Via Wikimedia
Grand Central Terminal is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its retail renovation; the iconic terminal’s shops and restaurants will be offering 1998 pricing on select products and menu items on October 1. Participating businesses include Cafe Grumpy, The Campbell Bar, Grand Central Oyster Bar and Restaurant, Moleskine, Dyptique and many more. In addition, there will be a special exhibition in Vanderbilt Hall celebrating the terminal’s storied 105-year history.
Photo of Bourdain via Wikimedia
The Upper East Side home of late chef Anthony Bourdain is for sale for $3.7 million, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. Located at 40 East 94th Street in the Carnegie Hill Tower, the apartment features five bedrooms, a sleek high-end kitchen, and lots of custom built-in storage. Bourdain and his ex-wife Ottavia Busia purchased the condo in late 2014 for $3.35 million, according to city property records.
Community Gardeners at the Bowery Houston Community Farm and Garden, 1974 via Liz Christie Community Garden
Awash in gray pavement and grayer steel, New York can be a metropolis of muted hues, but with 39 community gardens blooming between 14th Street and East Houston Street, the East Village is the Emerald City. The neighborhood boasts the highest concentration of community gardens in the country thanks to a proud history of grassroots activism that has helped transform once-abandoned lots into community oases.
By the mid-1970s, as the city fought against a ferocious fiscal crisis, nearly 10,000 acres of land stood vacant throughout the five boroughs. In 1973, Lower East resident Liz Christie, who lived on Mott Street, refused to let the neglected lots in her neighborhood lie fallow. She established the urban garden group Green Guerillas, a rogue band of planters who lobbed “seed bombs” filled with fertilizer, seeds, and water into vacant, inaccessible lots, hoping they would flourish and fill the blighted spaces with greenery.
This neo-Federal townhouse, less than a block from Central Park at 9 East 81st Street, received recent exterior and interior renovations from architect Peter Pennoyer–whose work epitomizes Upper East Side style–in partnership with the renowned landscape architect Madison Cox. Better yet, the home’s owners since 2014 are Christopher Davis and Sharon Davis, who is herself a celebrated New York City-based architect (you can see her work featured on 6sqft here and here.). The listing says the house has been “fully and continually renovated by the current owner,” so we can see why it’s so stunning. It was last purchased for $22 million, and it’s currently asking $19,950,000. But with features like an elevator, a grand floating spiral staircase, and 6,150 square feet of living space over five floors, we wouldn’t rule out a bidding war.
Rendering of the theater post-renovation. Image: Stillman Development International
New York developer Stillman Development International LLC has signed a 73-year-maximum lease on the Times Square Theater on West 42nd Street with plans for a $100 million makeover in keeping with neighbors like Hershey’s Chocolate World and Old Navy, the Wall Street Journal reports. Shuttered for almost 30 years, the theater, which opened on September 30, 1920 with Florence Reed starring in “The Mirage,” is seen by some as the last vestige of the neighborhood‘s descent into late 20th century blight before rising to new heights as a tourist mecca.
Photo via WeWork
With 5.3 million square feet of office space, WeWork is officially Manhattan’s largest private office tenant. Last month, we reported that the co-working giant needed just 74,000 more square feet to take the title from JPMorgan Chase & Co., and with their new, 258,344-square-foot location at 21 Penn Plaza, their 50th in the borough (they have 60 in NYC total), they’ve now surpassed them. The news comes via a blog post by WeWork exec Granit Gjonbalaj, who credits the company’s “expertise” and the team’s “holistic nature” that has allowed them to “identify, build, and deliver new locations better and more quickly than a typical developer.”
Ben (left), Laura and Pete in their UWS store
Ten years ago, with $60,000 on hand and no factory, Laura O’Neill and Pete and Ben Van Leeuwen decided to operate an ice cream truck in New York City. Instead of using gum stabilizers and fillers, they wanted to make their ice cream with all-natural, pure ingredients. The trio, none of whom have a culinary background, started testing ice cream recipes in the kitchen of their shared Brooklyn apartment. Today, Van Leeuwen has grown into a multimillion-dollar, multi-city dessert empire with numerous trucks and brick-and-mortar stores throughout NYC and Los Angeles.
Van Leeuwen remains known for its rich and delicious vegan flavors, which hit their menu about five years ago. With a formula of raw cashews, extra virgin coconut oil, pure cocoa butter, coconut cream, and organic cane sugar, the ice cream is beloved by vegans and non-vegans. “It’s not just good vegan ice cream–it’s incredible ice cream that happens to be vegan,” Laura told us. Pete, Ben, and Laura recently gave us a tour of one of their new NYC stores, a small pastel-painted shop on the Upper West Side. Ahead, hear from Laura about Van Leeuwen’s humble start in Brooklyn, the decision-making-process behind new flavors, and plans to expand even further.
Rendering by Visualhouse, courtesy of the Rockwell Group and Howard Hughes Corporation
Update 9/19/18: The LPC approved Howard Hughes’ and David Rockwell’s proposal.
It might still be steamy outside, but the colder months are upon us, and this year, NYC will have a brand new ice skating rink. CityRealty uncovered renderings that show how the Howard Hughes Corporation would like to transform the South Street Seaport’s Pier 17–the SHoP Architects-designed food/drink, retail, and entertainment complex–into a rooftop winter village. The proposal by David Rockwell Group calls for an ice rink just slightly smaller than that at Rockefeller Center, a skate shop, and a warming hut. The team is presenting the plan to the Landmarks Preservation Commission (Pier 17 is part of the South Street Seaport Historic District) this afternoon, so check back for updates on the vote.
This corner artists’ loft at 6 Varick Street is about as classic as a downtown Manhattan loft can get, with original steel beam columns, massive oak beams and arched windows, original wooden plank floors, exposed brick walls, and 10-foot-tall tin ceilings. In addition to being on a high floor, the loft’s corner configuration gives it an unusual layout that sets it apart from the standard “white box.” Unobstructed views to the south and east look out over the neighborhood. The condop loft’s current interiors–a cozy and bright combo of shabby-chic and Scandinavian-inspired–show just how pretty even the most industrial loft can be.
6sqft recently reported that construction had begun on Russia-born billionaire Roman Abramovich‘s Upper East Side megamansion combo of three existing townhouses on East 75th Street. Plans for the megamansion with a pool, art room, backyard and a glass and bronze curtain wall connecting the three townhouses in the rear, designed by Stephen Wang + Associates, were approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in November of 2017. The LPC approval came a few months after Abramovich announced a split from arts patron and businesswoman Dasha Zhukova, whom he married in 2008 and with whom he has a son and a daughter. Now, the New York Post reports, Abramovich has transferred ownership of the properties at 9, 11 and 13, along with at least one other Upper East Side address to his ex.
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Grand Central Terminal celebrates 20 years of retail with 1998 pricing 