Midtown West

December 10, 2015

This Pint-Sized Penthouse Has Two Terraces and a Big View of the Hearst Tower

A mere block from where Midtown’s newest Billionaires’ Row continues to rise along 57th Street south of Central Park, you'll find a thriving example of the classic New York City streetscape that has long-defined Midtown West, in places a jumble of skyscrapers, low-lying brick and rows of standard-issue mid-(20th)-century apartment buildings, in one of which you'll find this cozy co-op studio at 310 West 56th Street, described aptly by its listing as “the perfect pied-a-terre penthouse.” The 1964 co-op building is in a spot that’s getting more prime by the decade, already steps from the park, Columbus Circle and the Time Warner Center and blocks from Lincoln Center; then there’s that glittering condo canyon to the east and Bjarke Ingels’ game-changing Via rising to the west. The iconoclastic Norman Foster-designed Hearst Tower was among the vanguard–and it’s right across the street. Whoever lives here should probably be a fan of its gleaming white-and-glass geometric grid frame. Because they’re going to be seeing a lot of it.
Take a look

Distinctive Homes

December 10, 2015

Art Nerd New York’s Top Event Picks for the Week – 12/10-12/13

By Lori Zimmer

In a city where hundreds of interesting happenings occur each week, it can be hard to pick and choose your way to a fulfilling life. Art Nerd‘s philosophy is a combination of observation, participation, education and of course a party to create the ultimate well-rounded week. Jump ahead for Art Nerd founder Lori Zimmer’s top picks for 6sqft readers! Ease back into real life after a super rainy Art Basel Miami by upping your experiential art intake. Take a journey across the Atlantic Ocean without leaving New York in this month's #MidnightMoment film taking over the screens in Times Square. Help fight Parkinson's disease while celebrating the work of two artists whom the disease has affected in an exhibition benefitting the Michael J. Fox Foundation at Waterhouse & Dodd, then head to the Bronx to check out emerging artist Eric Orr's first solo exhibition. Art on paper gets a new avenue with the introduction of Paper Crown Press, and Joseph Gross has rounded up their favorite artists for a new wintry group show. Kraftwerk is the focus at a night of art and music at the Morbid Anatomy Museum, and Yoko Ono opens one show in two Chelsea galleries on the same night (and claims she'll attend both openings). Finish off the weekend with a free jazzy brunch celebrating the art of Judy Rifka and Jay Milder.
All the best events to check out here

Events & Things To Do

December 9, 2015

VIDEO: Watch Ironworkers Set Panels on Bjarke Ingels’ Via Tetrahedron

By Dana Schulz

Earlier today, 6sqft announced that Via, aka BIG’s 57th Street tetrahedron, is the winner of the 2015 Building of the Year competition. What likely made the starchitect-designed rental building such a frontrunner is its unusual shape, rising 460 feet from its site. Since progress has been right on track, it's easy to forget that the unconventional form yields some unique design and construction challenges. In this video from from Ironworkers Local 580, who set a Gopro up on the crane, we can see the skill required to set the shimmering panels on the slope wall. We also get a very vertigo-inducing view of the building from its apex looking down.
Watch the full video

December 9, 2015

The Penn Station Atlas Wants to Make the Awful Space Less Confusing

By Dana Schulz

"The concept behind this project is simple but powerful: a user-centric atlas of a complex space – a unique set of maps designed to help anyone easily find the best way to their destination in Penn Station." Designer John Schettino realized that even though he traveled through Penn Station every day, he'd still find himself lost in the labyrinth that has become one of New Yorkers' most loathed destinations. So he studied maps of the underground station and observed how people interacted with the space to create the New York Penn Station Atlas. The project uses 2D and 3D models that make up a set of maps to show general layout, key locations, and routes for getting from one point to another. Schettino, with a boost from the Municipal Art Society, hopes all these resources will become available for electronic devices at no cost.
Plenty more details this way

December 9, 2015

Cute Co-op Asks $489K at the Whitby, an Emery Roth-Designed Building in Midtown

By Emily Nonko

Architect Emery Roth was considered the master of apartment design back in his day. In the early 1900s, he masterminded an impressive number of buildings with sprawling floor plans and luxurious finishes. (That was a time when the rich still needed to be convinced to live in apartments, rather than mansions.) He finished the Whitby, at 325 West 45th Street in Midtown West, in 1923. Since then the building has been broken down into mostly small studio, one- and two-bedroom co-ops. This is a one-bedroom in the building that still has some pre-war details, although it's lacking the gracious floor plan that made Roth so famous. Still, it's a central location at a decent asking price, $489,000. And the apartment is pretty darn cute.
Take the tour

Distinctive Homes

December 9, 2015

Revealed: Crowne Plaza Hotel Rises South of Times Square, Boasts Streetwall-Friendly Atrium

By Ondel Hylton

Construction is getting vertical on Raber Enterprises' 251-room Crowne Plaza Times Square South. The expected four-star, 118,200-square-foot building at 320 West 36th Street will only be the second in Manhattan to carry the Crowne Plaza flag, whose larger, 795-room location at 1605 Broadway has been operational since 1989. Situated between Seventh and Eighth avenues, the 8,200 square-foot parcel formerly held a parking garage that the team purchased with two other lots in December 2012 for $33.5 million. The metal-clad 28-story tower is designed by Flatiron-based Stonehill & Taylor Architects & Planners and will feature an 85-foot tall base that will thankfully adhere to the consistent streetwall of the Garment District. The base will be clad in corrugated-aluminum and its interior will hold an 80-foot high, galvanized steel atrium containing a restaurant and the reception lobby. The architects note that the metallic aesthetic "celebrates the neighborhood’s manufacturing and transportation hub heritage and also produce a play of light and shadow on the building’s deeply modulated surfaces." Flintlock Construction are the builders, WSP Flack & Kurtz the mechanical engineers and GACE, the structural engineers.
more on the project here

December 7, 2015

Could This Otherworldly 102-Story Tower Covered in Ornaments Be Coming to 57th Street?

By Ondel Hylton

Jaded by glass boxes and architectural imitations of styles gone by? Well this fascinating design by Mark Foster Gage Architects is sure to turn your architectural world upside down. Here's our first look at their 102-story residential supertower seemingly flown in from some advanced airborne civilization in a galaxy far, far away. While details are scarce, this eagle lands in the heart of Midtown's Billionaires' Row along West 57th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. The whimsical design is a habitable sculpture of sorts, adorned from top to bottom in ornaments ranging from gears and propellers to an abstracted pair of birds diving in for a landing on two wing-supported balconies. The tower is topped by a temple-like observational platform which is then crowned by a golden wreath-like structure fit for any victorious Roman general.
more eye-popping visuals this way

December 3, 2015

Victoria’s Secret Model Isabeli Fontana Tries to Sell Her Central Park South Pad for $2.65M

By Emily Nonko

A pretty apartment for a pretty person: The Italian-Brazilian Victoria's Secret model Isabeli Fontana (who first appeared in the lingerie catalogue at age 16) is selling her two-bedroom co-op at 120 Central Park South (aka the Berkeley House), according to the Observer. She bought the apartment in 2013 for $1.66 million. Previously, the model has lived at Trump Place on Riverside Boulevard and a condo at 88 Greenwich Street. This apartment, which was totally remodeled by Fontana (is that a self portrait we see?), has some good things going for it. It's got lots of windows and views of the park, tons of closet space and some old-world details.
Check it out

November 25, 2015

Historic Palace Theater to Get Raised 29 Feet to Accommodate New Retail Space

By Dana Schulz

At a public hearing yesterday the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved a plan drawn up by Platt Byard Dovell White Architects (PBDW) for Maefield Development to raise the historic 1913 Palace Theater 29 feet in order to accommodate expanded facilities and new retail space underneath. The decision isn't sitting well with preservationists, but the exterior of the theater was replaced in the early 1990s to make way for the 45-story adjacent DoubleTree hotel, and as the Wall Street Journal reports, the actual theater space is an interior landmark and the $2 billion redevelopment project will restore the decorated interior and add 10,000 square feet of theater facilities.
More on the history and future of the Palace Theater

November 17, 2015

The World’s Largest Display of Miniatures Is Coming to Times Square in 2017

By Diane Pham

Micro is all the rage in NYC right now, and currently in the works is another teensy project with designs on taking up a less-than-diminutive space in the heart of Times Square. Called Gulliver's Gate, this miniature spectacular will showcase more than 300 buildings, 1,000-plus model trains, cars and planes, and a vast collection of 3D-printed global replicas that include Times Square, Grand Central, and lower Manhattan, to become the biggest Lilliputian installation in the world at 49,000 square feet. According to Crain's, Gulliver's Gate has just signed a 15-year lease for the first and second floors of the former New York Times Building at 216 West 44th Street. The attraction, "the largest, most intricate, most technologically advanced display anywhere" according co-creator Eiran Gazit, will cost $30 million to build.
Find out more here

November 16, 2015

REVEALED: Inside Bjarke Ingels’ Spectacular 57th Street Tetrahedron

By Diane Pham

Those moving into Bjarke Ingels epic pyramid VIA 57 West next year will have a lot to look forward to. New renderings of the hotly-anticipated construction sited along West 57th Street have just been released (h/t Curbed) alongside a new teaser website inviting visitors "to a special preview" of the building. The new images, which come courtesy of The Durst Organization, reveal bright modern interiors with expansive river views, floor-to-ceiling doors and windows, varying room shapes, individual balconies, and lots of luxe fixtures, finishes and amenities.
Take a tour here

November 2, 2015

For $699K, a Private Backyard and Tons of Charm in the Heart of Hell’s Kitchen

By Michelle Cohen

Have you ever gazed out of your office window with envy at a sweet private back garden or cool roof deck right in the middle of Manhattan? This one-bedroom co-op at 315 West 55th Street is one of those. On a beloved residential block in Hell's Kitchen on the city's West Side, this updated apartment has enough room for comfort and the added bonus of a landscaped, full-sized back garden oasis. It's perfect in spring and summer, but magical year-round as it's visible through a pair of sliding glass doors whenever you enter the living room.
Get a closer look

Distinctive Homes

October 30, 2015

New Renderings and New Tenant Revealed for 90-Story Hudson Yards Tower

By Ondel Hylton and Julian Friedman

Curbed reports that Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group officially announced the signing of private equity firm KKR & Co. for 343,000 square feet of their upcoming mega-tower at 30 Hudson Yards. Marking the event, the developers have released a slew of renderings for the project, which is rising from the southwest corner of 33rd Street and Tenth Avenue. The 90-story building will soar nearly 1,300 feet high, and the deal dictates that the firm will occupy the supertall's top ten floors. KKR will have a dedicated elevator bank, a private sky lobby, and access to the tower’s hotly anticipated observation deck (which will be the highest in the city). The firm will relocate from the Solow Building at 9 West 57th and is slated to occupy the space by 2020.
Lots more renderings and details

October 29, 2015

Times Square’s Marriott EDITION Hotel Breaks Ground, Will Boast 76,000SF of Food Space

By Ondel Hylton

Earlier this week, the five-star Marriott EDITION hotel, slated to tower over Duffy Square, broke ground. The 39-story, 517-foot tall building is being developed by a partnership between the Witkoff Group, Howard Lorber’s New Valley LLC, Winthrop Realty Trust, and Maefield Development. Going by the invented address of 20 Times Square (701 Seventh Avenue), the 370,000-square-foot tower will be the first hotel to rise directly along the Square's "bow-tie" area since Gary Barnett opened the W Times Square in 2000. Taking full advantage of its coveted, highly-trafficked location, the project will contain 76,000 square feet of retail and food and beverage space, as well as an outdoor roof terrace. Its six-story podium anchors the northeast corner of 47th Street and Seventh Avenue and will be wrapped by a 120-foot-tall, 18,000-square-foot LED display, which according to the Witkoff Group, "will be one of the largest and most technologically advanced in the world today."
More details and renderings ahead

October 28, 2015

VIDEO: Ride the Elevator Up to the Marriott Marquis’ Secret 55th Floor

By Diane Pham

The Marriott Marquis may not have the illustrious, storied past of NYC's landmarked hotels like The Plaza or the Algonquin, but that doesn't mean it doesn't keep its fair share of secrets. As you probably know, the Times Square locale is famous for its spectacular high-tech Schindler Miconic 10 elevators which zip passengers up and down the building while offering incredible views over the hotel's massive atrium lobby below. While the building is said to be just 48 floors tall, rumor has it there's actually a secret 55th floor that no regular person has been to before. Could it be true? One intrepid guest of the Marriott was daring enough to find out.
check it out here

October 26, 2015

Check Out the Views From 1,438 Feet in the Air at 111 West 57th Street

By Ondel Hylton

Last week, 6sqft brought you an up close and personal look at 111 West 57th Street's exterior facade mock-up, and now Property Markets Group (PMG), who is co-developing the super-tower with JDS Development Group, posted a nifty interactive panorama of the building's out-of-this-world views. Rising from the heart of Billionaires' Row (New York's very own Mount Olympus and preferred residence of our anonymous overlords), the building is 80 stories and 1,438 feet high and is nearly perfectly on axis to Central Park–an egotistical perk that Extell's Central Park Tower and Macklowe/CIM Group's 432 Park aren't granted despite having higher apartments.
This way for the views

October 26, 2015

First Peek at Alchemy Properties’ 26-Story NOMA Condominium

By Ondel Hylton

Here's our first peek at Alchemy Properties' upcoming mixed-use condominium development NOMA. Slated to rise 26 stories/316 feet from a 7,000-square-foot corner lot at 846-850 Sixth Avenue, the building will be the first ground-up condominium development in NoMad west of Fifth Avenue. With demolition just wrapping up on a single-story strip of retail stores, excavation will soon begin for a FXFowle-designed mixed-use tower that is slated to house 52 condo apartments and 13,000 square feet of retail space on its first two floors. Zoning diagrams filed at the Department of Buildings indicate the form of the tower will be composed of variously scaled and skewed interlocking volumes. Units with eastern exposures will have balconies.
READ MORE

October 23, 2015

Port Authority Announces Design Competition to Replace Hated Bus Terminal to the Tune of $10B

By Dana Schulz

The chance to reimagine one of the most loathed buildings in Manhattan certainly must be appealing to designers, so it's likely the Port Authority will receive a lot of submissions for their newly announced international competition to replace the current bus terminal. Crain's reports that "The operator of the nation's busiest bus terminal approved a plan Thursday to move ahead toward replacing the overcrowded, dilapidated 65-year-old facility, with a goal of deciding on a final design by [September 2016]." It's expected that the project will cost between $7 and $10 billion and take several years to complete.
READ MORE

Real Estate Trends

October 21, 2015

A Behind the Scenes Look at How SHoP’s Stunning Facade at 111 West 57th Street Will Come to Life

By Ondel Hylton

Last month, JDS Development wowed us with an image showing a visual curtain wall mockup of their super-tower underway at 111 West 57th Street. Now the Michael Stern-led development team in partnership with Property Markets Group has released a new video and a handful of images to keep our mouths watering for what is poised to become New York's most daring skyscraper in generations. Designed by the local talents at ShoP Architects, the tower has already nervously impressed us with its extraordinary height of 1,438 feet and its jaw-dropping slenderness (a ratio of 1:24). Now that its engineers, the WSP Group, and the Times have thoroughly convinced us that the building will not fall over, we can focus our attention on the tower's elegantly detailed facade, composed of a feathery mix of terra-cotta, bronze, and glass. A recent video posted by JDS provides us with more glimpses of the cladding, a time-lapse video of how the facade will transform throughout the day, as well as some behind-the-scenes insight of the extraordinary undertaking involved to sheath this future landmark.
Watch the video and get more details

Affordable Housing Lottery Launched for Bjarke Ingels’ Epic Pyramid, VIA 57 West

Construction shot © 6sqft

October 3, 2015

Affordable Housing Lottery Launched for Bjarke Ingels’ Epic Pyramid, VIA 57 West

By Ondel Hylton

Applications are now being accepted for the 142 affordable apartments in Bjarke Ingels' tetrahedron-shaped rental building dubbed VIA 57 West, aka "the Pyramid Building." By downloading applications here, you and 141 other lucky families may have the chance to live in a future landmark that is already turning out to be the most audacious rental building ever built in the city. The massive, half-block-long development will contain a total of 709 units, of which 20 percent will be deemed affordable. Subsidized rents range from $565/month studios for single-person households making between $19,222 - $24,200 annually, to three-bedroom apartments going for $1,067/month for three- to six-person households.
More construction shots and the full pricing breakdown

September 25, 2015

Watch Videos of Morgan Stanley’s New Times Square LED Screens That Replaced Its Iconic Zipper

By Ondel Hylton

Last week, Morgan Stanley unveiled a set of seven modernized LED signs at the base of its headquarters building at 1585 Broadway in Times Square. The digital billboards, which took five months to replace, feature six million LED pixels that can display up to 281 trillion colors. The screens replace the iconic amber ticker that stood at the lower three floors of the Gwathmey, Siegel & Associates-designed building for more than 20 years. Since the sign was inspired by similar signage at Bloomberg's 731 Lexington Avenue, the bank spent nine months working with Bloomberg's internal creative agency to develop its content. With custom-built technology by British-based Framestore, the screens can display updated imagery and data at all times. The sign's fact sheet (PDF) notes that the displays will be operational 19 hours a day and will display 2,100 pieces of distinct content, including 855 news headlines and real-time data of eight global indices.
READ MORE

September 24, 2015

Extell’s Church-Encroaching 10th Avenue Tower Tops Out, New Interior Renderings Revealed

By Ondel Hylton

With the opening of the 7 train extension earlier this month, things are finally starting to look up for Manhattan's far West Side–literally. Hudson Yard's Coach Tower is nearing its 900-foot apex, and Gary Barnett's Extell Development has topped off construction on its 610-foot high skyscraper at 555 Tenth Avenue. Extell's rental/dormitory project anchors a full block-front between West 40th and 41st streets, and cozies up next to (and above) the neo-gothic Church of Saints Cyril & Methodius and Saint Raphael, from which the savvy developer purchased 140,000 square feet of air rights from in 2012 for $16.5 million. According to previous reports, Barnett obtained the rights to build on the 18,000 square-foot parcel after signing a 99-year ground lease from the estate of Sol Goldman in 2011. The $480 million project is partly financed by means of $100 million from EB5 equity investors.
find out more here

September 21, 2015

Units Finally Hit the Market at Jean Nouvel’s MoMA Tower

By Dana Schulz

The time has finally come. After years of setbacks and teasers, units at Jean Nouvel's 1,050-foot-tall MoMA Tower, now officially known as 53W53, have hit the market. Nine listings (out of 139) went up on Corcoran, according to Curbed, ranging from a $3.17 million one-bedroom 19th-floor unit to a $50.9 million four-bedroom, 63rd-floor unit. When construction started earlier this year, rumor had it that the listings wouldn't be made public, but now that we know otherwise, we've got plenty of floorplan porn to ogle, as well as lots more interior renderings courtesy of designer Thierry Despont.
Renderings and floorplans right this way

Times Square Characters and Performers May Get Confined to Designated ‘Activity Areas’

Map courtesy of the Times Square Alliance

September 11, 2015

Times Square Characters and Performers May Get Confined to Designated ‘Activity Areas’

By Dana Schulz

It looks like Mayor de Blasio's wish of coralling the costumed characters and topless performers in Times Square may be coming true. The Daily News reports that the Times Square Alliance has endorsed the "Times Square Commons" plan, which Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and Councilmen Daniel Garodnick and Corey Johnson publicized in an op-ed in the paper yesterday. The proposal would rezone Times Square's pedestrian plaza so that instead of being mapped as a street it would become a special district called Times Square Commons. This area would be divided into three zones: general civic zones, which would feature tables and chairs and arts events; pedestrian traffic flow zones, areas to walk with no physical obstructions; and the aforementioned designated activity zones, small slivers of space that "would allow any activity involving the immediate exchange of money for goods, services or entertainment."
More this way

Policy

September 10, 2015

Construction Update: Related Companies’ Rental Tower at Hudson Yards’ Front Door Begins to Rise

By Ondel Hylton and Heather Cooper Vivares

Related Companies' new mixed-use rental tower at the front door of Hudson Yards is forging ahead. Located at 530 West 30th Street, just south of the towering Coach Tower (10 Hudson Yards) and west of the recently finished Abington House (also developed by Related), the 28-story building will bring 174 new rental homes to the rapidly evolving neighborhood. 530 West 30th shares its lot with 529 West 29th Street, an all-affordable, 126-unit building Related opened last year with apartments set aside for artists, seniors, and local residents of Community District 4.
More details

September 10, 2015

Traditional Japanese Design Defines This $2.7M West Side Maisonette With Two Tea Rooms

By Michelle Cohen

In the world of modern interiors, traditional Japanese design concepts have led to some very innovative interpretations that also meet residents' needs such as providing a peaceful retreat, keeping the flow of life organized, or, as in this case, offering flexibility of space and rooms that serve multiple functions. This duplex maisonette, however, would be counted among the more traditional end of the spectrum in its execution. Though having a nine-room apartment certainly helps when it comes to versatility, this particular space achieves its goals and more. The home's $2.7 million ask seems reasonable for this large duplex loft at 419 West 55th Street in increasingly popular West Midtown; though monthly maintenance fees seem a bit high for a condo at $4,333 (with no mention of taxes) when compared to the price, those generally reflect unit size, and–though no square footage is listed–there's no denying that attribute. So, pros and cons aside, let's take a look at this carefully-crafted testament to the owners’ vision of creating a loft space with a Japanese aesthetic.
Take the tour this way, shoes off, please

Bergen Brooklyn

323 Bergen Street

Boerum Hill

World-class design rooted in Brooklyn charm

studios starting at $825,000
1 beds starting at $1,200,000
2 beds starting at $1,925,000
3 beds starting at $3,050,000
4 beds starting at $6,000,000

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