?

January 15, 2016

Matchpoint Is a Tennis-Style Storage Solution

By Ana Lisa Alperovich

Planning to get organized in 2016? Well, we have a quirky storage solution that might help you get started. Taking inspiration from retro tennis aesthetics, Matchpoint acts like a wall's second skin. It's a place to hang anything from fruits to pens and even holds little hooks and shelves. Designed by Studio Balagan, the airy net structure will help you organize the flood of knick knacks you've been meaning to go through.
Learn more

January 15, 2016

Introducing Astoria’s Newest Rental Building: The ‘L’ @ 31st Drive

By Heather Cooper Vivares

Future Astoria renters, meet The "L" @ 31st Drive. Located on a sedate block at 23-36 31st Drive, the "L" is a brand-new 22-unit building with rentals ranging from $2,000/month studios to $3,200/month two-bedrooms. The design hewn by Gerald Caliendo Architects features a modern concrete and glass exterior rising five stories in height. Complementing its streamlined exterior, interiors boast floor-to-ceiling windows, light hardwood floors, clean white walls, and stainless steel appliances.
See more here

January 14, 2016

World Reaches 100 Supertall Skyscrapers With Completion of 432 Park Avenue

As of December 23, when the slender 1,396-foot-tall 432 Park Avenue condominium tower was officially pronounced complete by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) as the building was "partially habitable," it became the world’s 100th supertall skyscraper (h/t TRD), categorized as those at least 984 feet in height. In addition to being the world's tallest all-residential building, 432 Park Avenue is also the world's 14th-tallest building overall and the city’s seventh supertall skyscraper. In fact, New York has the second-highest number of supertalls on the planet.
Find out more about the world's tallest towers

Architecture And Design

January 14, 2016

Thing Industries’ Sacrificial Chair Replaces the Furniture That Gets ‘Covered in Crap’

Working and living in the big city lends itself to an extremely busy lifestyle that doesn't always allow time for more trivial chores like actually hanging your clothes in the closet. But that doesn't mean we want to prematurely dirty our beloved threads by throwing them on the floor. Designers Bridie Picot and Matt Smith of Thing Industries have the perfect solution with their Sacrificial Chair. It wasn't designed as a traditional chair (sorry folks you can't sit here), but instead to replace "that chair" that is "constantly covered in crap."
More here

January 13, 2016

See How Atelier & Co. Would Transform This 432 Park Unit Into a Palace in the Sky

432 Park Avenue recorded its first closing last week: a 4,000-square-foot, 35th-floor pad that sold for a cool $18.1 million. For the critics who find the supertower's minimalist exterior and Deborah Berke-designed interiors a bit too austere, take a peek at this layout designed by the classically-attuned firm of Atelier & Co. The unit's square footage and its north-, south-, and east-facing exposures are akin to the unit that closed last week. Raphel Viñoly/WSP Cantor Seinuk's structural tube design provides column-free layouts, allowing for flexible reconfiguration of interior spaces. For this 40th floor spread, Atelier nearly doubles the size of the master bedroom and removes the sitting room to create a vast living and dining area dissected by a grand and ornate bookcase.
See it all right here

Architecture And Design

January 13, 2016

Wireless and Beautiful Speaker-Cabinet Brings Design and Music Together

By Ondel Hylton and Heather Cooper Vivares

It's beautiful when two of our favorite things, like design and music, come together, and this innovative speaker-cabinet is the perfect combo. From Verona-based designer Paolo Cappello, the Caruso is what we like to call a conversation piece. It boasts a beautiful design in both its aesthetics and functionality, as it doubles as a wireless speaker system. The cabinet is adorned with a gramophone, accessed by your device via Bluetooth.
Get more info here

January 13, 2016

New Views of Robert A.M. Stern’s Limestone-Clad 70 Vestry Street

The Related Companies has launched the teaser website for its upcoming Tribeca condominium 70 Vestry Street. Related CEO Jeff Blau signed the purchase contract in December 2013 and closed on the six-parcel lot from Ponte Equities for $115.3 million in early 2014. Site excavation is already well underway, and new renderings of the Robert A.M. Stern-designed building have now surfaced. The project will pay homage to the neighborhood's distinctive warehouse architecture, and in true Stern fashion, will be clad in sumptuous French limestone.
More details ahead

January 12, 2016

New Renderings, Shape Shifts for Bjarke Ingels-Designed High Line Towers

New renderings have appeared via YIMBY for 76 Eleventh Avenue, the Bjarke Ingels-designed High Line-adjacent towers first revealed this past November. The planned project, developed by HFZ Capital with the goal of creating a "self contained kind of city," was expected to include a hotel, retail space, and around 300 luxury condos with prices to start at just below $4 million. The most noticeable changes from the earlier renderings, which showed the towers fitting together at an angle, show more space between the buildings, which now appear as more of a pair than two complementary parts of a "jigsaw-like" whole.
See what else has changed

January 12, 2016

Studiomama’s Metamorphic Wardrobe Transforms to Divide Your Space

This pastel and pale wood room divider by Danish designer Nina Tolstrup for Studiomama does at least two jobs, besides adding Scandi style to your room. It excels at closet duty, featuring a central hanging rail and ten drawers of varying sizes, but also functions as a room divider when its front doors are opened outward.
See more

January 12, 2016

Residential Projects Surface Along the Astoria Waterfront Ahead of New Ferry Service

The Astoria waterfront is poised to become the city's next high-density residential enclave, with more than 4,000 apartments planned within the Astoria Cove and Hallets Point developments alone. Just to the south, and more modest in scale, a six-story, 65-unit condominium building is preparing to rise from a block-through site at 30-05 Vernon Boulevard. City records indicate 3005 Vernon BLVD Joint Venture LLC purchased the lot for $3 million in 2014, and filed demolition permits in November to raze the existing one-story warehouse. Renderings provided by the building's architect, Young Kim of Tan Architect, show a white brick building with a glass curtain wall on its east- and river-facing elevations. As required by zoning, on-site parking is provided at ground level, and the garage roof will hold an expansive rooftop terrace. According to Young Kim, the development is moving forward and the team is in the process of filing building permits.
Find out more

January 12, 2016

See How 6 Columbus Circle Could Change the Central Park Skyline

Last Friday, a marketing brochure was released promoting the sale of 6 Columbus Circle, an 88-room boutique hotel that exudes a modernist '60s flair throughout its spaces. While the brick and limestone gem owned by the Pomeranc Group received an ungainly five-story addition in 2007, its ornate 58th Street facade survived intact–though now, its days may be numbered. The New York Observer reported last month that the owners have placed the building up for sale, tapping Cushman & Wakefield as exclusive marketers. With angled views of Central Park starting at less than 100 feet above street level, a source estimates the property could fetch a staggering $1,400 per buildable square foot, a pot of gold to developers' eyes. And the marketing brochure makes the possibilities very clear, conceptualizing a 700-foot-tall, mixed-use spire from the nimble, 42-foot-wide lot.
See how this could change the skyline

January 11, 2016

This $1.95M Mediterranean Revival Home in Historic Fieldston Holds Some Modern Surprises

The leafy, well-tended Fieldston Historic District–one of New York City's only privately owned neighborhoods–lies within the Bronx neighborhood of Riverdale. Here inside this 4,200-square-foot whitewashed stucco Mediterranean Revival home you'll find original 1901 details, modern, energy-efficient updates and at least five bedrooms–just twenty minutes from Lincoln Center. Altogether it's a mix of suburban quietude, townhouse grandeur and a New York City address, for $1.95 million. in addition to plenty of room on two stories for living and entertaining–plus outdoor space for gardening–there are a few 21st century surprises.
Take the tour

January 11, 2016

BONCHO: A Bike Poncho to Keep Your Legs and Feet Dry

The weather in New York can vary from sunny skies to downpours without notice, and most of us spend at least part, if not all, of our daily commute outside at the mercy of the elements. While the standard umbrella protects us from the rain when we're on foot, the bike riding community has continued to rely on plastic bags and oversized raincoats to stay dry, leaving their legs and feet exposed to the conditions. Thanks to VANMOOF and their new bike poncho design, cleverly named BONCHO, city cyclists are about to get a lot drier.
More on this clever product

January 11, 2016

Gramercy Park’s Luminaria Condo Conversion Lights Up in Preparation for Sales Launch

In anticipation of its official sales launch later this winter, Ben Shaoul's Magnum Real Estate Group has illuminated Luminaire, a 103-unit condominium-conversion at 385 First Avenue in downtown's Gramercy Park neighborhood. According to the marketing team, the cool-blue lighting scheme, specified by Magnum, is inspired by the building's floor-to-ceiling windows and sun-bathed units.
more here

January 11, 2016

First Look at the 331-Foot Sheepshead Bay Tower Set to Dwarf Its Neighbors

In Manhattan, much of Brooklyn, and parts of Queens like Long Island City, a 300-foot tower isn't even news. But out in the once-sleepy waterfront community of Sheepshead Bay, it's sure to get people talking. Last September, it was revealed that a joint venture between Muss Development and AvalonBay would be building a 30-story residential tower at 1501 Voorhies Avenue that would be four times taller than almost anything else in the area. Now, here's our first look at the large and rather glassy behemoth designed by Perkins Eastman Architects. According to revised building plans, the tower is two stories shorter than initially filed and has a height of 331 feet, 6 inches to the top of its rooftop mechanical bulkhead.
More details and renderings

January 10, 2016

Robert Kuster’s Hand Blown Glass Balloons Keep the House Party Going All Year

With the holidays behind us and the cold weather finally setting in, our next party seems farther away than we'd like to admit. With most of us our days spent either in our office or our apartment, why not invite the party into your living space with these vibrant hot glass balloons from artist Robert Kuster? Mr. Kuster started blowing glass as a second career, but has since achieved more success than most artisans do in their lifetime. His beautiful chandeliers currently hang in prestigious galleries, magnificent homes, hotels, upscale restaurants and public installations across the country, and now your New York apartment can be added to that list.
READ MORE

January 9, 2016

First Look at Lions Group’s New Residential Tower in Long Island City