Midtown

A giant heart was mowed into Bryant Park's lawn this week as a message of support for the city's healthcare personnel and essential workers. The park, which recently transformed its Winter Village ice skating rink into its famed lawn, will reopen its green space to the public in early May. Social distancing regulations will be in effect, according to the Bryant Park Corporation.
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Photo credit: VHT, courtesy The Corcoran Group

April 10, 2020

This $769,000 Billionaires’ Row studio is roomy and reasonable

Old and new NYC collide in this $769,000 studio that's roughly 600 square feet. It's located at 100 West 58th Street, a classic 1928 Rosario Candela-designed apartment building. But today, this location, just a block south of Central Park at the corner of 6th Avenue, puts it smack in the middle of Billionaires' Row. And with a sizable separate kitchen and enough room for two distinct areas in the living space, it's quite a reasonable buy.
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Distinctive Homes

Amazon will buy former Lord & Taylor flagship from WeWork for over $1B

Photo courtesy of Lord & Taylor

March 13, 2020

Amazon will buy former Lord & Taylor flagship from WeWork for over $1B

After The Real Deal first learned of the possible deal in late February, the Post is now reporting that Amazon is doling out $1.15 billion to acquire Midtown's Lord & Taylor building from WeWork. Rumors that Amazon would potentially lease the building circulated last summer ahead of WeWork's planned IPO. The sale will have big implications for both companies, giving WeWork much-needed capital and representing Amazon's largest real estate acquisition to date. According to the Post, the landmark building will become Amazon's NYC headquarters and home to "several thousand employees in the coming years."
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Uncategorized

To offset Coronavirus-related dips in attendance, tickets for six Broadway hits will be only $50

Photo credit: Mihai Bojin via Flickr

March 10, 2020

To offset Coronavirus-related dips in attendance, tickets for six Broadway hits will be only $50

As Coronavirus fears begin impacting Broadway attendance, producer Scott Rudin is slashing ticket prices to keep theatres full, Deadline reports. Starting this Thursday at noon, all remaining March tickets for Rudin's popular productions—To Kill a Mockingbird, West Side Story, The Lehman Trilogy, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and The Book of Mormon—will be available for only $50.
This could be the deal you've been waiting for

Events & Things To Do

This incredibly detailed 3D replica of Manhattan took 1,000 hours to complete

Photos courtesy of Empire State Realty Trust

March 6, 2020

This incredibly detailed 3D replica of Manhattan took 1,000 hours to complete

French artist Johann Perathoner has created a panoramic 3D replica of Manhattan that is currently on view in the Empire State Building’s lobby. Though compact in scale, the composition is ambitious in scope and captures an incredible amount of detail in its small size. Made up of vibrant colors and 100 different textures that include rhinestones and fake diamonds, the piece took Perathoner more than 1,000 hours to complete.
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Events & Things To Do

You can rent the only Plaza apartment with a private elevator for $46,000 a month

Listing photos courtesy of Elegran

February 21, 2020

You can rent the only Plaza apartment with a private elevator for $46,000 a month

As if living in the Plaza wasn't posh enough, this mansion apartment is the only residence in the building to have a private elevator and a personal grand staircase with a private landing. Of course, it'll cost you--$46,000 a month. But that gets you 4,665 square feet of space, four bedrooms, four-and-a-half bathrooms, and Central Park views from every window. And the home comes fully furnished.
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Distinctive Homes

See more of the historic residences inside 111 West 57th Street’s landmarked Steinway Building

Listing images courtesy of 111 West 57th Street

February 18, 2020

See more of the historic residences inside 111 West 57th Street’s landmarked Steinway Building

Two more listings inside Midtown’s historic Steinway Hall have just hit the market: a two-bedroom with a private terrace for $8,750,000 and a four-bedroom duplex seeking $17,995,000. The landmarked building at 111 West 57th Street was designed by renowned firm Warren & Wetmore and finished in 1925. The longtime home of the Steinway & Sons piano company was acquired by developers JDS Development, Property Markets Group, and Spruce Capital Partners in 2013 for $217.5 million and has since become incorporated into SHoP Architects’ super-slender supertall tower rising next to it. The Beaux-Arts structure serves as the project’s grand entryway and will hold the amenity spaces and a small handful of residences designed by Studio Sofield. We previously got a look inside the striking duplex penthouse that hit the market for $21 million last November—a price it still holds.
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Wealthy Russian family lists gilded Plaza apartment full of onyx and crystal for $45M

All photos courtesy of Douglas Elliman

February 14, 2020

Wealthy Russian family lists gilded Plaza apartment full of onyx and crystal for $45M

Russian oligarch and co-owner of Moscow's Domodedovo Airport Valery Kogan and his wife Olga Kogan have put their insanely opulent Plaza apartment on the market for $45 million. The billionaire couple bought two units in the iconic building in 2007/2008 for $26 million and then combined them, according to the Wall Street Journal. The massive home that they're now trying to unload--which the listing describes as being "reminiscent of French royalty"--is dripping with gold detailing, crystal chandeliers, ornate moldings, and a master bathroom wrapped from floor to ceiling in imported onyx. It even has an alcove in one of the building's turrets.
You've gotta see this place to believe it

Distinctive Homes

Why are the tracks of the Times Square-Grand Central shuttle curved?

The Times Square shuttle platform, Photo by Helvetica Fanatic on Wikimedia

February 6, 2020

Why are the tracks of the Times Square-Grand Central shuttle curved?

At the platform of the Times Square-Grand Central shuttle, a train track is hidden in plain sight. At both ends of the two-station line, tracks are numbered 1, 3 and 4, with no Track 2 to be found. As the New York Times explained, Track 2 once ran in its appropriate spot, between Tracks 1 and 3, but was taken out of operation nearly 100 years ago. After an attempt to expand the original 1904 line turned to major confusion for commuters, transit officials covered Track 2 with wooden flooring to make it easier for New Yorkers to walk to the new tracks.
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Win a private dinner for two ‘under the stars’ of Grand Central Terminal this Valentine’s Day

Photo courtesy of Grand Central Terminal

February 3, 2020

Win a private dinner for two ‘under the stars’ of Grand Central Terminal this Valentine’s Day

One of the most unique Valentine's Day events in New York City is happening at one of the city's busiest transit hubs. Grand Central Terminal announced it will provide one couple a romantic, private evening under the stars of its iconic main hall as part of a new contest announced Monday. The winning couple, who will get the space to themselves on February 14 between 2:30 a.m. and 4:30 a.m., will enjoy a three-course dinner provided by Michelin-starred restaurant Agern and a live piano performance from a Steinway Artist, all under the terminal's constellation ceiling.
How to enter

Events & Things To Do

Times Square Arts’ 2020 Valentine’s Day heart comes with a hidden surprise

Photos by Ian Douglas

January 31, 2020

Times Square Arts’ 2020 Valentine’s Day heart comes with a hidden surprise

Times Square Arts debuted the 2020 Times Square Valentine Heart yesterday, a tradition that started in 2009. This year's installation, Heart Squared, was selected by the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum and designed by MODU and Eric Forman Studio. The sculpture is composed of a 10-foot-tall cubic steel lattice structure that approximates the form of an anatomical heart and 125 mirrors that are suspended within and tilted at various angles to create a kaleidoscopic collage of the urban environment. The arrangement of the mirrors might seem random at first but they're precisely calibrated to form an anamorphic projection—meaning that the mirror array creates a surprise image when viewed from a specific vantage point, which is marked on the ground with white paint.
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Events & Things To Do

Renderings courtesy of Krispy Kreme

January 30, 2020

Krispy Kreme opening five new NYC stores ahead of Times Square flagship

By Michelle Cohen

Iconic doughnut chain Krispy Kreme announced in June that it will bring its "doughnut theater experience" to a 45,000-square-foot retail space at the corner of 48th Street and Broadway in Times Square where visitors will be able to watch the doughnut-making process–complete with glaze waterfall–or just grab one to go at the walk-up window. It won't open until May, but to hold you over, Krispy Kreme will soon open five new Manhattan locations, in addition to reopening their long-time Penn Station outpost after a renovation (h/t Time Out NY).
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Food & Dining

See inside Central Park Tower’s 100th floor residential club

Renderings courtesy of Extell Development Company

January 27, 2020

See inside Central Park Tower’s 100th floor residential club

As Extell Development's Central Park Tower nears the finish line, newly released renderings of the Billionaires' Row supertall are giving us a peek into the private residential club that will occupy the 100th floor with a suite of high-end amenities. Reaching over 1,000 feet in the sky, the amenity space, called the Central Park Club, will be the highest lounge of its kind in the world, offering hard-to-beat views over Billionaires' Row and Central Park.
And the views are exceptional

See the proposed revamp for Rockefeller Center

Renderings by Gabellini Sheppard Associates courtesy Tishman Speyer; via NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

January 15, 2020

See the proposed revamp for Rockefeller Center

Tishman Speyer proposed a plan to revamp certain aspects of Rockefeller Center during a hearing at the Landmark Preservation Commission on Tuesday, as CityRealty reported. With Gabellini Sheppard Associates at the helm, the design proposal makes tweaks to the gardens and outdoor plaza spaces at the 22-acre site. The upgrades—which mostly seek to improve circulation—come as city officials have been discussing the permanent restriction of traffic around Rockefeller Center following the successful pedestrianization of the area during the recent holiday season.
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Architecture And Design

Photos courtesy of Tiffany & Co.

January 15, 2020

Tiffany & Co. moves into a temporary location next door to iconic Fifth Avenue flagship

Under the watchful eyes of 30 security officers and 300 surveillance cameras, Tiffany & Company moved 114,179 pieces of jewelry from their iconic Fifth Avenue flagship store over the weekend to prepare the building for a renovation. Everything was taken to the adjacent storefront at 6 East 57th Street—a former Nike store—that will host a temporary location of the jewelry store until the renovation wraps up in 2021. Cheekily dubbed The Tiffany Flagship Next Door, the jeweler's new home centers around a central atrium that will feature a rotating schedule of "periodic installations and exclusive partnerships."
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Uncategorized

See inside the amenity spaces at Philip Johnson’s 550 Madison Avenue

Rendering courtesy of Rockwell Group

January 14, 2020

See inside the amenity spaces at Philip Johnson’s 550 Madison Avenue

The Olayan Group released a new batch of renderings giving us a sneak peek inside the amenity floor at 550 Madison Avenue. Designed by Rockwell Group, the seventh floor offers a mix of “hospitality-driven” spaces for tenants, including food and beverage options, lounges, shared workspaces, and fitness and wellness areas. The center of it all will be the iconic Philip Johnson-designed oculus—which greets visitors as soon as they step off the elevator on the club floor—framed by two floor-to-ceiling artworks by Dorothea Rockburne, which were commissioned in 1993 specifically for the building.
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Architecture And Design

Midtown East’s newest cocktail bar was designed by SHoP Architects with a nod to old New York glamour

Photos of Bergamo’s by Rachel Vanni

January 13, 2020

Midtown East’s newest cocktail bar was designed by SHoP Architects with a nod to old New York glamour

Busy but relatively dry Midtown East got a new cocktail bar last week with Bergamo’s at 26 Vanderbilt Avenue. Located on the ground floor of the Company building—a tech incubator designed by SHoP Architects—the sprawling 8,530-square-foot lounge was inspired by old New York glamour and features a vaulted ceiling with custom tiles that nod to the historic Guastavino vaults at nearby Grand Central Terminal.
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Food & Dining

After holiday street closures, some city leaders say Rockefeller Center should remain car-free

Photo by Javier Guiterrez Acedo on Flickr

January 7, 2020

After holiday street closures, some city leaders say Rockefeller Center should remain car-free

By Michelle Cohen

After having been closed to car and truck traffic during the busiest times of day since November 29th, West 49th and West 50th streets between Fifth and Sixth avenues–the two streets on either side of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree–may become permanently car-free if some city officials have their way. Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday that he believes the vehicle-free streets were safer for the estimated 750,000 pedestrians who were expected to traverse the plaza each day during the crowded holiday season, the Wall Street Journal reports.
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Transit

Snøhetta’s transformed public garden at 550 Madison Avenue receives final city approvals

Renderings courtesy of Snøhetta and MOARE

January 7, 2020

Snøhetta’s transformed public garden at 550 Madison Avenue receives final city approvals

The privately-owned public space (POPS) on the ground floor of Philip Johnson and John Burgee’s Postmodern skyscraper at 550 Madison Avenue declined over time due to multiple alterations and was often described as being “tall, skinny, and dark.” As part of Snøhetta’s transformation of the landmark, the garden is receiving a lot of attention. In December, developer Olayan Group revealed plans to increase the public space by 50 percent while creating “a welcoming sensory retreat in the heart of East Midtown.” After being approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission last year, the open space has now received its final approval from the Department of City Planning.
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Architecture And Design

Cuomo revives plan to overhaul Penn Station and create new Empire Station Complex

Rendering of new entrance on 8th Avenue to Penn Station via Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office

January 6, 2020

Cuomo revives plan to overhaul Penn Station and create new Empire Station Complex

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is returning to one of his favorite infrastructure proposals: the overhaul of Penn Station. During an event on Monday hosted by the Association for a Better New York, the governor announced plans to build the Empire Station Complex, a station that would link a modernized Penn Station, the soon-to-be-open Moynihan Train Hall, and a new terminal one block south of the existing site. The plan, first introduced by the governor in 2016, would add eight new tracks and increase train capacity by 40 percent at the station, which currently serves more than 650,000 passengers each day.
See the updated plan

Times Square’s Palace Theatre overhaul includes outdoor stage and ‘ball drop’ suites

Rendering courtesy of TSX Broadway

January 2, 2020

Times Square’s Palace Theatre overhaul includes outdoor stage and ‘ball drop’ suites

A mixed-use development project hopes to bring even more bright lights and theatrics to Times Square. A team of developers, led by L&L Holding Company, will provide the ultimate New Year's Eve experience at its new luxury hotel, part of the plan to transform the historic Palace Theatre into TSX Broadway. New renderings of the $2.5 billion project, which involves raising the theater more than 30 feet and building a 669-room hotel above it, show off suites with perfect views of the Times Square ball drop, the neighborhood's first outdoor stage, and immersive retail experiences.
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New Year’s Eve in numbers: Fun facts about the Times Square ball drop

Photo by Kohei Kanno on Flickr

December 30, 2019

New Year’s Eve in numbers: Fun facts about the Times Square ball drop

By Diane Pham

Every year as the clock nears midnight on December 31, anticipation runs high as the world holds its breath waiting for the sparkling New Year's Eve Ball to descend from its flagpole atop One Times Square. We all know that the countdown starts at 10, but there are a handful of other fun facts to muse over when it comes to the city's most lauded tradition. From the wattage of the ball to the weight of trash produced to how long it takes to get it all cleaned up, see what we've rounded up, in numbers, ahead!
More on New Year's Eve in Times Square here

Events & Things To Do

NYC’s third-priciest apartment ever just sold at 220 Central Park South for $92.7M

Via Vornado Realty Trust and Robert A.M. Stern Architects

December 17, 2019

NYC’s third-priciest apartment ever just sold at 220 Central Park South for $92.7M

Despite some trepidation about the luxury sales market, the year is finishing strong, at least near Billionaires' Row, which was just named the most expensive street in the entire world. As the NY Post first reported, property records filed today show a $92.7 million penthouse sale at 220 Central Park South, making it the third-most-expensive NYC sale ever, behind billionaire Ken Griffith’s $238 million purchase also at 220 CPS in early 2019 and Michael Dell's $100 million buy at One57 in 2015. Though it was purchased by an anonymous LLC, the Wall Street Journal uncovered that billionaire hedge-funder Daniel Och is the buyer.
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Real Estate Trends

December 17, 2019

Billionaire’s Row tops list of most expensive streets in the world

A new study of the top "ultra-prime" locations in the world dispels any doubt that Billionaire's Row is living up to its name. London-based property consultancy Knight Frank, along with Douglas Elliman, looked at the number of homes sold for over $25 million since 2015 and found the greatest concentration along Midtown's 57th Street, where 41 transactions have been closed in the last five years at an average price of $38.5 million. Manhattan cracked the top ten three more times, with Central Park South coming in third, followed by Park Avenue and Fifth Avenue in fourth and seventh place.
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Real Estate Trends

Snap a photo with the ‘2020’ New Year’s Eve sign in Times Square

Photo by Ian Hardy for Countdown Entertainment

December 16, 2019

Snap a photo with the ‘2020’ New Year’s Eve sign in Times Square

The new year has arrived in New York City...at least in numbers. Two seven-foot-tall numerals, the "2" and "0" in 2020, are currently on display in Times Square, offering the public a chance to snap a photo with the famous digits before they are placed on top of One Times Square. The 2020 signage sits below the crystal-filled New Year's Eve ball and will light up at midnight on December 31, marking the start of a new decade.
Details here

Events & Things To Do

NYC’s third $100M+ real estate deal closes at 220 Central Park South

Image courtesy of Vornado Realty Trust and Robert A.M. Stern Architects

December 13, 2019

NYC’s third $100M+ real estate deal closes at 220 Central Park South