East Village

August 23, 2018

Help save Tompkins Square Park’s Halloween Dog Parade

One of the city's favorite Halloween diversions for almost 30 years, the annual Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade, may not happen this year due to lack of funds. As Gothamist reports, the annual celebration of canine (and owner) creativity is facing a financial shortage due to a ballooning budget–mostly due to insurance costs–that has corresponded with growing attendance, according to Garrett Rosso, the parade's organizer and a longtime volunteer at the Tompkins Square dog run. A fan of the parade, Therese Moriarty, has started a GoFundMe campaign with a goal of $15,000.
Find out how you can help
August 8, 2018

LPC approves Morris Adjmi’s condo project for East Village gas explosion site

The Landmarks Preservation Commission approved on Tuesday a seven-story condo on the site of the 2015 East Village gas explosion. Designed by Morris Adjmi Architects, the project was first presented to the commission in July but was sent back to the drawing board over concerns regarding the windows and gloomy coloring. According to Curbed NY, the firm's new design features a brighter facade, more traditional windows to reflect the character of the East Village and a permanent plaque to honor the two people that died during the explosion.
Get the details
July 27, 2018

Merchant’s House Museum files petition in court against construction of adjacent eight-story hotel

The Merchant's House Museum and its supporters filed a petition on Monday in New York Supreme Court against the construction of an eight-story hotel planned next door. The 186-year-old East Village home at 29 East Fourth Street belonged to hardware merchant Seabury Tredwell, who bought the 10,000-square-foot residence for $18,000 in 1832. The museum, which has been remarkably preserved since then, became the first property in Manhattan to be designated a New York City landmark in 1965. But landmark status does not guarantee protection from any adjacent construction projects. The museum is now taking legal action against the hotel project because, as its executive director, Margaret "Pi" Halsey Gardiner, told the WSJ: "It's not going to be able to survive construction next door, I guarantee you."
Get the details
July 23, 2018

East Village Target’s CBGB odes get mixed reviews

Target officially opened its first store in the East Village on Saturday, to mixed reviews from locals. During its grand opening, the chain recreated the storefront of CBGB, a famous punk rock club where the Ramones, Patti Smith and Blondie played, with a red-and-white awning that reads "TRGT." Located on 14th Street and Avenue A, the design included red newspaper boxes similar to old ones of the Village Voice paper, fake fire-hydrants and a temporary facade made to look like the housing tenements of the Village in the 1970s and 1980s. Jeremiah Moss, the author behind the Vanishing New York blog, called the new store "the most deplorable commodification of local neighborhood culture I've ever witnessed." As of Monday, the CBGB-themed storefront is no longer up.
Details here
July 20, 2018

Development dispute over P.S. 64 in the East Village continues, two decades later

P.S. 64  in 2013, courtesy of GVSHP Twenty years ago, on July 20, 1998, Mayor Rudy Giuliani sold former Public School 64 on the Lower East Side, then home to the Charas-El Bohio Community and Cultural Center, to a developer, despite opposition from the building’s occupants and the surrounding community. The decision and the building remain mired in controversy to this day. Community groups and elected officials will hold a rally in front of the building at 605 East 9th Street on Friday at 6 pm to mark the 20th anniversary of the sale and to call on Mayor Bill de Blasio to return the building to a community use.
More here
July 19, 2018

New East Village Target store now open in Extell’s EVGB rental building

It might seem like it's been there forever, but the new East Village Target store at 14th Street and Avenue A opened its doors this week ahead of a scheduled grand opening Saturday, July 21. The small-format chain icon occupies the corner spot in the EVGB ("East Village's Greatest Building") rental building that opened at 510 East 14th Street this year and is now stocked and ready to supply residents (the building is 50 percent leased according to a press release from developer Extell) and the rest of the 'hood with everything from cosmetics and cleaning supplies to apples and Amy's Bowls to the cheap-but-funky home goods the store is famous for. Also beer.
Already, complaints about the beer selection
July 11, 2018

An on-trend renovation and high-floor light elevate this $550K East Village walk-up

Apartments on some of Alphabet City's most charming streets, such as this $549,000 fifth-floor co-op at 323 East 8th Street, have the good fortune of being steps from some of Manhattan's loveliest public gardens and Tompkins Square Park as well as great bars, cafes and restaurants in every direction. Those charms often offset the sacrifices of tiny, un-renovated properties–or, on the other end of the spectrum, overpriced sleek–often also tiny–new construction. This cute co-op may be a hike up the stairs, but a stunning and stylish renovation and top-notch fixtures and finishes make it more home than crash pad.
More exposed brick, this way
July 10, 2018

LPC sends Morris Adjmi’s proposal for East Village gas explosion site back to the drawing board

Almost three years after an explosion caused by an illegal tap into a gas main at the corner of Second Avenue and East Seventh Street destroyed three buildings at 119-123 Second Avenue and killed two people, new renderings have been revealed of Morris Adjmi Architects' proposed seven-story, 21-unit condo that would replace the circa-1886 tenements that once stood there. As it's within the East Village/Lower East Side Historic District, it needs approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission. After reviewing the plans this afternoon and deciding that the proposal is "close, but not quite there," they've sent Adjmi and Yaniv Shaky Cohen’s Nexus Building Development Group back to the drawing board over concerns regarding the windows, storefront, and coloring. Neighbors and those affected by the tragedy are also calling for a commemorative plaque to be incorporated into the design.
Find out more
June 15, 2018

Remembering the worst disaster in NYC maritime history: The sinking of the General Slocum ferry

PS General Slocum; photo via Wikimedia On June 15, 1904, a disaster of unprecedented proportions took place in New York City, resulting in the loss of over 1,000 lives, mostly women and children. This largely forgotten event was the greatest peacetime loss of life in New York City history prior to the September 11th attacks, forever changing our city and the ethnic composition of today’s East Village. It was on that day that the ferry General Slocum headed out from the East 3rd Street pier for an excursion on Long Island, filled with residents of what was then called Kleindeutschland, or Little Germany. This German-American enclave in today’s East Village was then the largest German-speaking community in the world outside of Berlin and Vienna.
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June 13, 2018

Renderings revealed for Morris Adjmi’s proposed luxury condo on East Village gas explosion site

Rendering by Morris Adjmi Architects Just over three years ago, an explosion from an illegal tap into the gas main destroyed three buildings on Second Avenue and killed two people in the East Village. Last year, two lots of the three at the site were sold for just over $9 million. And this week renderings have been revealed for a new condo building set to rise on the same plot. The images were found by EV Grieve in an application for a Certificate of Appropriateness by the new building's developer, Yaniv Shaky Cohen's Nexus Building Development Group. The plan will be reviewed by Community Board 3's Landmarks Committee next Monday. (A paper meeting notice was taped to the fence surrounding the property on Monday, according to EV Grieve). Designed by Morris Adjmi Architects, the renderings depict a single 21-apartment, six-story, grey brick luxury building to encompass both lots, with a detailed cornice and ground floor retail.
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June 13, 2018

17-foot stacked, bronze rhino sculpture finds new home in Downtown Brooklyn

Photo via Goodbye Rhinos project The iconic stacked rhino sculpture is switching boroughs. Designed by artists, Gillie and Marc Schattner, The Last Three is a 17-foot-tall, bronze sculpture depicting the last three Northern White Rhinos Najin, Fatu and Sudan, and represents a protest of rhino horn sales. The artists announced on Tuesday that the sculpture will move from its current home at Astor Place and be permanently installed at Forest City New York’s MetroTech Center in Downtown Brooklyn. The first public viewing will start Wednesday at 6 pm.
Get the details
June 11, 2018

This East Village duplex condo hides a solarium, a garden and minimalist interiors for $2.2M

The East Village is famous for its creative and quirky-cool spaces, and this surprisingly spacious duplex at 407 East 12th Street is on the cool end of quirky, as long as you don’t mind a bit of street-level living and a more-than-bargain price tag at $2.195 million. The stylishly renovated 1,400-square-foot two-bedroom condo with a charming private garden looks as much like a southern California pad as a New York City apartment, complete with glass-clad solarium. Times are good in the neighborhood: The adjacent one-bedroom unit was listed last year for $1.7 million and sold in three months for about $1.6M.
Take the tour
May 17, 2018

Elizabeth Blackwell’s NYC: The historic sites where America’s first female doctor made her mark

One of the most radical and influential women of the 19th century changed the course of public health history while living and working in Greenwich Village and the East Village. Elizabeth Blackwell, America’s first female doctor, established cutting-edge care facilities and practices throughout these neighborhoods, the imprint of which can still be felt to this day in surviving institutions and buildings. In fact, one recently received a historic plaque to mark this ground-breaking but often overlooked piece of our history.
Take a tour of Elizabeth Blackwell's NYC
May 16, 2018

$1.2M East Village condo has a cool blue kitchen and a roof deck with a view

This one-bedroom East Village "penthouse" condo at 72 East 3rd Street, asking $1.19 million, is on the market for the first time in 20 years, but it has a fresher look than any we've seen in a while. On a block with lots of neighborhood history and plenty of charm, it has recently gotten a stunning custom renovation and comes with a private roof deck with unrestricted Empire State Building views.
Take a look
May 14, 2018

This $1.4M East Village co-op has a private terrace and sits on a magical block

This utterly charming "penthouse" on the third/top floor of a pale mint green townhouse at 262 East 7th Street has the good fortune of being on one of the neighborhood's most beloved blocks. This particular corner of Alphabet City–across from the Gaudi-esque Flowerbox Building condo and home to a landmarked row of rare historic townhomes–is one those New York City secrets hidden in plain sight. Asking $1.35 million, this two-bedroom co-op doesn't skimp on modern style or comfort. And there's the added bonus of a lovely private terrace.
Get a closer look
May 10, 2018

Social media influencer and DJ’s ethereal East Village triplex hits the market for $2.65M

Social media influencer, model, and entrepreneur Hannah Bronfman and her DJ husband Brendan Fallis are selling their renovated East Village townhouse triplex, listed for $2.65 million. After purchasing the house at 214 East 9th Street for $1.6 in 2004, the couple undertook a massive gut renovation resulting in a gorgeous, light-filled airy home that was featured in Architectural Digest, complete with a rooftop garden deck and sleek, minimalist style.
Take a look around
April 26, 2018

Lottery opens for 28 affordable apartments in Alphabet City, from $596/month

A 110-unit, mixed-use project in Alphabet City is nearing completion, and with that, has just launched its affordable housing lottery for 28 apartments. The mixed-income units are available to those earning 40, 60, and 130 percent of the area median income and range from $596/month studios to $2,519/month two-bedrooms. The 75/25 project at 79 Avenue D offers a terrace, landscaped roof deck, fitness center, lounge, bike room, and, of course, proximity to all the trendy spots in the East Village and Lower East Side.
Find out if you qualify
April 26, 2018

Victoria’s Secret model Sara Sampaio scores a $3.5M pad in sexy new Steiner East Village condos

Victoria's Secret Angel and Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Sara Sampaio just bought a $3.51 million condo at 438 East 12th street in the recently-completed Steiner East Village development (h/t New York Post).  The 1,604 square-foot three-bedroom unit was last listed for $3.6 million. The neighborhood newcomer (the building, not the model) is known for its designer interiors and luxurious amenities like a teak-ribbed pool, 5,000 square-foot rooftop park and a parking garage.
Take a peek
April 17, 2018

Office building in the Village’s ‘Silicon Alley’ gets a new design

Plans for the office development proposed on the site of the former St. Denis Hotel in the East Village progressed last week, after Normandy Real Estate Partners filed new permit applications. Located at 799 Broadway, the 165-year-old hotel will be demolished and later replaced with a 12-story office building. New permits reveal a change in architects, from CetraRuddy to Perkins+Will as well as a slight shrinkage of space, from 190,000 to 183,000 square feet (h/t The Real Deal).
Find out more
March 16, 2018

Banksy unveils mural at historic Houston Bowery Wall protesting Turkish artist’s imprisonment

The provocative and still anonymous artist Banksy has come back to New York after a five-year hiatus (he was last seen in New York selling his work for $60 a piece in Central Park). After a tease yesterday, his 70-foot mural on the Houston Bowery Wall, made famous by Keith Haring in 1982, depicts 365 hash marks and an image of the Turkish artist Zehra Dogan behind prison bars and the final prison bar transforms into a pencil. The image represents the amount of time Dogan has spent in jail for painting a picture of a war-torn town in Turkey.
Get the whole story and see more photos
March 9, 2018

East Village’s landmarked Bathhouse Studios building is up for sale for $20M

Once a free public bathhouse, now transformed into studio space, the Bathhouse Studios in the East Village has been listed for sale. The landmarked Neo-Italian Renaissance style building opened in 1905, offering public baths to the nearby crowded tenements. (Back then, bathing facilities were non-existent in apartments.) People used the seven bathtubs and 94 showers up until 1958, when the building shuttered and fell into disrepair. In 1995, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Eddie Adams and his wife Alyssa Adams bought and converted it into a high-end studio and work space. And now, it's a professional studio space you're able to rent out, or outright buy for a hefty $19.95 million (h/t EV Grieve).
It comes with air rights
March 6, 2018

Extell’s Target-topping East Village luxury rental is now open; rents start at $3,695/month

Ambitiously dubbed EVGB–for "East Village's Greatest Building"–Extell Development's new rental building at 510 East 14th Street between Avenues A and B just hit the rental market. In addition to amenities like a fitness center, saltwater pool and rooftop deck, the new building is perhaps best known for its also-new retail anchor tenant, a two-level Target store, the chain’s first location in the neighborhood. The building's 110 market-rate and 50 affordable–the lottery for those launched recently–units are expected to be ready for occupancy by April. According to the building's just-launched website, available apartments range from studios for $3,695 a month to a three-bedroom unit for $12,425.
Take a look and find out more
March 1, 2018

15 female trailblazers of the Village: From the first woman doctor to the ‘godmother of punk’

Greenwich Village is well known as the home to libertines in the 1920s and feminists in the 1960s and '70s. But going back to at least the 19th century, the neighborhoods now known as Greenwich Village, the East Village, and Noho were home to pioneering women who defied convention and changed the course of history, from the first female candidate for President, to America’s first woman doctor, to the "mother of birth control." This Women’s History Month, here are just a few of those trailblazing women, and the sites associated with them.
Learn all about these amazing women
February 8, 2018

Live above Target in Extell’s new East Village rental, from $1,114/month

An Extell Development rental building in the East Village is now accepting applications for 50 newly constructed, middle-income units. Not only does the chic building at 524 East 14th Street boast amenities like a fitness center, pool and rooftop deck, it will also have a two-level Target, the chain's first location in the neighborhood. Qualifying New Yorkers earning 70 and 130 percent of the area median income can apply for units ranging from $1,114/studios to $2,733/month two-bedrooms.
Find out if you quality
February 1, 2018

How an East Village building went from gangster hangout to Andy Warhol’s Electric Circus

Fifty years ago this week, the Velvet Underground released their second album, "White Light/White Heat." Their darkest record, it was also arguably the Velvet’s most influential, inspiring a generation of alternative musicians with the noisy, distorted sound with which the band came to be so closely identified. Perhaps the place with which the Velvets have come to be most closely identified is the Electric Circus, the Andy Warhol-run East Village discotheque where they performed as the house band as part of a multi-media experience known as the "Exploding Plastic Inevitable." Many New Yorkers would be surprised to discover that the space the club once occupied at 19-25 St. Mark's Place has since been home to a Chipotle and a Supercuts. But the history of the building that launched the career of the godfathers of punk is full of more twists, turns, and ups and downs than one the Velvet’s extended distorted jams that once reverberated within its walls.
The whole history right here