By Devin Gannon, Tue, November 19, 2019 Photo courtesy of The Howard Hughes Corporation
Ice skating in New York City is a must during the winter, with spots like the festive rink at Rockefeller Center, Bryant Park’s winter village, and even newbie Runway Rink at the landmarked TWA Hotel. But there’s only one NYC ice rink where you can “skate the skyline.” Returning for a second season, The Rooftop at Pier 17 in the Seaport District opens this week, promising an even more spectacular season of skating as the city’s only open-air rooftop rink.
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By Alexandra Alexa, Tue, November 19, 2019 Our series “My sqft” checks out the homes of New Yorkers across all the boroughs. Our latest interior adventure brings us to the Soho loft and eponymous shop of designer Michele Varian. Want to see your home featured here? Get in touch!
For the design-minded, Michele Varian’s Soho storefront is a must-visit destination, stocked to the brim with her own designs alongside a rotating cast of 100+ designers. Since opening her first store in 2001, Michele has sought to create an oasis for quality pieces that straddle the line between tradition and modernity. Like a cabinet of curiosities, the shop offers an antidote to the increasing homogeneity of the retail experience in Soho.
Just a couple blocks away on Broadway, Michele lives in a quintessential Soho loft with her rock star husband, Brad Roberts of the Crash Test Dummies. Michele’s signature aesthetic and eye for the handmade is apparent in the duo’s eclectic and inviting space, which is a testament to their lives together. Filled with bold pattern plays, curiosities from their travels, and Brad’s collection of musical instruments, there’s hardly a surface that doesn’t catch the eye or capture the imagination. Ahead, tour Michele’s shop and loft and find out how she balances (and often intertwines) work with life.
Take the tour
By Michelle Cohen, Tue, November 19, 2019 Images: !melk/Hudson River Park Trust
Hudson River Park’s northernmost pier is being transformed from a concrete strip to nearly two acres of green space with an esplanade and other amenities, Curbed NY reports. Renderings from design firm !melk, who is working with the Hudson River Park Trust on the revamp of Pier 97, located off 12th avenue and 57th Street in Hell’s Kitchen, show a verdant respite from the city and din of the nearby West Side Highway. The vision for the new space at the gateway to Hudson River Park will consist of a series of connected spaces with walkways, sculptural canopies and a playground, with an elevated “belvedere” overlooking the river.
More renderings, this way
By Michelle Cohen, Tue, November 19, 2019 Photo credit: Jake DiPietro, Courtesy of Compass
This charming fifth-floor pre-war co-op just two blocks from Union Square, asking $849,000, has plenty of room to expand beyond its current two bedrooms. Situated around a central kitchen, the apartment even comes with instructions (in the form of alternate floor plans, shown in the gallery below). On a quiet landmarked townhouse block in the heart of Gramercy, the Beaux-Arts co-op building at 210 East 17th Street is a well-maintained walk-up.
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By Michelle Cohen, Mon, November 18, 2019 Images courtesy of Douglas Elliman.
This two-floor co-op at 200 West Houston Street, asking $2.695 million, may be on a busy Village thoroughfare, but its location across from the critic favorite Film Forum movie theater–and screening-room-ready lower level–might make it the perfect spot for someone who wants to immerse themselves in film. There’s room to configure the space differently (it’s currently set up as a one-bedroom), and each level has a separate entrance.
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By Michelle Cohen, Fri, November 15, 2019 Rendering courtesy of the Department of Design and Construction
The $1.45 billion East Side Coastal Resiliency Project (ESCR), designed to protect a section of Manhattan’s east side from flooding, was approved on Thursday in a full City Council vote. The vote is the final City Council approval of the project, which passed the city’s land use committee earlier this week and is the culmination of a long and at-times controversial process. As 6sqft previously reported, the project was born in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, and was designed to flood-proof over two miles of Manhattan’s east side between East 25th Street and Montgomery Street and improve waterfront access to waterfront space. According to the city, the ESCR project would protect over 110,000 New Yorkers.
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By Alexandra Alexa, Thu, November 14, 2019 Renderings by Noë & Associates/The Boundary
We now have a sneak peek inside the historic condo conversion currently underway at the Waldorf Astoria, now called The Towers of the Waldorf Astoria. Beijing-based Anbang Insurance Group Co. has released an updated teaser website and new renderings of the project, which will bring 375 private residences and 350 renovated hotel rooms to the storied building. Condo sales were initially expected to launch this fall, but are now slated to hit the market in early 2020 with the project wrapping up by 2021.
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By Devin Gannon, Thu, November 14, 2019 Image by Timothy Schenck; courtesy of Related-Oxford
Facebook this week has signed a lease for 1.5 million square feet of office space across three buildings at Hudson Yards. Starting next year, the tech company will expand to 30 Hudson Yards, 55 Hudson Yards, and 50 Hudson Yards, the latter which will not be open until 2022 and will consist of the bulk of the lease at 1.2 million square feet.
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By Michelle Cohen, Thu, November 14, 2019 Photo credit: Real Arch Media, courtesy of Compass
Located in the massive four-building Parc Vendome condominium complex that spans nearly a full city block in Midtown West, this designer-renovated home at 340 West 57th Street is worthy of any hyperbole bestowed upon it. On the 14th floor, with the pre-war building’s highest ceilings (according to the listing) that reach 16 feet, this 1,165-square-foot, one-bedroom home is dressed to impress and asking $2,395,000.
More impressive interior goodness, this way
By Alexandra Alexa, Thu, November 14, 2019 Renderings © SOM / bloomimages
Last July, Disney purchased the rights to develop the property at 4 Hudson Square from Trinity Church for $650 million under a 99-year agreement and earlier this year tapped Skidmore, Owings & Merrill to design a new HQ for the media giant. SOM and developer Silverstein Properties have just revealed the first renderings of the project, which will occupy an entire city block and span across 1.2 billion square feet—including retail on the ground floor—and house up to 5,000 employees.
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