Architecture And Design

At a public hearing yesterday the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved a plan drawn up by Platt Byard Dovell White Architects (PBDW) for Maefield Development to raise the historic 1913 Palace Theater 29 feet in order to accommodate expanded facilities and new retail space underneath. The decision isn't sitting well with preservationists, but the exterior of the theater was replaced in the early 1990s to make way for the 45-story adjacent DoubleTree hotel, and as the Wall Street Journal reports, the actual theater space is an interior landmark and the $2 billion redevelopment project will restore the decorated interior and add 10,000 square feet of theater facilities.
More on the history and future of the Palace Theater

The Most Important Towers Shaping Central Park’s South Corridor, AKA Billionaires’ Row

Carter Uncut brings New York City’s development news under the critical eye of resident architecture critic Carter B. Horsley. This week Carter kicks off a nine-part series, “Skyline Wars,” which will examine the explosive and unprecedented supertall phenomenon that is transforming the city’s silhouette. To start, Carter zooms in on the biggest developments shaping the southern corridor of Central Park.

November 25, 2015

The Most Important Towers Shaping Central Park’s South Corridor, AKA Billionaires’ Row

By Carter B. Horsley

They did not come from outer space when they landed on our front yard while the NIMBY folk and the city’s planners and preservationists weren’t looking. Some are scrawny. Some are dressed like respectable oldsters. They’re the supertalls and they’re coming to a site near you.
read more here

November 24, 2015

New Architecture Competition Looks at Demolishing Buildings for the Production of Voids

These days, the architecture conversation in NYC is all about the tallest, slenderest, and priciest towers. But while everyone has their eye on what's going up, no one seems to be talking about what's coming down to make it happen. That's why this new design competition from the Storefront for Art and Architecture is so intriguing. "Taking Buildings Down" wants to expand the context of new development to include the entire life cycle of our built environment, and proposals are being accepted for "production of voids; the demolition of buildings, structures, and infrastructures; or the subtraction of objects and/or matter as a creative act."
READ MORE

Architecture And Design

November 24, 2015

Inside a Manhattan Couple’s Modern Woodland Escape Designed by Resolution: 4 Architecture

By Ana Lisa Alperovich

A city couple commissioned Resolution: 4 Architecture to come up with a site-specific home for escaping their busy Manhattan lives on the weekend. Located on a sloped wooded terrain in Kent, not too far from the city, the beautiful Lakeside House combines wooden interiors, classic furniture items and privileged views onto the mirrored waters of the Sagamore Lake. Although bright and airy inside, the modern dwelling is grounded and strong and relates to its site through the use of natural materials.
Learn more about this traditionally modern home

November 24, 2015

Photographer Barry Rosenthal Designs Home Accessories Inspired by Nature

NYC resident and photographer Barry Rosenthal is known for finding inspiration in the great outdoors (you may remember our spotlight on him here), and now he's taking that inspiration beyond the lens just in time for the gift-giving season. Mr. Rosenthal has recently released a series of home accessories, including a set of rocks glasses and decorative pillows, so you can bring the beauty of nature into your living space permanently, or share it with your friends and family.
Check out the products

November 24, 2015

Revealed: Zambrano Architectural Design’s Striking Yellow-Brick Rental in Central Harlem

By Ondel Hylton

Here's our first look at Dabar Development's eight-story, mixed-use project set to rise at 400 Lenox Avenue in central Harlem. The 40,000-square-foot development will anchor the southeast corner of West 130th Street and Lenox Avenue and will house 30 rental units, 2,000 square feet of retail at the ground level, and a second-floor community space for Pentacostal Faith Church, the owner of the project site. The design provided by Zambrano Architectural Design rises flush with the street wall and sports a distinctive yellow-brick cladding of "elongated artisanal bricks." According to Dawanna Williams, managing principal at Dabar, "the facade is inspired by the historical masonry context of the surrounding blocks of Harlem." The two uppermost levels are cutaway from the corner resulting in a large recreational terrace for residents. As per plans filed with the DOB this past summer, floors 2-6 will contain six apartments each, while floors 7 and 8 will provide four units apiece.
More on the project

REVEALED: Bjarke Ingels’ Brand New High Line Towers

Back in February it was revealed that HFZ Capital Group was in talks to bring a “monumental” new structure to a lot at 76 11th Avenue in the Meatpacking District right along the High Line. And between shortlisted architects Rem Koolhaas and Bjarke Ingels, in April the developer decided to move forward with starchitect-of-the-moment Ingels for the high-profile project. Now Yimby has our first look at the design that may rise atop the coveted site: two very angular, asymmetric towers measuring 402 and 302 feet, with 800,000 square feet for a hotel, retail, amenities and about 300 luxury condos.
see more renderings here

November 23, 2015

REVEALED: SHoP Architects’ Long Island City Waterfront Development

By Ondel Hylton

Here's our first peek at Simon Baron Development, Quadrum Global and CRE Development's three-tower Long Island City development slated to rise alongside the former Paragon Paint factory building at 45-40 Vernon Boulevard. Permits for the first tower were filed with the DOB back in June and detail a 28-story, 296-unit rental tower designed by SHoP Architects. The tower is part of a larger master plan that will revamp the eastern extents of the Anable Basin inlet with a waterfront esplanade and bring an additional 14-story residential tower at 45-24 Vernon Boulevard and an eight story building along 45th Road. As per the renderings provided by SHoP, the design of the two lower towers is consistent with many of the firm's recent New York City projects and feature copper-clad, orderly bases yielding to playful facades of angled projecting windows. The central tower partially rises from within the rear section of the Paragon Paint factory building and its form will be a sheer 300-foot glass prism creased along each elevation to better capture sweeping views of the East River and Manhattan skyline.
More details ahead

November 23, 2015

Katris: Tetris-Style Modular Furniture That Doubles as a Cat Scratcher

Cats could be considered the perfect city pet because unlike dogs these furry creatures don't require early morning walks or small blue poop bags. But they do come with their own set of challenges, and keeping your furniture scratch free is one of them. Enter Katris, a multi-use cat scratch post that doubles as a stylish piece of furniture. From the innovative design firm Papercut Labs, each of the five available pieces takes the familiar shape of a Tetris piece, and just like in the game, they easily fit together into different formations.
More on Katris here

November 22, 2015

Revealed: Boutique Condos Coming to 231 West 26th Street in Chelsea

By Ondel Hylton

Here's our first look at a seven-unit boutique condominium slated for a mid-block site at 231 West 26th Street in northern Chelsea. The developer is the New York-based Azimuth Development Group who plans to supersize the existing four-story building between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. Permits were filed and approved earlier this year and DOB signs have already been posted on the doorway. The 24-foot addition will blot out a few floors of lot-line windows of the adjacent co-op 233 West 26th Street, where a three-bedroom home is on the market for $4.5 million, a price that will likely be similar to its new neighbor.
More details ahead

REX Revealed as the Architects Redesigning the World Trade Center Performing Arts Complex

Image pointing to the site of the Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center. Rendering by DBOX

November 20, 2015

REX Revealed as the Architects Redesigning the World Trade Center Performing Arts Complex

Ever since Frank Gehry and his design for the Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center (PACWTC) site got the boot last year, many have been eager to know who would be taking the helm in his place. Since July, the PACWTC has been working with an anonymous architectural firm to hash out a new concept, and now, nearly five months later, the board has finally released the name of the lead architect: Brooklyn-based studio REX led by Joshua Prince-Ramus, a former protégé of starchitect Rem Koolhaas. PACWTC chairman John Zucotti said in a statement, "The selection of REX and the Lower Manhattan District Council’s renewed commitment are critical milestones in our collective effort to create a vibrant new cultural and community anchor for all of Lower Manhattan. We are now two important steps closer to completing the World Trade Center and fully realizing our vision of Lower Manhattan as the world’s most dynamic, 24/7 urban community."
more details on the design here

City Will Start Accepting Proposals for Underground Lowline Space

Lowline Lab via 6sqft

November 20, 2015

City Will Start Accepting Proposals for Underground Lowline Space

In 2009, James Ramsey and Dan Barasch started planning a solar-powered subterranean park on the Lower East Side, the underground equivalent of the High Line. They set their sites on the 60,000-square-foot abandoned Essex Street Trolley Terminal below Delancey Street and named their project The Lowline. Now, six years later, they've launched the Lowline Lab, "a high-tech, miniaturized precursor to the city’s first underground park," as 6sqft put it in a recent interview with Ramsey and Barasch. Located in a vacant warehouse on Essex Street, the Lab most certainly served its purpose, as The Lo-Down is reporting that the city and MTA have finally agreed to accept proposals for the space. The Economic Development Corporation (EDC) will release on Monday a Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI), followed by a briefing next month with Community Board 3.
Find out more ahead

November 20, 2015

Meatpacking District Gets the Brooklyn-as-Brand Treatment

The Brooklyn-as-a-brand ship has long sailed, but we've lately seen other boroughs (take for example this Bronx Hot Sauce) and neighborhoods (see this candle that promises to make your home smell like Bushwick) trying to cash in on the action. Unsurprisingly, the increasingly trendy Meatpacking District is the latest locale to jump on the bandwagon. Fast Co. Design has a first look at the new visual identity of the neighborhood, commissioned by the Meatpacking Business Improvement District and created by Base Design. "Anchored by a wordmark that divides "Meatpacking District" into two different typefaces, it suggests a neighborhood with multiple personalities: equal parts ritzy and wild," explains Fast Co. But the real reason behind the branding campaign may surprise you.
Learn more about the rebranding

Architecture And Design

November 20, 2015

Construction Update: 100 Barrow Street Rises Above Street Level From St. Luke’s Churchyard

By Heather Cooper Vivares

With the foundation finally laid, Toll Brothers' 100 Barrow Street has made its way above ground and will bring 35 brand new apartments to the West Village. The tower is being built on the site of a pre-existing parking lot on the full-block grounds of the Church of St. Luke in the Fields. While no demolition of existing structures or reduction of green space was necessary, the site does lie at the western edge of the Greenwich Village Historic District and across from the Archives Building, which is an individual landmark. Proceeds from the development will be used to fund the church's own new buildings, which include an expansion of its existing private school and the construction of a new mission where L.G.B.T.Q. homeless youth and under-served individuals can receive meals and shelter. The latter will also serve as a 24/7 drop-in center where people will be able to get a change of clothes and take showers.
More details and renderings this way

November 19, 2015

Alexander Hamilton Jr.’s Former Home on St. Mark’s Place Lists for $12M

The Hamilton name certainly comes with big price tags. Resale tickets to the Broadway show are climbing up to $2,500 each, and the Founding Father's son's home is now asking $11.9 million, 6sqft has learned. Col. Alexander Hamilton Jr. was the first owner of the townhouse at 4 St. Mark's Place in the East Village. British-born real estate developer Thomas E. Davis was erecting Federal-style homes along the street at the time as homes for wealthy New Yorkers seeking refuge from the cholera epidemic further downtown. In 1833, three decades after his father died in a duel with Aaron Burr, Hamilton Jr. bought the home and moved in with his mother Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton (who was riddled with debt after her husband's death), wife Eliza, and his sister Eliza Holly and her husband Sidney. Known as the Hamilton-Holly House, it features Flemish Bond, a signature of the Federal style, as well as a marble English basement level, high stoop with Gibbs surround entryway, and two dormer windows.
More on the house

Art Nerd New York’s Top Event Picks for the Week – 11/19-11/22

In a city where hundreds of interesting happenings occur each week, it can be hard to pick and choose your way to a fulfilling life. Art Nerd‘s philosophy is a combination of observation, participation, education and of course a party to create the ultimate well-rounded week. Jump ahead for Art Nerd founder Lori Zimmer’s top picks for 6sqft readers!

November 19, 2015

Art Nerd New York’s Top Event Picks for the Week – 11/19-11/22

By Lori Zimmer

This week is heavy on the Thursday art events, so put on some comfortable shoes and go big tonight. Start by checking out SOFTlab's brand new crystalline pavilion in front of the Flatiron building before heading west to Chelsea where Ron English debuts his new quirky evolution nativity set. Hop over to the The International Print Center to see 68 new prints inspired by Dante's "Divine Comedy." Then hop south to Castor Gallery for Stacy Leigh's creepy yet sexy photos of sex dolls, and end the night by nabbing a piece of nightlife history at the Mudd Club Rummage Sale. Kick the weekend off by immersing yourself in the incredible vibrant world of Ebony G. Patterson at the Museum of Art and Design, then have a religious experience at Catinca Tabacaru Gallery, which will be transformed into a chapel of your dreams. Wrap up the weekend with a cultural experience celebrating sound art at PS 1 for Sunday Sessions.
All the best events to check out here

November 18, 2015

New York Buildings Photoshopped Into the Paris Cityscape Create a Dramatically Different Skyline

What makes Paris so enchanting is its wonderful architecture, and while many of New York's oldest buildings take inspiration from the City of Light, placing them in a Parisian context isn't quite as seamless an act as one would think. In Paris, where low-slung architecture is favored over the supertall (buildings are rarely more than five or six stories tall, and until 2010 the height limit on all new buildings was 121 feet), a new project called "Haussmanhattan" (Haussman + Manhattan) reimagines what the landscape would have looked like if the European city had joined the great skyscraper race of the early 20th century.
Check out all the eye-popping mashups here

November 18, 2015

Compare Dubai’s Most Expensive Penthouse to New York City’s

By Annie Doge

Playing the real estate comparison game is always fun, and more often than not, pinning New York prices against any other city will bring you to much bigger and more luxurious spaces. But here's a real estate showdown that might lead you to shrug off that usual urge to say "But it's not New York!" when you try to justify the city's outrageous prices. Word has it that Dubai's most expensive penthouse is now up on the market for a whopping $74.5 million. The sprawling pad (really a compound-like construction) comes with over 43,000 square feet and is steeped in private amenities. Now compare this to NYC's current title-holder for most expensive home—the $100 million penthouse at One57—and you've got a real estate death match in a league of its own.
Check it out here

Architecture And Design

November 18, 2015

Hand-Stitched City Quilts Are Made to Counter the Rapid Digitization of Daily Life

With winter just around the corner, now is a good time to take stock of what you've got packed away in the warm blanket department. If you're coming up short, these City Quilt throws from Haptic Lab can provide both warmth and style. Replicating the age-old tradition of quilting, the Brooklyn-based studio hand-stitches city maps–including details like roadways, rivers, and city blocks–onto fluffy 60-inch x 70-inch cotton blankets. They're available for both Brooklyn and Manhattan (as well as other big cities like Paris, Boston, and Chicago), and Haptic will even add custom details for an extra fee.
Find out more

November 17, 2015

325-Square-Foot Greenwich Village Apartment Is Smartly Designed to Pack All the Comforts of Home

NYC is an exciting city that often sets the stage for non-stop, action-packed living. But this fast-paced lifestyle often comes at the cost of some serious square footage. This didn't stop seasoned New Yorker and producer Andrea Mitchell from successfully putting together a stylish and efficient home with just 325 square feet to work with. Located in Greenwich Village, her tiny apartment includes all the comforts of home and mixes simple Ikea buys with eclectic flea market finds. In a recent interview with Inhabitat, she reveals some savvy design tips for living large in a small space.
Get the scoop

November 17, 2015

The World’s Largest Display of Miniatures Is Coming to Times Square in 2017