City Living

On rooftops throughout the city, there's a great deal of activity taking place. This hustle and bustle isn't coming from the construction of new skyscrapers, but instead from beehives across the city where honeybees are hard at work. The keeper for many of these bees is Andrew Coté, who at the height of spring and summer works at least 14 hours a day, seven days a week tending to them. Andrew traces his family’s beekeeping roots to the 1800s in Quebec, Canada. In the 1970s, his father carried this tradition to Connecticut by starting a farm and selling honey, and a decade ago, Andrew brought beekeeping to the city. As a New York City beekeeper, his work focuses on overseeing clients’ hives on business and hotel roofs as well his own hives in neighborhoods ranging from Prospect Heights to the Upper East Side. Andrew harvests the honey from his hives, bottles, and then sells it at Union Square Market for his company, Andrew’s Honey. Depending on what jar customers pick up, they might be purchasing Forest Hills, Central Park or Harlem honey. With spring starting this Sunday, we recently spoke with Andrew to find out what all the buzz is about.
read our interview with andrew here

March 18, 2016

Fire and Ice: City Snow Removal Methods Included an Army Flamethrower

With forecasts threatening snow (?!) on this fine late March weekend, the idea that an "army flame thrower" was among the historic methods the city used to make piles of the formerly-white stuff disappear is oddly satisfying.
Moar! this way

March 16, 2016

Go Inside the Trippy Apartments of 1970s Urban Dwellers

Mid-century modern is often touted as the ideal when it comes to design, but while that era gifted us beautiful and timeless works from the likes of Mies and Charles and Ray Eames, not everyone at the time was keen on keeping with this design aesthetic. As the 70s gave way to a slew of political and social change, many homes also saw revolution of their own from the streamlined to the downright psychedelic. Case in point: All of the interiors featured in old issues of Apartment Life, a city living lifestyle magazine from the 70s. But what might be better than ogling all the decades-old acid trip decor in these old issues is reading the captions of the glossies. Like the folks featured in our My sqft series, Apartment Life talks the challenges of urban living (like no-view windows and limited storage), in addition to offering up some tips on how to deal (solution: build yourself a "butcher block storage/coffee table" they say!). They've even got a great idea for beating the below-zero blues: A "Winter Picnic" in bed.
Go inside these apartments here

10 Ways to Decorate an Exposed Brick Wall Without Drilling

6sqft’s series Apartment Living 101 is aimed at helping New Yorkers navigate the challenges of creating a happy home in the big city. This week we offer up ideas for decorating exposed brick walls without drilling.

March 15, 2016

10 Ways to Decorate an Exposed Brick Wall Without Drilling

By Annie Doge

Exposed brick is one of the most common architectural elements in NYC apartments -- even otherwise bland spaces often feature the material. Though it offers tons of character, it can make decorating quite challenging since drilling into brick isn't the easiest task. Renters especially have a tough time, as putting holes in a brick wall can be a big no-no for landlords. But 6sqft has come up with 10 ways to dress up such walls, no drill necessary. Thanks to decor like string lights and ladders, you'll never have to stare at a blank brick wall again.
See all the ideas ahead

March 14, 2016

Interested in a Flex Apartment? Here’s What You Need to Know

With rising real estate prices and shrinking spaces, flex apartments are growing in popularity with roommates, couples and families who are looking to add another room but can’t afford to move into a larger space. Flex apartments, for those who are unfamiliar, are typically a studio, one-bedroom or two-bedroom unit large enough to be converted up one level with […]

March 11, 2016

Spotlight: The Word on Whiskey From Kings County Distillery’s Colin Spoelman

Colin Spoelman moved to New York for post-grad job opportunities, but it was his home state of Kentucky that ended up giving him direction. On trips back home, he developed a deep appreciation for moonshine and distilling, and now his interest has gone from hobby to profession. Six years ago, Colin combined his Kentucky roots, his life in Brooklyn, and his love of distilling whiskey through Kings County Distillery, where he is one of the founders (along with David Haskell) and the head distiller. Founded in 2010, Kings County Distillery is making a name for itself with the whiskey and bourbon it distills at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, making it New York City's oldest operating whiskey distillery, the first since prohibition. The company started with eight five-gallon stills, and were at the time the smallest commercial distillery in America. But they now have a 250-gallon and a 180-gallon still and are beginning to distribute out west and internationally. With St. Patrick's Day coming up and lots of whiskey drinking to be had, 6sqft spoke with Colin to find out what's distilling in Brooklyn and why it makes perfect sense to make whiskey in this borough.
The full interview, this way

March 11, 2016

Reel Estate: Three Movies Put New York Housing Dramas on the Big Screen

When we see New York real estate on film, living situations usually err on the side of grossly unrealistic—think freelance writer Carrie Bradshaw’s apartment with walk-in closet on “Sex and the City,” or Monica Gellar’s massive two-bedroom in Greenwich Village on “Friends.” But while there are plenty of eye rolls to go around for said and […]

March 4, 2016

Spotlight: Jay Schweitzer Keeps Typewriters in Fashion at an 84-Year-Old Family Business

For anyone who thinks computers have entirely taken over, they might want to visit Gramercy Typewriter Company. Founded in 1932 by Abraham Schweitzer, this 84-year-old family business is busier than ever repairing customers' typewriters, as well as refurbishing and selling machines of all shapes, sizes, and even colors. Whereas many typewriter service companies went out of business with the rise of computers, Abraham's son and grandson, Paul and Jay, remained passionate about them and are now two of the only individuals in the city with the skills to work on these machines. For Jay and Paul, the demand for their expertise is a testament to the staying power of typewriters in the 21st century. They continue to be a necessity in fields such as law and accounting, where certain forms are more compatible with the typewriter than the computer. Outside of offices, there are tried-and-true typewriter users who type on them daily. In many cases, the Schweitzers' have customers who are discovering a love of these wonderful machines for the very first time. 6sqft stopped by Gramercy Typewriter Company and spoke with Jay about the business and to get a glimpse of history on the company's shelves.
Read the full interview this way

Stuff You Should Know: How Air Rights Work

Image of One57 © Wade Zimmerman courtesy of Agence Christian de Portzamparc (ACDP)

March 3, 2016

Stuff You Should Know: How Air Rights Work

“For whoever owns the soil, it is theirs up to Heaven and down to Hell.” Most folks outside the architecture and real estate industries are likely to believe that putting up a new skyscraper is simply about finding an empty lot to build up. However, those in the know understand that it takes much more than a stretch of space and a good […]

NYC Is Home to 79 Billionaires, More Than Any City in the World

All of the major news outlets were reporting last week that Beijing had overtaken New York City as the billionaire capital of the world, not at all hard to believe considering that in 2016, 70 new members to the World’s Billionaires List were Chinese, more than double the number of newly-added Americans. However, the original report from Chinese research firm Hurun has been disproven by research from Forbes. The new data shows that NYC is home to 79 billionaires, more than any other city in the world. This includes David Koch and Michael Bloomberg, two of the ten richest people in the world. The city's billionaires' total wealth amounts to a whopping $364.6 billion.
Get the full list ahead

City Living

March 1, 2016

INTERVIEW: The Museum of Food and Drink’s Peter Kim Talks Food and Preservation

This past October, the Museum of Food and Drink opened its first brick-and-mortar space in Williamsburg. Known as the MOFAD Lab, it's a design studio where the team is currently creating and displaying their exhibition ideas, as well as surprising a city who may have likened a food museum to merely big-name chefs and of-the-moment trends like rainbow bagels. Take for example their first exhibit "Flavor: Making It and Faking It," an in-depth and multi-sensory exploration of the $25 billion flavor simulation industry. Two more refreshingly unexpected facts are the background of executive director Peter Kim (he previously worked in public health, hunger policy, and law, to name a few fields) and the museum's first home at the Neighborhood Preservation Center (NPC), an office space and resource center for those working to improve and protect neighborhoods. If you're wondering what preservation and a food and drink museum have to do with each other, 6sqft recently attended an NPC event at MOFAD Lab to find out. After chatting with Peter and NPC's executive director Felicia Mayro, we quickly realized that the two fields have a lot more in common than you might think. Keep reading for our interview ahead, and if you want to visit MOFAD LAB, enter our latest giveaway. Peter is giving a lucky 6sqft reader and a guest free admission to the museum (enter here).
The full interview, right this way

February 29, 2016

10 Clever, Creative and Unexpected Storage Ideas for Apartment Dwellers

By Alyssa Alimurung

6sqft’s series Apartment Living 101 is aimed at helping New Yorkers navigate the challenges of creating a happy home in the big city. This week we offer up spots in your apartment that may be underutilized as storage. Unless you're living in a mega-mansion with amazing closet space, chances are your belongings are scattered across your apartment and overstuffed into drawers and cabinets. With spring right around the corner, you may want to rethink how you've been tackling clutter at home. Below we've rounded up 10 clever, creative and unexpected storage ideas that you can put into action in your apartment right now.
Spring cleaning organization this way

February 26, 2016

Spotlight: François Vaxelaire Blasts Tunes from a Shipping Container in a Williamsburg Parking Lot

An independent online radio featuring live DJ sets, located in a shipping container on an empty piece of land on the Williamsburg/Greenpoint border -- if your inclination is to roll your eyes at just how Brooklyn this is, you might want to reconsider. The Lot Radio was founded by 34-year-old Brussels native François Vaxelaire, who has been living in the neighborhood for the past three years. After passing by the vacant triangle day after day, and growing more and more infatuated with its strange beauty, he decided it would be the perfect home for an online radio similar to those in Europe. And after getting through the city's red tape, Lot Radio is officially up and running, save for its adjacent coffee shop and outdoor seating area that are both awaiting permits from the Department of Health. What's most interesting about Vaxelaire is that he is committed to steering clear of the Brooklyn cliches. His goal is to grow an internationally focused, New York-based radio, but in terms of the physical location, he wants local residents exiting the nearby church to feel just as welcome hanging out as would an experimental music aficionado. 6sqft recently visited him at the shipping container to learn more about this very unique idea.
The full story from François

Image: Xymox/Flickr

February 24, 2016

City Filth, Decoded: The Gunk on Subway Platforms Actually Has a Name

Do you ever wonder what that black schmutz that collects on the subway platform is? Has all the discarded chewing gum in the world begun to mobilize? What if I put my bag on it? Slate's What's That Thing column appropriately examines the phenomenon: After repeated unreturned phone calls to the MTA, the intrepid journalists got "Gridlock Sam" Schwartz and his transit gurus on the case. Finally the fine folks from the MTA rallied and gave name to the mysterious muck. According to NYC Transit assistant chief of the Division of Stations Branko Kleva, the stuff is mastic, a tar-like substance used to seal and waterproof the subway tunnels. When it heats up, (in the summer, for example, ironically from the heat generated by subway car air conditioning) it starts to "flow and drip down from the roof of the tunnel onto the platforms below."
More on the mysterious gunk...

February 19, 2016

Spotlight: Ron Ben-Israel on the Art and Architecture of Creating a Wedding Cake

If you're one of the many who just got engaged over Valentine's weekend, it's time to get into planning mode, and what better way to start than with a spectacular wedding cake. A New York wedding calls for a cake that tastes great, makes a statement about the newlyweds, but can also stand on its own amidst the glamour of the Plaza, the Art-Deco glitz of the Rainbow Room, and the skyline that twinkles all around at the Mandarin Oriental. For this, brides and grooms turn to cakemaker extraordinaire Ron Ben-Israel. Throughout the planning, baking, and cake delivery processes, Ron draws on a number of disciplines, including chemistry, architecture, art, and transportation science. His cakes are versatile in style, but have a common thread that comes from attention to detail and the pursuit of excellence. He's received high praise for his cakes, with the New York Times writing of him: "Mr. Ben-Israel is the Manolo Blahnik of wedding cakes, a high-priced craftsman who knows that just as beautiful shoes are useless if they are not comfortable, beautiful cakes are useless if they are not delicious." With the season for "I do" quickly approaching, 6sqft spoke with Ron to discuss his love for the baking process, the thinking and work behind every cake, and the joy he experiences each time one is completed.
Read the full interview here

Fairway Market in Red Hook via Cindy Day/Flickr

February 19, 2016

Fairway Grocery Stores Struggling to Stay Afloat in Competitive Market

Though they once had ambitious plans to expand beyond New York City, Fairway Group Holdings Corp. is struggling with debt instead, reports Bloomberg Business. The company has incurred massive debt in order to finance its expansion plans and is in danger of default, according to analyst reports, and its "capital structure remains unsustainable." In addition to putting the brakes on expansion plans, the company has been advised to close some stores outside New York. Known for quality produce and well-curated private brands, Fairway Market stores are seen as perhaps the most representative of New York City when conversations turn to regional grocery loyalties. The gourmet grocery's original store at 74th and Broadway on the Upper West Side, with its cramped-and-bustling atmosphere, is a cult favorite for Manhattanites. The 52,000-square-foot Red Hook location in an historic coffee warehouse, opened in 2006, is credited in part with anchoring that neighborhood's renaissance.
Competition and bad timing

City Living

February 18, 2016

Common’s Shared Living Concept Brings $3,000 Bedrooms to Williamsburg

The perpetual waves of recent graduates and other young professional hopefuls streaming into New York City seem to be finding themselves stuck when it comes to finding a place to bunk between cubicle and pub. So it's no surprise that a growing field of enterprising entrepreneurs--after observing the moderate success of the co-working model and the mind-melting success of Airbnb–have stepped in with a hybrid of all of the above. 6sqft previously noted the Wall Street launch of co-working startup WeWork's communal living concept. Now, another co-living player, Common, who recently brought upscale shared housing to Crown Heights, will be opening the doors on a communal residence in prosaically trendy Williamsburg at the corner of South 3rd Street and Havemeyer. Common CEO Brad Hargreaves with partner Henry Development is building a 12-suite, 51-bedroom, 20,000-square-foot residence, the company's first ground-up effort here. The most buzz-worthy bit about this new addition is that members will pay $1,800 to $2,700 a month for a bedroom in one of 12 duplex suites, with one, two or three other roommates. The higher-end numbers represent rooms with a private bath–essentially a studio with friends with benefits.
What's the story here

February 17, 2016

INTERVIEW: Micro-Housing Architect Michael Chen Shares His Thoughts on the Tiny Trend

It's hard to flip through the home and garden television channels these days without seeing a program about tiny homes. But the trend has been gaining momentum for years, long before it made its way onto our TV screens. One of the creative forces behind this revolution is Michael Chen, firm principal of Michael K. Chen Architecture. With design offices in New York and San Francisco and 14 years of experience, Michael is considered a pioneer of innovative micro-housing. Not only does he share his "love of tinkering, of drawing, of discourse, and of making" with his clients, but he teaches at Pratt Institute School of Architecture in Brooklyn. Having recently finished the 5:1 Apartment–a compact, 390-square-foot space that fits all the functional and spatial elements for living, working, sleeping, dressing, entertaining, cooking, dining, and bathing–MKCA is taking the design world by storm with their thoughtful approach and clever product design. 6sqft decided to pick Michael's brain on just how he packs so much into such small footprints, where he thinks the micro-housing movement is headed, and the secrets behind some of his most spectacular spaces.
The interview, this way

February 17, 2016

POLL: Is IKEA a Blessing or a Curse for Relationships?

By now, we’ve all heard the jokes about IKEA breaking up relationships–whether it’s getting lost in the store’s maze, figuring out how to pronounce a word with ten consonants in a row, agreeing upon one of 400 throw pillows, or putting together an entire entertainment center with one Allen wrench. To poke fun at the common […]

City Living

February 12, 2016

Spotlight: Jacques Torres Takes Us Into His Whimsical World of Chocolate

On Valentine's Day, couples often express their love for each other with chocolate. And here in New York, acclaimed chocolatier Jacques Torres is naturally part of the conversation. Since 2000, Jacques has been sharing his chocolate creations through his company Jacques Torres Chocolate, which over the years has grown to nine shops around the city. But it all began back in his native France, where in 1986 he was the youngest pastry chef to be awarded the Meilleur Ouvrier de France (Best Craftsman of France) medal in pastry. Soon after, he moved to the United States, and a few years later began working as a pastry chef at famed restaurant Le Cirque. After making his mark in the restaurant industry, he devoted himself to chocolate full time, a decision that has certainly benefited those of us with a sweet tooth. With Valentine's Day this Sunday, 6sqft spoke with Jacques to learn more about his world of chocolate, how real estate has been an important part of it, and just how busy he gets around the holiday.
Read the interview this way

February 12, 2016

Office Romance by the Numbers: Which Professions Are Pairing Up

If you’ve got the urge to merge, it might be time for a career change. With the romance-obsessed holiday around the corner, the folks at Bloomberg Business delved into the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2014 American Community Survey to find out which professions are pairing off. To that end, they've created a fascinating interactive chart that reveals the most common occupation/relationship marriage matchups for any selected occupation. Some findings aren’t surprising: "High-earning women tend to pair up with their economic equals, while middle- and lower-tier women often marry up. In other words, female CEOs tend to marry other CEOs; male CEOs are okay marrying their secretaries."
So Who's Marrying Whom?

City Living

February 9, 2016

Student Project Gets Subway Riders to Scratch and Sniff

"If You Smell Something, Smell Something Else." Those words introduce a handful of signs that have been popping up at a few subway stations around the city, including Canal Street, Herald Square and Union Square. And most people, quite frankly, would rather do just that, if they had a choice...and now they do. School of Visual Arts graphic design student Angela Kim was acutely aware of this fact, and she decided to add a few more to the collection.
What's that smell?

February 9, 2016

Mapping 22 Million Citi Bike Rides Across NYC