Policy

We're always hearing about big-ticket condo buildings selling out–or nearly so–almost as soon as the first shovel hits the ground. While there's plenty of proof that preconstruction purchasing is a way to get in on the ground floor–so to speak–of a building whose value often skyrockets as soon as its elegant, move-in-ready homes hit the market, handing over a pile of cash and/or a big financial commitment based on a glossy brochure is still a huge leap of faith. Case in point, the New York Post brings us the tale of a buyer who took the leap for a $1.39 million Tribeca apartment with sweeping city views–and landed a pad with views of the brick wall next door.
Find out what happened

Policy

June 9, 2016

Work Begins on Times Square ‘Activity Areas’ to Confine Characters and Performers

Mayor de Blasio first started pushing to corral the costumed characters and topless performers in Times Square last August, and now almost a year later work has begun on a reconfiguration of the area, reports the Daily News. A preliminary map that divided the plazas into three zones was released in September, but a new, final version was issued on Wednesday. Called "TSq Plaza Rules Cheat Sheet," it splits the tourist mecca into Chill Zones (places to "sit, nosh, meditate, take in the sites"), De$ignated Activity Zones ("commercial activities, street entertainment, posing for photos, vendors of expressive matter... in exchange for compensation, donation, or tips"), and Express Lanes ("pedestrian through lanes, NYC style"). After the City Council passed legislation eight weeks ago that gave the Department of Transportation the power to relocate the performers and ticket sellers, workers began painting the colored lines to delineate the zones on Wednesday night.
See the full map

Policy

June 8, 2016

POLL: Will Solar Canopies Be the New Wave of Solar Power in NYC?

Installing solar systems in NYC can be tricky due to strict regulations and the complexity of buildings sites. But yesterday, 6sqft shared Brooklyn Solar Works' and Situ Studio's clever Solar Canopy, which "not only adheres to the city’s strict building codes, but has been developed specifically for the characteristically flat rooftops of NYC." The A-frame structures' columns bolt to rails attached to a building and are oriented at a 33-degree pitch to maximize panel efficiency when pointed south. And since they have a head clearance of ten feet, they don't eat up roof space. They've already been installed atop homes in Brooklyn, but at a price point of around $30,000 (though tax incentives bring that down to about $7,000) and a pretty obvious visual presence, can Solar Canopies replace traditional solar panel systems in the city?
Tell us what you think!

Local Governments Say State Law Gives MTA Too Much Zoning Freedom

Construction at Hudson Yards, where the MTA says it worked with local elected officials

June 8, 2016

Local Governments Say State Law Gives MTA Too Much Zoning Freedom

New Yorkers know all too well that the debt-ridden MTA is constantly on the hunt for ways to raise funds, most of which, like fare hikes and toll increases, come straight out of our pockets. But the Wall Street Journal brings to light another, less direct way the agency may be looking to boost revenue. Under a provision in the state budget, the MTA would be exempt from local laws and zoning regulations when developing property. For example, a new apartment building on MTA-owned and -leased land "could be exempt from local property taxes and not contribute to the cost of services for the new residents." Local governments are concerned that this stipulation would lead to build-happy developers seeking out MTA property to bypass typical local reviews.
READ MORE

June 7, 2016

New ‘Solar Canopy’ Can Be Installed Atop Any NYC Building to Provide Solar Power

Brooklyn SolarWorks and Situ Studio have devised a clever and flexible solar panel system that not only adheres to the city's strict building codes, but has been developed specifically for the characteristically flat rooftops of NYC. The "Solar Canopy," as it has been named, is designed as a tent-like structure with a coverage of 2.5-feet by five-feet and a head clearance of ten feet above its pathway—plenty more than the nine feet required by the city. SolarWorks and Situ have already installed their Solar Canopy at several properties in Brooklyn, including atop homes in Bed-Stuy, Park Slope and Crown Heights.
find out more here

June 6, 2016

Interview: Engineer Joseph Gulden Discusses Wooden Skyscrapers Surpassing 1,000 Feet

Could wood one day again be the material of choice for buildings? In response to rising construction costs and climate change, there's been a resurgence of interest in wood construction, with some even saying that we're in the beginnings of a "timber age." Many architects, engineers and builders have started to embrace the material, having erected, or making plans to construct, high-rises that reach several hundred feet in the air. In fact, in April, one architecture firm proposed bringing a 1,000-foot timber tower to London's Barbican. But is wood really a reliable alternative to concrete and steel? What about fire safety? And how tall can we really go at this point in time without compromising a building's structural integrity? To answer these questions and many more, 6sqft decided to pick the brain of DeSimone Project Manager Joseph Gulden. DeSimone is one of the world's leading engineering firms with a roster of top NYC projects that include Zaha Hadid's High Line project, 220 Central Park South and 45 East 22nd Street; Joseph himself is a licensed Professional Engineer (PE) as well as a licensed Structural Engineer (SE) with extensive experience constructing in regions with high seismic risk. He's also worked on numerous high-rises and tall wood structures both in the U.S. and abroad. Ahead Joseph discusses some of the challenges and advantages of building with wood, engineered timber, deforestation concerns, and if a wooden supertall will ever be in reach.
read the interview here

June 6, 2016

To Increase Affordable Housing, De Blasio Pushes Bill to Lift Development Caps

In a continued quest to push ahead with his goal of adding/preserving 200,000 units of affordable housing over the next decade, Mayor de Blasio is backing a bill that will end state-imposed FAR (floor-area-ratio) caps to promote the construction of affordable housing. By lifting the size limits for residential buildings, and thereby increasing the number of units, neighborhoods currently affected by the cap, such as the Financial District, Midtown, and Hudson Yards, "could see both market-rate and affordable-housing stock soar," reports the Post. However, opponents of the bill feel that there's an underlying motive, catering to developers who have recently been called out for making hefty contributions to de Blasio.
READ MORE

June 3, 2016

City Council Will Vote on Controversial Changes to the Landmarks Law

Over the past couple years, preservationists have waged two big battles pertaining to the 51-year-old landmarks law. First, there was Landmarks Preservation Commission's decision to de-calendar 95 historic sites--in other words, remove them from the "waiting list" to be considered for landmarking, leaving them in jeopardy. The LPC eventually withdrew this plan after massive public outcry, but then proposed a bill, Intro. 775, to implement timelines for reviewing possible landmarks, which was met with criticism again for a perceived catering to developers who want to demolish or alter a property. The proposal stalled, but the Council is back at it, now "proposing a half-dozen recommendations to simultaneously streamline and expand the landmarks process" that they will vote on this month, reports the Times.
Learn about all the points

Policy

Donald Trump’s Stake in Two Major Towers Came From a Lost Battle With China

When Donald Trump made an attempt to own the Empire State Building, he partnered with a foreign real estate investor, in this case from Japan. But it ended in a lawsuit and a public smear campaign before he ultimately sold back his stake. A similar turn of events surrounded his dealings with another high-profile Midtown building and related San Francisco tower; you may recall this quote from the day he announced his candidacy: "I beat China all the time. I own a big chunk of the Bank of America building and 1290 Avenue of the Americas that I got from China in a war. Very valuable." As the Times explains, the battle may not have gone down quite like the Donald says, with him schmoozing his way to the top and eventually waging a losing legal battle.
The full story ahead

May 31, 2016

Lift-Bit Is the World’s First Digitally-Transformable Sofa

By Rebecca Paul

For the first time, a remote will control a section of your living room furniture that doesn't include your lights or home entertainment center. From the international design and innovation studio Carlo Ratti Associati, Lift-Bit is the world’s first digitally-transformable sofa. The wired furniture was created with the support of Swiss-owned furniture company Vitra and is made up of a series of modular seats fully stacked with the Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies. Each separate seat has the ability to raise or lower independently, thus introducing a multitude of seating configurations and functionality that can be controlled with the click of a button.
READ MORE

$40 Million Overhaul Will Make 8 Parks More Neighborhood-Friendly

Image: Fort Greene Park Conservancy

May 25, 2016

$40 Million Overhaul Will Make 8 Parks More Neighborhood-Friendly

The city has announced plans to make eight of the city's parks more welcoming and integrated into their surrounding neighborhoods, the New York Times reports. According to officials, the green-space face-lifts are part of a plan to improve city parks and part of the larger goal of having 85 percent of New Yorkers living within walking distance of a park. The parks, chosen by a nomination process that used feedback from residents, include Seward Park on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Faber Pool and Park on the North Shore of Staten Island, Jackie Robinson Park in northern Manhattan, Van Cortlandt Park and Hugh Grant Circle and Virginia Park in the Bronx, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, and Fort Greene and Prospect Parks in Brooklyn. According to parks commissioner Mitchell J. Silver, the many improvement suggestions the city received were "proof positive of how excited New Yorkers are to increase accessibility and openness in their favorite parks.”
Find out more about the park plans

May 25, 2016

Governor Cuomo Finally Approves MTA’s $27B Capital Plan

Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio, notorious for their icy relationship, have been squabbling for well over a year about the MTA's $27 billion, five-year capital plan. Last October, they reached an agreement where the state would contribute $8.3 billion and the city $2.5 billion, neither of which would come from increasing taxes. Seven months later, the Daily News reports that Albany has finally approved the plan, which covers track and station repairs, new train cars, new high-tech buses, a MetroCard replacement, the Long Island Rail Road's East Side Access project, and, of course, the beginning of the Second Avenue Subway's phase two into East Harlem.
More details ahead

May 24, 2016

Landmarks Rejects Skinny Fort Greene House Because It ‘Looks Like Sing Sing Prison’

By Ondel Hylton

When talking townhouses, width matters. Aside from location and condition, width is usually the salient factor determining a home's desirability and pricing. While a 20-foot wide house is the coveted standard, the adored building type comes in an assortment of sizes, ranging from this narrow 12-foot wide townhouse in Park Slope upwards to the enviable 30-foot wide homes dotting Brooklyn Heights. On the tighter end of the spectrum, along a tree- and brownstone-lined block in the Fort Greene Historic District, R.A.Max Studio is seeking to secure the Landmarks Preservation Commission's approval to build a 12-foot wide, environmentally-conscious, two-family house at 39 South Elliott Place. Hemmed in on a vacant lot measuring just 1,200 square feet in area, the developer, Fort Greene Properties LLC, envisions building a four-story, 3,200-square-foot structure similar in scale to a previous house that stood at the site some sixty years ago, but with a more modern exterior. But this scheme did not go over so well at today's LPC hearing.
The full story, right this way

May 24, 2016

This Lamp Only Turns On If You Turn Your Phone Off

If you don't posses the willpower to put your smart phone down once and for all, this lamp will give you that extra nudge -- that is, if you don't want to walk around in the dark. Tranquillo, created by industrial designer Avid Kadam, is "an interactive piece of lighting where the user’s phone acts like a switch." Basically, if you want to see, you'll need to put your phone on the dock, where it'll go into do-not-disturb mode.
READ MORE

May 23, 2016

Developers Used a Four-Foot-Wide Lot to Build a Taller Upper East Side Tower

The go-to move for building taller than zoning allows is snatching up some air rights, but at 180 East 88th Street in Yorkville, developer DDG Partners found an obscure loophole to increase their building's height. Back in 2014, as the Times explains, DDG received approvals to slice off a four-foot-wide lot from the 30-foot-deep site. This became an official taxable lot, but because it provided a buffer between the building and the street, it allowed the building to avoid typical zoning for structures touching the street, rising to its 521-foot height (60 feet taller than would have been permitted otherwise) and having its entrance on Third Avenue. Now that the motive has become clear, local residents and elected officials are not happy, and adding fuel to the fire is the fact that DDG contributed at least $19,900 to Mayor Bill de Blasio.
The full story ahead

40 Percent of Manhattan’s Buildings Would Be Unbuildable Today

720 Park Avenue could not be built today. Image via Google Maps

May 20, 2016

40 Percent of Manhattan’s Buildings Would Be Unbuildable Today

Many feel that the city's current construction boom is unprecedented, but while towers may be reaching new heights, according to a new report by architecture firm KPF, nearly three-quarters of the city's existing square footage was actually built between the 1900s and 1930s. More interestingly, The Times points out that forty percent of the buildings that currently make up Manhattan could not be built today because they break at least one zoning code violation—among which include being too tall, having too many residential units, or having too much commercial space.
find out more here

May 18, 2016

Study: Is NYC ‘Youthful’ Enough to Keep Millennials From Leaving?

Yet another survey on the fascinating habits of millennials comes to us via Gothamist, this time taking a closer look at where that generation’s critical masses are migrating en masse, and why. The Youthful Cities Global Millenial Survey by the data jocks at Decode interviewed 15,000 millennials in 34 cities throughout the world, then divided the results by continent. The study focused on the idea that millennials were more likely to be satisfied enough to remain in their current city if it's perceived as a "youthful city." Some criteria for this magical metric include a government that listens to the concerns of young people, access to fulfilling jobs, safety, healthy residents and access to health services, good post-secondary education programs and clean green space. North American respondents saw affordability as the top concern, followed by employment, safety, and decent public transportation. The survey shows that millennials see "a direct link between having a youthful city–a dynamic, curious, open, inventive, connected and playful city–and economic and financial benefits, including higher employment rates, more jobs, a stronger economy and a thriving environment for small business and entrepreneurship."
We're happier, but less employed

May 16, 2016

New Studies Show Historic Preservation Doesn’t Cause Gentrification Woes

The city's preservation groups have reported that the results of a series of studies, prompted by the 50th anniversary of the city's Landmarks Law, have put some numbers behind the claim that landmarking doesn't harm, and may actually improve, the economic balance of neighborhood development and growth. According to Simeon Bankoff, executive director of the Historic Districts Council, "This is the first time which preservationists–who tend to be from the humanities and subsequently math-averse–have put real data behind anecdotes." The combined reports represent the most comprehensive study to date of the impacts of historic preservation in New York City.
Find out what the numbers say

Policy

Safer and Smaller Crane Could Cut Building Costs by Millions, But the City Doesn’t Allow Use

The Skypicker in use, via JOMAC

May 16, 2016

Safer and Smaller Crane Could Cut Building Costs by Millions, But the City Doesn’t Allow Use

Crane safety has made major headlines in recent months, after a crane collapse in February killed a passerby in Tribeca and reports surfaced about an uptick in construction site deaths. But at the start of the city's current building boom, there was a man and a crane who sought to make skyscraper construction safer, not to mention quicker and cheaper. Crain's introduces Dan Mooney, president of crane leasing company Vertikal Solutions and designer of the Skypicker, a lightweight mobile crane. It's only 10-feet tall with a 30-foot boom (compared with tower cranes that rise hundreds of feet), but Mooney says that's the point, that it "can fit in small spaces and is ideal for midsize buildings where tower cranes are overkill and mobile cranes or derricks are not big enough." When it was employed in 2012 for Midtown's Hilton Garden Inn, the 34-story building went up in just six months. After that, Mooney's phone was ringing off the hook with developers looking to save time and money on smaller projects, and he had four more Skypickers built. So why are they now sitting idle in a warehouse in Astoria?
Find out here

Policy

May 11, 2016

Grow Vegetables in Your Apartment Effortlessly With Foop and Your Smartphone

By Rebecca Paul

Caring for plants at home is a nice idea, but growing food inside your city apartment is an even better one. Now with Foop, a hydroponic pod from Japan, you can grow vegetables and herbs, like lettuce, parsley, basil, and mesclun with almost no effort. The process couldn't be easier; The first step is to purchase of your desired vegetable seeds, and the second to place the seeds into Foop's "cultivation cup." After the seeds are in place, you set a time frame for them to grow using Foop's app. When the vegetables are ripe for picking, you'll get a notification on your phone!
READ MORE

May 10, 2016

Watch for Falling Bricks: The Importance of Brickwork Repair and Regulation

Scaffolding is more often than not seen as a nuisance and a blight, but the reality is that what’s going on behind all that metal, wood and mesh is a major necessity to keeping us all safe. While most of us wouldn’t give a second thought to taking a seat in front of a fully-constructed […]

Policy

Stuff You Should Know: How Eminent Domain Works

The Atlantic Yards (now known as Pacific Park) in Brooklyn where eminent domain was used to take property. Image via Atlantic Yards Report

May 4, 2016

Stuff You Should Know: How Eminent Domain Works

By Penelope Bareau

It has been called the most coercive public policy after the draft. It has also been said that without it, construction in major cities would come to a shuddering stop. What is this powerful, controversial tool? Can both statements be true? Eminent domain is the policy by which a governmental agency can acquire or "take" property from an owner unwilling to sell in order to build something else there, and it has been around for centuries. Some say it derives from the medieval concept of the divine right of kings, empowered by God the Almighty to be sovereign over all. And by inference, that includes the land, which individual owners occupy and trade at the king's sufferance. When he wants it back, it is his right to take it. So under eminent domain, all land theoretically belongs to the state, which can assume control at any time.
more on eminent domain here

April 29, 2016

Don’t Look Up: Would Traffic Signals in the Pavement Protect NYC Phone Gazers?