Queens’ Skyline Tower has launched its first 20 listings, providing a glimpse of what we can expect when the official sales gallery opens up later this spring (h/t Curbed). In addition to taking the title of 6sqft’s 2018 Building of the Year, the 67-story building caused a stir last year for its notable height—it will be the tallest in the borough—and proximity to Amazon’s planned HQ in Long Island City, leading to a record-breaking $1 billion sellout. When complete, the Hill West Architects-designed, 778-foot-tall tower will house 802 condos. The 20 live listings include studio- to three-bedroom units, ranging in price from $660,400 for a studio to $2,325,610 for a three-bedroom with outdoor space.

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Rendering of the Noguchi Museum campus by Büro Koray Duman

The original studio and pied-à-terre of Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi will open to the public for the first time as part of a new unified campus, the Noguchi Museum announced earlier this month. The Long Island City museum plans to expand its existing museum and sculpture garden, founded by Noguchi in 1985, by adding a new 6,000-square-foot building and restoring the sculptor’s studio.

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image via Google Earth

Two months after mega-retailer Amazon announced it was walking away from a lease at One Court Square, a Long Island City library branch that occupies space on the ground floor of the 53-story Citigroup building is facing the possibility of eviction according to non-profit publication The City. The lease on the 3,200-square-foot One Court Square branch of the Queens Public Library expires on August 31. The library has paid an annual rent of $1 since the building opened in 1989 as part of a deal with Citigroup, whose lease on the space ends in May of 2020, but a spokesperson for the library has said that the building’s owner has “indicated it is seeking market rent for the library space.” Last year, building owner Savanna was reportedly seeking $55 to $65 per square foot for space in the building.

A valuable community service in jeopardy

A former 19th-century cigar factory in Long Island City has been reimagined as mixed-use office space fit for creative companies. The four-story loft building on 35th Avenue offers tenants super high ceilings, exposed beams, and arched windows. Aptly dubbed “The Cigar Factory,” the over 120,000-square-foot building also boasts a private landscaped courtyard.

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New rendering by ODA Architects for TF Cornerstone

Developer TF Cornerstone officially broke ground Friday on its mixed-use, affordable housing development in Long Island City, a plan that began nearly six years prior. The project, which consists of 1,194 new apartments across two buildings on Center Boulevard, falls under the city’s redevelopment of Hunter’s Point South, a proposal with the goal of bringing 5,000 units of new housing to the area first backed by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. In addition to the residences, the project includes construction of a community center, local retail, a new public park designed by Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects, and a K-8 school. A pair of new renderings highlights the open space planned between the new towers.

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Via The Collective

London-based communal living company The Collective has purchased a hotel in Long Island City with plans to convert the building into a space for co-living. The Paper Factory Hotel, located at 37-06 36th Street near the Astoria border, will be transformed into a space for “short-stay” co-living, which the company says will give members more flexibility in the length of their stay. The first phase of the conversion adds cultural and educational space to the building’s ground floor; the second phase adds 100 more bedrooms to the hotel’s existing 125 rooms. More this way

Image via NYCEDC

According to a new poll conducted by the Siena College Research Institute, nearly two-thirds of New York state registered voters think Amazon’s decision to cancel its plans for a second headquarters in Queens was bad for New York. Sixty-one percent of the people who were polled say they would approve of the deal—in which Amazon would receive up to $3 billion in state and city incentives and create up to 25,000 jobs—if the company were to reconsider. The results are clear: “While some may have celebrated Amazon’s announcement to pull the plug, the vast majority of New Yorkers of every stripe thought it was bad for the Empire State,” said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg.

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Hórama Rama by Pedro & Juana, winner of the 2019 Young Architects Program. Ana Paula Ruiz Galindo & Mecky Reuss. Mexico City, Mexico

Serving as the light at the end of winter’s tunnel, MoMA PS1 unveiled this week the winning design for its popular summer outdoor music series Warm Up. The installation “Hórama Rama” by Pedro & Juana (a Mexico City-based studio founded by Ana Paula Ruiz Galindo and Mecky Reuss) will bring an immersive “junglescape” with a cyclorama that sits on top of the concrete courtyard walls. “Hórama Rama” will feature a 40-foot-tall, 90-foot-wide structure that floats over the courtyard space, with hammocks and a functioning, two-story waterfall contributing to the wilderness vibe. The temporary exhibit accompanies the outdoor music series that runs from June to September.

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Image via CityRealty

Update 3/1/19, 1:10pm: According to Crain’s, Governor Cuomo said today on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show, “They have given no indication that they would reconsider. I have no reason to believe that Amazon is reconsidering. Would I like them to? Certainly. But I have no reason to believe that.”

Amazon’s Valentine’s Day breakup with New York City has been rough on Governor Andrew Cuomo; the New York Times reports that Cuomo has continued to beseech the retail giant to build one of its two new headquarters in Long Island City, Queens, as it had announced plans to do last November. According to the Times, Cuomo has privately assured Amazon officials that he would ease the company’s path to any needed approvals and is “working intensely behind the scenes”–including a personal pitch to founder Jeff Bezos–to get Amazon to reconsider.

Baby, come back

John Brown Smokehouse on 44th Drive in LIC via Flickr

The owner of a Long Island City barbecue restaurant flew to Seattle on Monday in an attempt to revive the city’s deal with Amazon. Josh Bowen, who owns neighborhood joint John Brown Smokehouse, met with executives from the company for two hours, according to Qns.com. Earlier this month, Amazon announced it would no longer open a headquarters at the proposed waterfront location in Queens after facing resistance from local politicians and activist groups. During the meeting, the businessman asked if they would reconsider their decision to pull out of the project. Their response? “Never say never,” the executives told him, according to Bowen.

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