Lower East Side

Starting in October, the Tenement Museum will stay open late every Thursday night for exclusive events, programs, and tours. Recently added programming includes a new permanent tour, a pop-up exhibition, and a costumed interpreter tour, all offered on Thursday nights. The Lower East Side museum, which opened in 1992, is a national historic site with a mission to share the stories of immigrants in New York City.
Details here

Events & Things To Do

How the East Village grew to have the most community gardens in the country

Community Gardeners at the Bowery Houston Community Farm and Garden, 1974 via Liz Christie Community Garden

September 19, 2018

How the East Village grew to have the most community gardens in the country

By Lucie Levine

Awash in gray pavement and grayer steel, New York can be a metropolis of muted hues, but with 39 community gardens blooming between 14th Street and East Houston Street, the East Village is the Emerald City. The neighborhood boasts the highest concentration of community gardens in the country thanks to a proud history of grassroots activism that has helped transform once-abandoned lots into community oases. By the mid-1970s, as the city fought against a ferocious fiscal crisis, nearly 10,000 acres of land stood vacant throughout the five boroughs. In 1973, Lower East resident Liz Christie, who lived on Mott Street, refused to let the neglected lots in her neighborhood lie fallow. She established the urban garden group Green Guerillas, a rogue band of planters who lobbed “seed bombs” filled with fertilizer, seeds, and water into vacant, inaccessible lots, hoping they would flourish and fill the blighted spaces with greenery.
Get to the root of the story!

History

August 29, 2018

Asking $850,000, this cozy HDFC co-op on the Lower East Side is the perfect starter home

A prime Lower East Side location for under $1 million, a top-floor duplex layout with lots of windows, and a super-low maintenance fee of $498/month--no, it's not too good to be true. This charming unit at 208 Forsyth Street is an HDFC co-op, meaning that prospective buyers can't make more than a certain amount in order to qualify. And with loads of exposed brick and wood ceiling beams, an adorable spiral staircase, and a country-chic kitchen, this $850,000 is even more of a deal.
Check it out and learn the income requirements

Distinctive Homes

Tenement Museum will open an info kiosk at the Market Line inside Essex Crossing

Image via Tenement Museum

August 16, 2018

Tenement Museum will open an info kiosk at the Market Line inside Essex Crossing

The Tenement Museum will open a new kiosk at the Market Line inside the Essex Crossing development on the Lower East Side, developer Delancy Street Associates announced on Thursday. The kiosk will feature a screen with tour times and other information about the museum. When it opens later this year, the Market Line will run three city blocks and include 100 locally-sourced food, art, fashion and music vendors. The market, projected to be the largest of its kind in New York City, sits inside Essex Crossing, a 1.9-million-square foot mixed-use development.
Get the details

Events & Things To Do

July 20, 2018

See photos from Karla and James Murray’s ‘Storefront’ project on NYC’s mom and pop stores

6sqft has been closely following the progress of photographers James and Karla Murray‘s Seward Park art installation “Mom-and-Pops of the LES,” featuring four nearly life-size images of Lower East Side business that have mostly disappeared. The pair, who have spent the last decade chronicling the place of small neighborhood businesses in 21st century New York City, was chosen for the public art project by Art in the Parks UNIQLO Park Expressions Grant Program and ran a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the wood-frame structure’s build out. James and Karla will be having a free public exhibition of their photography for "Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York" at The Storefront Project (@thestorefrontproject) at 70 Orchard Street from July 25-August 12, 2018, with an opening reception on Wednesday, July 25th from 6-9 PM.
Find out more about this cool project

Events & Things To Do

July 18, 2018

First phase of Bjarke Ingels’ BIG U storm protection system begins planning process

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy in 2013, the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Rebuild By Design contest sought proposals for flood protection systems. Among the seven finalists was Bjarke Ingels' and One Architecture & Urbanism's BIG U, a flooding solution for Manhattan that doubles as a social environment. Now after five years, the first phase of the 10-mile barrier system is getting underway. Rebuild By Design and Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES) have released an RFP for a stewardship partner for the BIG U's East Side Coastal Resiliency Project (ESCR), a $335 million reconstruction of the 64-acre, 1.5-mile East River Park. With construction expected to kick off in spring 2019, the partner will "explore stewardship models with funding mechanisms that could enhance the long-term operating budget while addressing issues of equity."
All the details

Image via Wikimedia Commons

July 16, 2018

The New York bagel: The ‘hole’ story from history and chemistry to where you’ll find the good ones

A few international symbols of New York City–like the tough cabbie, the expensive apartment and the pizza-snatching rat–need no explanation and are too scary to think about except when absolutely necessary. Others, like the humble-yet-iconic bagel, possess New York City cred, but when asked, most people can’t quite come up with a reason. Bagels weren’t invented in New York, but the party line is that if they're made here, they’re better than anywhere. Some say it’s the water; others chalk it up to the recipe, the method, ethnic preference or all of the above. What’s the story behind the New York bagel? Who are the true bagel heroes? What makes a great bagel great? And those frozen bagels? Blame Connecticut.
Bagel squirrel vs. Pizza rat

VIDEO: See ‘Mom-and-Pops of the Lower East Side’ sculpture being installed in Seward Park

Video © Michael Ursone Films

June 27, 2018

VIDEO: See ‘Mom-and-Pops of the Lower East Side’ sculpture being installed in Seward Park

6sqft has been excitedly following the progress of photographers James and Karla Murray's Seward Park art installation "Mom-and-Pops of the LES," from the announcement that they'd been chosen through the Art in the Parks UNIQLO Park Expressions Grant Program to their wildly successful Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the wood-frame structure's build out. And now the piece, featuring four nearly life-size images of Lower East Side business that have mostly disappeared, is finally complete. James and Karla shared with 6sqft an exclusive time-lapse video of the installation process and chatted with us about why they chose these particular storefronts, what the build-out was like, and how they hope New Yorkers will learn from their message.
Watch the video and hear from James and Karla

Events & Things To Do

New renderings and details for Perkins Eastman’s 730-foot tower at controversial Two Bridges site

259 Clinton Street via Perkins Eastman

June 25, 2018

New renderings and details for Perkins Eastman’s 730-foot tower at controversial Two Bridges site

Additional details and a new rendering have been unveiled this week for a 62-story Lower East Side skyscraper designed by Perkins Eastman Architects, nearly two years after 6sqft first wrote about the project. Located at 259 Clinton Street, the tower is a part of a controversial three-building project coming to the waterfront of the Two Bridges neighborhood. According to YIMBY, latest plans for 259 Clinton Street, developed by Starret Development, call for a 730-foot tower, slightly higher than an earlier 724-foot proposal.
More this way

Help bring this sculpture of lost Lower East Side mom-and-pops to Seward Park

Rendering of the installation

May 23, 2018

Help bring this sculpture of lost Lower East Side mom-and-pops to Seward Park

After publishing their first account of small businesses in NYC a decade ago with their seminal book “Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York,” photographers James and Karla Murray are now ready to bring their work back to the street. As 6sqft previously reported, "the husband-and-wife team has designed an art installation for Seward Park, a wood-frame structure that will feature four nearly life-size images of Lower East Side business that have mostly disappeared--a bodega, a coffee shop/luncheonette (the recently lost Cup & Saucer), a deli (Katz's), and a newsstand (Chung’s Candy & Soda Stand). Though the installation is part of the Art in the Parks UNIQLO Park Expressions Grant Program, there are still high costs associated with materials, fabrication, and installation, so James and Karla have launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise the additional funds.
More details

Events & Things To Do

Adriana Urbina brings Venezuelan flavors to Nolita’s De Maria while empowering female chefs

Restuarant photo credit: Nicole Franzen; Portrait credit: Kathryn Sheldon

May 22, 2018

Adriana Urbina brings Venezuelan flavors to Nolita’s De Maria while empowering female chefs

Earlier this month, Nolita restaurant De Maria won the coveted James Beard Award for best restaurant design or renovation in North America. The designers at The MP Shift replicated an artist’s studio, with Soho in the ‘70s and the Bauhaus movement in mind. But it's not just the space that's beautiful; Venezuelan-born chef Adriana Urbina's dishes, composed heavily of veggies and seafood, look like they were made for Instagram. Outside of the visuals, however, what sets De Maria apart is Urbina's socially conscious approach. Not only does she mix her South American heritage with her fine dining background (she started her career as an apprentice at Michelin 3-star restaurant in Spain, Martín Berasategui and was a 2017 winner of Food Network's "Chopped"), but she's committed to empowering female chefs and business owners, as well as using food as a way to connect people and raise awareness about what's going on in the world. 6sqft recently enjoyed an insanely delicious meal at De Maria and chatted with Adriana about her journey, the restaurant scene in NYC, and why this Nolita restaurant is the perfect place to see out her dreams.
Meet Adriana and get hungry!

New renderings and construction shots of Essex Street Market ahead of fall opening at Essex Crossing

Interior image via SHoP Architects; construction shot via NYCEDC

May 15, 2018

New renderings and construction shots of Essex Street Market ahead of fall opening at Essex Crossing

Construction of Essex Street Market's new home across Delancey Street continues to move along before its scheduled opening this fall. Designed by SHoP Architects, the market sits above the 150,000-square-foot Market Line, which will stretch two levels and connect three sites of the Essex Crossing development. The market's first phase is expected to wrap up in October, bringing 13 new vendors to the site in addition to the 24 vendors from the historic Essex Street Market. Additional renderings released by the city's Economic Development Corporation this week highlight the brightness of the space, courtesy of the huge windows, 60-foot ceilings and use of light-reflective material. "As we near completion on the project, we are excited to soon open a world-class public market for the local Lower East Side community,” NYCEDC President James Patchett said in a statement to 6sqft. “The new Essex Market will preserve the current community-based spirit while creating additional space to expand the market’s offerings, provide new jobs, and present a higher level of goods and services to visitors and area residents alike.”
Get the details

April 18, 2018

The world’s first public outdoor squash court opens on the Lower East Side

By Michelle Sinclair Colman

Squash is often considered the sport of prep schools and Ivy League colleges, but four squash enthusiasts are changing that, one court at a time. The NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver officially opened the first-of-its-kind in the world outdoor squash court at Hamilton Fish Park on the Lower East Side. This amazingly cool court looks more like an Apple Store glass cube than a fitness facility. Even cooler, it's funded by the nonprofit Public Squash and is free to the public and will offer free clinics throughout the summer.
Get all the details!

April 12, 2018

ODA’s new Lower East Side project looks a lot like Zaha Hadid’s High Line condo

By Annie Doge

Not only does 520 West 28th Street lay claim to being Zaha Hadid's only New York City project, but its futuristic design, marked by the late starchitect's signature curvaceous forms, is unlike any other building in the city. But ODA Architects may be looking to change that, as a proposed rendering uncovered by CityRealty for a condo at 208 Delancey Street looks strikingly similar to Hadid's High Line-hugging residence. The Lower East Side project shares its inspiration's L-shape, squat massing, and, most importantly, curved glass corners and extending balconies.
Find out more

Construction kicks off for Handel Architects’ mixed-use tower at Essex Crossing

Rendering via Moso Studio

April 10, 2018

Construction kicks off for Handel Architects’ mixed-use tower at Essex Crossing

Construction of Handel Architects' mixed-use tower planned for the Lower East Side's Essex Crossing development has officially begun. Located at 180 Broome Street, the tower sits at the Manhattan entrance to the Williamsburg Bridge, the structure which influenced the oversized concrete frames in the building's design. The tower includes 263 apartments, retail at street level, office space on levels two through five and a section of the massive marketplace below ground, the Market Line. According to CityRealty, the start of construction at 180 Broome makes it the sixth site to begin building in the nine-site complex.
Take a peek

Essex Street Market announces more vendors for new Essex Crossing location

Rendering courtesy of SHoP Architects for Market Line

March 29, 2018

Essex Street Market announces more vendors for new Essex Crossing location

This week's announcement of more vendors that will make up the inaugural roster for Essex Street Market's new home at the Essex Crossing mega-development included some favorites from around the city along with current faces, reports Bedford + Bowery. New to the market when the 24-story building at 115 Delancey Street opens will be Williamsburg's Middle Eastern takeout spot Samesa, East Village herbal apothecary Roots, Fort Greene florist Saffron and Union Square Greenmarket regular Josephine's Feast!
What else is in the works?

March 28, 2018

The final frontier of history and hip: Developments and amenities shaping the Lower East Side

By Michelle Sinclair Colman

For many New Yorkers, the Lower East Side is one neighborhood that still has a lot of authenticities and good 'ole New York grit left. It has been described as Manhattan’s "last frontier of cool. The promised land of old as well as new... Where the Godfather lives side by side with a hipster movie." Put more tangibly by Benjamin Baccash of Taconic Investment Partners, the developer of LES's Essex Crossing, "The Lower East Side has wonderful restaurants, art galleries, and great street life. It’s a real neighborhood and that’s what a lot of people are looking for." In addition to great diversity, personality, and transportation, the city is undertaking huge improvements on the east river waterfront, and developers are erecting new developments at all corners of the 'hood. Ahead, 6sqft takes a look at everything that's keeping the Lower East Side a vestige of old New York during its contemporary resurgence, from massive projects like Essex Crossing to a booming art gallery scene.
As Irving Berlin once said, “Everybody ought to have a Lower East Side in their life.”

Real Estate Trends

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

Photos courtesy of Goldman Properties

March 16, 2018

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

By Michelle Sinclair Colman

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

Nina Dobrev tours $2M condo on the Lower East Side

Photo of Nina Dobrev via Wikimedia

March 1, 2018

Nina Dobrev tours $2M condo on the Lower East Side

By Annie Doge

Nina Dobrev, best known for her role in "The Vampire Diaries," appears to be making the move to Manhattan. The actress recently toured a two-bedroom pad at Blue, a Lower East Side condominium at 105 Norfolk Street, according to the New York Post. The roughly 1,400-square-foot condo boasts lots of natural light, state-of-the-art appliances and a private outdoor space. Originally listed for $2.31 million in 2016, the condo is currently asking $1.88 million.
See inside

Celebrities

NYC Ferry routes coming to the Lower East Side and the Bronx this summer

Image © 6sqft

February 28, 2018

NYC Ferry routes coming to the Lower East Side and the Bronx this summer

Two neighborhoods underserved by transit will get a bit more accessible this summer. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Wednesday that construction has officially kicked off for new NYC Ferry landings on the Lower East Side and in the Soundview neighborhood of the Bronx. Skanska USA will construct four docks at Corlears Hook, East 90th Street and Stuyvesant Cove on the East River as well as at Clason Point Park in Soundview. According to the city, the new LES and Bronx routes will serve more than 1.4 million riders each year.
More here

Transit

February 27, 2018

‘Store Front’ photographers plan a life-size memorial to lost Lower East Side mom-and-pops

Photographers James and Karla Murray published their first account of small businesses in NYC a decade ago with their seminal book “Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York,” which captured hundreds of mom-and-pops and their iconic facades, many of them since shuttered, along with interviews with the business owners. They've since published two follow-ups, "New York Nights" and "Store Front II-A History Preserved," winning countless awards and gaining local and national fame for their documentation of a vanishing retail culture. And this summer, they're bringing their work to a larger scale than ever. The Lo-Down reports that the husband-and-wife team has designed an art installation for Seward Park, a wood-frame structure that will feature four nearly life-size images of Lower East Side business that have disappeared--a bodega, a coffee shop/luncheonette (the recently lost Cup & Saucer), a vintage store, and a newsstand.
More details

Events & Things To Do

February 7, 2018

New details and renderings for Essex Crossing’s Market Line, NYC’s largest food hall

It's been over a year since we got our first look at Market Line, the 150,000-square-foot market that will anchor the Essex Crossing mega-development. It will serve as the new home for the Lower East Side's iconic, 76-year-old Essex Street Market and boast two indoor parks, a beer garden, 150 food vendors, and 20 retail spaces--all adding up to the city's largest food hall. Eater now has spotted a fresh set of renderings of Market Line, as well as the first vendor announcement. Among those who will be hawking their grub are Queens' famed taco spot Tortilleria Nixtamal, the Upper East Side's 100-year-old German meat market Schaller & Weber, and the East Village's Ukrainian institution Veselka.
Check out the other vendors and more renderings

January 30, 2018

Affordable senior housing development is the first building to open at Essex Crossing

Nine months after the housing lottery launched at Dattner Architects' 175 Delancey Street, a 100 percent affordable building for seniors at the Lower East Side's Essex Crossing, Mayor de Blasio has announced that the development is officially open. Not only does this mark the first opening for the nine buildings rising at the 1.9 million-square-foot mega-development, but the ceremony held earlier today included the "emotional homecoming of six New Yorkers displaced from their homes 50 years ago" when the area's working-class tenement district was razed under a Moses-era urban renewal initiative. Since that time, debates over what to do with the vacant area raged on, with local residents and affordable housing advocates such as Frances Goldin advocating that it be used for low-income housing. To mark these efforts, and their ultimate success, 175 Delancey Street was named the Frances Goldin Senior Apartments.
Find out more here

Two new Grand Street Guild towers will bring 400 all-affordable units to the Lower East Side

Proposed site; Image via Google Maps.

January 29, 2018

Two new Grand Street Guild towers will bring 400 all-affordable units to the Lower East Side

Housing organization Grand Street Guild has announced plans to build two 15-story towers as part of a 100 percent affordable housing project that will bring 400 new apartments–including over 150 reserved for seniors–to the Lower East Side. The not-for-profit group, which was formed by the Archdiocese of New York, is the owner of the 26-story Grand Street Guild towers, built in 1973 and home to over 1,500 residents, that surround St. Mary's Church on Grand Street. According to The Lo-Down, one of the proposed sites for the new towers is the corner of Broome and Clinton streets (now a parking garage) and another is 151 Broome Street, currently housing the Little Star Daycare Center.
Find out more

This boxy glass tower will replace the Lower East Side’s Sunshine Cinema

Rendering by Real Estate Arts via New York Times.

January 22, 2018

This boxy glass tower will replace the Lower East Side’s Sunshine Cinema

As planned, the beloved Sunshine Cinema's screens went dark for good Sunday night in fittingly dramatic fashion, after a 10:15 showing of “Darkest Hour.” The movie theater, which served as a cultural touchstone in the rapidly changing Lower East Side neighborhood for its offerings of independent and foreign films since 2001, will be demolished and replaced by a 65,000-square-foot nine-story office building, according to East End Capital, who, with K Property Group purchased the 30,000-square-foot building for $31.5 million last year. The New York Times recently showed new renderings of the theater's replacement-to-be.
Find out more

New Developments

Lottery opens for 98 units at site two of Lower East Side’s Essex Crossing, from $519/month

Rendering of 115 Delancey Street via Handel Architects

December 13, 2017

Lottery opens for 98 units at site two of Lower East Side’s Essex Crossing, from $519/month