Manhattan

By Andrew Berman of Village Preservation

The day after Mayor de Blasio and Governor Cuomo announced plans to review and remove controversial public Confederate structures and markers throughout the city, the MTA says it will do the same. Well, sort of. Over 90 years ago, station architect Squire J. Vickers installed mosaics resembling the Confederate flag at the 40th Street entrance for the 1, 2, 3 trains to honor early New York Times owner and publisher Adolph S. Ochs, who had "strong ties to the Confederacy" and was buried with a Confederate flag when he died in 1935. But yesterday, MTA spokesperson Kevin Ortiz told Gothamist, "These are not confederate flags, it is a design based on geometric forms that represent the 'Crossroads of the World' and to avoid absolutely any confusion we will modify them to make that absolutely crystal clear."
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A 15-year-old Greenwich Village student inspired the hit song ‘Summer in the City’

Image via Wiki Commons

August 17, 2017

A 15-year-old Greenwich Village student inspired the hit song ‘Summer in the City’

Everyone knows the folk-rock classic "Summer in the City" by the Lovin’ Spoonful, which topped the charts 51 years ago this August in 1966. But fewer know the song’s roots in Greenwich Village--lead singer John Sebastian actually grew up in the neighborhood and the act got their start in the local clubs--and fewer still know a 15-year-old Village student was responsible for a significant part of its composition.
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History

Cuomo releases new renderings of Moynihan Station as major construction gets underway

Iage via the office of the Governor

August 17, 2017

Cuomo releases new renderings of Moynihan Station as major construction gets underway

At a press conference this morning in the under-construction space, Governor Cuomo announced that major work has begun on transforming the James A. Farley Building into the state-of-the-art, 225,000-square-foot Moynihan Train Hall. Along with the news that the $1.6 billion project will create 12,000+ construction jobs and 2,500 permanent jobs, come new renderings of the station, showing more exterior views and looks at the 700,000-square-foot shopping and dining concourse.
All the renderings and more details this way

Bus station beneath Javits Center proposed in new plan to fix cross-Hudson commuter hell

Image via Office of Gov. Cuomo depicting the Javits’ upcoming expansion

August 17, 2017

Bus station beneath Javits Center proposed in new plan to fix cross-Hudson commuter hell

As the "summer of hell" days of emergency repairs to Penn Station's rail system roll by, the Regional Plan Association, a nonprofit transportation advocacy group, is intent on tackling the transit system's biggest messes; specifically, the association warned that “public transportation across the Hudson River is in crisis,” and is in the process of updating its regional plan to address that issue and other transportation snarls. Among the group's suggestions: building a terminal for intercity buses underneath the Jacob K. Javits center on Manhattan's West Side, the New York Times reports.
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On this day in 1974, the Ramones played their first gig at CBGB in the East Village

The Ramones outside of CBGB, photo via CBGB

August 16, 2017

On this day in 1974, the Ramones played their first gig at CBGB in the East Village

On August 16, 1974, four men dressed in leather motorcycle jackets and Converse high-tops hit the stage at CBGB, an iconic East Village dive bar, for the very first time. After this debut performance, the Ramones, who hailed from Forest Hills, Queens, became the first regulars at CBGB, a spot known for the cutting edge punk rock musicians that played there, like Talking Heads, Patti Smith and Blondie. In the year 1974 alone, the Ramones played there over 70 times.
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History

August 16, 2017

The Manhattan Skyscraper Explorer is your building-by-building skyline map

Tall buildings—from supertalls to garden-variety skyscrapers—seem to grow like weeds in New York City: A recent boom in tall Midtown residential towers has ushered in a new focus on life in the clouds. And we're always comparing ourselves to other vertical cities. We also know there have been growth cycles and slower periods when it comes to the city's skyscrapers. Now we can survey the landscape of Manhattan's tallest buildings all at once thanks to the mapping wizards at Esri (via Maps Mania). The Manhattan Skyscraper Explorer reveals each of the city's tall towers, showing its height, when it was built, what it's used for and more.
Explore New York's tallest

Uncategorized

Stuyvesant Town goes green: How the 70-year-old complex is reinventing itself in a modern age

Photos courtesy of Stuyvesant Town

August 16, 2017

Stuyvesant Town goes green: How the 70-year-old complex is reinventing itself in a modern age

"Think of us as a 1947 Cadillac retrofitted with a Tesla engine," says Marynia Kruk, Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village's Community Affairs Manager. Though the 80-acre residential complex's 110 red brick, cruciform-shaped buildings were constructed 70 years ago this month, their imposing facades are hiding an intense network of systems that, since 2011, have allowed the development to reduce its on-site carbon emissions by 6.8 percent, equal to over 17 million pounds of coal saved. To put this in perspective, that's roughly the same savings as 3,000 drivers deciding to bike or take the train for an entire year or planting a forest of 400,000 trees. This massive sustainability push, along with new ownership (Blackstone Group and Canadian investment firm Ivanhoe Cambridge bought the complex for $5.3 billion in October 2015), updated amenities, and an affordable housing commitment, is driving Manhattan's largest apartment complex into the future, and 6sqft recently got the inside scoop from CEO and General Manager Rick Hayduk and Tom Feeney, Vice President of Maintenance Operations, who is spearheading the green initiative.
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August 16, 2017

Actor Stephen Dorff gets $2.7M for bachelor-friendly Chelsea penthouse

By Annie Doge

When actor Stephen Dorff put his Chelsea penthouse on the market for $3 million in March of last year, 6sqft described it as "party-ready," thanks to an 850-square-foot roof terrace complete with wet bar/kitchen and outdoor shower. But it looks like "The Power of One," "Blade," and "Somewhere" star is officially saying goodbye to his bachelor pad days, as the Observer reports that he's unloaded the duplex at 251 West 19th Street for $2.7 million.
Take a tour

August 16, 2017

Live at the legendary Osborne on Billionaires’ Row for just $399K

Share a gorgeous lobby with the rich and famous at the iconic Osborne at 205 West 57th Street. Yes, you’re seeing that right, the Billionaires’ Row address has a notable vacancy: This one-bedroom lobby-level co-op is asking just $399,000. That may sound more like a stingy holiday tip for residents of nearby trophy towers like One57, but it gets you a classic Midtown West address shared by celebrities current and past including Jessica Chastain, former Knicks president Phil Jackson, and Leonard Bernstein.
Find out more about this rare find

Distinctive Homes

Enter the waitlist for middle-income apartments near Lincoln Center from $2,300/month

33 West End Avenue via CityRealty

August 15, 2017

Enter the waitlist for middle-income apartments near Lincoln Center from $2,300/month

The waitlist is open for $2,300 per month studios and $2,800 one-bedrooms at 33 West End Avenue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The building, near Lincoln Center, Columbus Circle and Central Park, features 24-hour concierge service, a fitness center, a shared lounge and bike storage. The waitlist is accepting applications from New Yorkers who earn between $80,743 and $126,060 annually.
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Affordable Housing

INTERVIEW: Author Ed Hamilton on how the Chelsea Hotel inspired personal stories of gentrification

Background image via Andrew Malone/Flickr

August 15, 2017

INTERVIEW: Author Ed Hamilton on how the Chelsea Hotel inspired personal stories of gentrification

By Emily Nonko

When it comes to the Chelsea Hotel, Ed Hamilton has seen it all. He and his wife moved to the iconic property in 1995, living among artists and musicians in a 220-square-foot, single-room-occupancy unit. The storied, artistic community nurtured inside the hotel came to an end a decade ago when the building sold for the first time and evictions followed. Since then, the property has traded hands a number of times with talks of boutique hotel development, luxury condos, or some combination of the two. Hamilton started tracking the saga at his blog Living With Legends and published a book, "Legends of the Chelsea Hotel," in 2007. After the book's success, Hamilton wrote a short story collection titled "The Chintz Age: Stories of Love and Loss for a new New York." Each piece offers a different take on New York's "hyper gentrification," as he calls it: a mother unable to afford her lofty East Village apartment, giving it up to a daughter she shares a strained relationship with; a book store owner who confronts his failed writing career as a landlord forces him out of now highly valuable commercial space. Ultimately, many of the stories were inspired by the characters he met inside the Chelsea Hotel. And his tales offer a new perspective on a changing city, one that focuses on "the personal, day-to-day struggles about the people who are trying to hang onto their place in New York." With 6sqft, he shares what it's like writing in the under-construction Chelsea Hotel, what the Chintz Age title means, and the unchanged spots of the city he still treasures.
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New rendering of Extell’s Central Park Tower shows sparkling all-glass facade

Rendering of Central Park Tower via Extell Development

August 15, 2017

New rendering of Extell’s Central Park Tower shows sparkling all-glass facade

A new rendering of Central Park Tower, slated to be the tallest residential tower on Earth, shows the most sparkling image of the residential building yet. Construction for Extell Development’s supertall, located at 225 West 57th Street on Billionaires’ Row, is underway and when completed, the tower is projected to be 1,550-feet tall. As CityRealty reported, the all-glass rendering appears to be taken about 900-feet above Central Park and leaves out rivaling towers, 432 Park Avenue and 111 West 57th Street. The $2.98 billion project is expected to be completed in 2019.
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August 15, 2017

Plan your future rooftop paradise atop Chelsea’s historic ‘Muffin House’ for $950K

We've already covered the fascinating fact that 337 West 20th Street isn't your average cooperative building: This Chelsea townhouse-turned-co-op was formerly the bakery of Samuel Bath Thomas, the Englishman who introduced New Yorkers to the English Muffin in the early 1900s, earning it the nickname Muffin House–and the original ovens, though no longer working, remain built into the basement. While all other traces of the old bakery are gone, this Chelsea aerie on the top floor of the 1850s townhouse has plenty of historic charm–and the one-bedroom apartment, asking $950,000, comes with private deeded roof rights.
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Chinese immigrants use slang names and maps to navigate the streets of NYC

Chinatown, image © Chaz Langley

August 14, 2017

Chinese immigrants use slang names and maps to navigate the streets of NYC

Many New Yorkers navigate Chinatown by its famous street names; East Broadway, Mulberry, Canal and Orchard. However, for many Chinese immigrants living in the area who do not speak English, these names are not used. Instead, descriptive nicknames (translated from Chinese) exist like “Hatseller Street,” “Garbage Street,” and “Dead Person Street.” Even more interesting, to help Chinese New Yorkers navigate the city, maps with these streets labeled in their Chinese nicknames are made and distributed. A reporter from This American Life, Aaron Reiss, began collecting these maps and discovered the lesser-known nicknames for a lot of these city streets, many which have four or five different labels.
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Uncategorized

August 14, 2017

Look right into Stuyvesant Square Park through the huge windows at this $895K co-op

Tucked away on Rutherford Place, one of the prettiest streets in the neighborhood, this charming first-floor pre-war apartment sits along the eastern border of Gramercy and Union Square. Built in 1855 as a townhouse, the one-bedroom co-op at 224 East 17th Street has a large master bedroom and a small office space–and direct views of Stuyvesant Square Park.
See more of this pretty Gramercy pad

Distinctive Homes

August 11, 2017

$1.3M West Side duplex with a greenhouse and a double-decker roof is a gardener’s dream

If you've got a green thumb–or you just like a stroll in the garden--this unusual duplex co-op at 361 West 30th Street in Midtown West is a dream come true. Though it's situated near the northern entrance to the High Line on a lovely tree-lined block, there's enough greenery and outdoor infrastructure just out the door of this convertible-two-bedroom home to keep a park fanatic busy.
Take a walk down the garden path

Distinctive Homes

Bjarke Ingels’ VIA offering 36 middle-income affordable apartments, from $1,448 a month

Photograph © Danica O. Kus

August 11, 2017

Bjarke Ingels’ VIA offering 36 middle-income affordable apartments, from $1,448 a month

By Andrew Berman of Village Preservation

In October of 2015, 6sqft reported that applications were being accepted for the 142 affordable apartments set aside for low-income tenants at the tantalizing tetrahedron that is starchitect Bjarke Ingels' VIA 57 West, a newly-minted rental residence at 625 West 57th Street. Word comes today that the lottery has opened for the middle-income portion of the building's affordable housing inventory. The half-block-long residential development contains 709 units, of which 20 percent have been deemed affordable. Of the 36 middle-income units available, studios have been priced between $1,448-$1,949; $1,554-$2,091 for one-bedrooms; $2,089-$2,519 for two-bedrooms; and $2,902 for three-bedrooms, each adjusted for income.
complete details here

The Village’s Twin Peaks: From a quirky ‘Swiss-chalet’ to a landmarks controversy

102 Bedford Street in 2015 (left) via Wiki Commons, and as of today, via GVSHP

August 10, 2017

The Village’s Twin Peaks: From a quirky ‘Swiss-chalet’ to a landmarks controversy

Few buildings capture the whimsy, flamboyance, and bohemian spirit of early 20th century Greenwich Village as does the building known as "Twin Peaks" at 102 Bedford Street. Described as a "wonderfully ludicrous mock half-timbered fantasy row-house castle" by architecture critic Paul Goldberger, the present incarnation of the building was born in 1925 as a radical remodeling of an 1830 rowhouse into a five-story artists’ studio apartment building. In the mid 20th-century, the building became even more iconic with a cream and brown paint job that mimicked its Alpine cottage inspiration. However, a more recent paint job stripped away this history, resulting in a controversial landmarks battle.
The whole story

There’s a rare Guastavino tiled ceiling hidden inside this $359K UWS studio

Image courtesy of Halstead

August 10, 2017

There’s a rare Guastavino tiled ceiling hidden inside this $359K UWS studio

A block of 78th Street on the Upper West Side, between the Museum of Natural History and Amsterdam Avenue, has more going for it than just colorful brownstones; it also has a colorful architectural secret. The block's display of Moorish brick and stone buildings shares a history with some of the city's notable public spaces. Known as "Guastavino Row," its decorative and altogether charming townhouses were designed by noted 19th-century architect Rafael Guastavino, famed for his beautiful and expertly engineered vaulted, tiled ceilings. Recently, a small but lovely first-floor studio at 120 West 78th street listed for $359,000, and it boasts a beautiful ceiling that, according to the listing, was one of Guastavino's iconic designs.
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Image via The Met

August 10, 2017

EVENT: Enjoy live jazz in the stunning medieval gardens of The Met Cloisters

By Diane Pham

If checking out The Cloisters has long been on your to-do list, there's no better time to head north than for the museum's MetFridays. On Friday, August 11th (that's tomorrow!) and Friday, August 25th, The Met will host two hours of live 1930s jazz at sunset in their stunning medieval gardens. Performances will feature trumpeter Alex Nguyen, winner of the International Trumpet Guild Jazz Competition, and his quartet as they perform the same ditties that topped the charts when the museum was first constructed between 1934 and 1939.
more details here

City Council unanimously approves Midtown East rezoning plan

Conceptual image depicting all of the proposed sites of the East Midtown rezoning fully built out, via CityRealty

August 10, 2017

City Council unanimously approves Midtown East rezoning plan

After five years, the City Council approved a rezoning for Manhattan’s Midtown East on Wednesday, by a 42-0 vote. The proposal will rezone roughly 78 blocks, running from East 39th Street to East 57th Street and from Third Avenue to Madison Avenue, clearing the way for 6.5 million square feet of office space in the area. A new updated zoning code is expected to incentivize new, dense development, allowing Midtown to compete with other booming business districts in the borough like Hudson Yards and the Financial District. As the New York Times reported, this change which lets developers build to a higher floor area ratio could result in new supertall towers.
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Policy

Soho and Tribeca’s windowed sidewalks provided light to basement factory workers before electricity

Vault lights in Soho, via WooJin Chung for 6sqft

August 9, 2017

Soho and Tribeca’s windowed sidewalks provided light to basement factory workers before electricity

By Rebecca Paul

In many parts of Soho and Tribeca, the sidewalks are made from small circular glass bulbs instead of solid concrete. Known as "hollow sidewalks" or "vault lights," the unique street coverings are remnants from the neighborhood's industrial past when they provided light to the basement factories below before electricity was introduced. These skylight-like sidewalks first came about in the 1840s when these neighborhoods were transitioning from residential to commercial and when their signature cast iron buildings first started to rise.
Find out more about their history

History

August 9, 2017

A top-floor Madison Avenue studio a block from the park for $460K? Yes, it’s true.

This pre-war studio might not be huge (in fact it's only 550 square feet), but it has plenty of charm and even more location going for it. Tucked into the top floor of an elevator building at 1361 Madison Avenue, the diminutive co-op is asking $460,000 and not a penny more. Central Park is a block away, and the Upper East Side location is in the heart of the neighborhood.
Check it out

Distinctive Homes

New renderings of East Harlem’s Sendero Verde, the country’s will-be largest passive house project

Renderings via Handel Architects

August 9, 2017

New renderings of East Harlem’s Sendero Verde, the country’s will-be largest passive house project

Despite Mayor de Blasio's success meeting his affordable housing goals, East Harlem has fallen behind. As 6sqft recently reported, out of the 21,963 new units added in 2016, just 249 were built in East Harlem, prompting the city to expedite the construction of 2,400 affordable units there over the next few years. A large chunk of this will come from Sendero Verde, a massive, mixed-use development that will bring 655 affordable rentals to the block bound by East 111th and 112th Streets and Park and Madison Avenues. Back in February, Jonathan Rose Companies and L+M Development Partners released a rendering from Handel Architects of the 751,000-square-foot project, but now CityRealty has uncovered an entire batch of drawings from the firm that detail how it will be the country's largest passive house project and weave together the residences, a school, supermarket, and four community gardens, all surrounding a multi-layered courtyard.
More looks and details ahead

August 8, 2017

Elizabeth Arden’s former Sutton Place townhouse hits the market for $16M

A single-family townhouse in affluent Sutton Place has hit the market for $16 million. The home, located at 4 Sutton Square, was built in 1921 for Henry Sprague, the inventor of the Sprague gas meter. Beauty entrepreneur Florence M. Lewis, better known professionally as Elizabeth Arden, and Michael Jeffries, president of Abercrombie & Fitch, have also called the exclusive, five-story pad home. Last year, the 4,000-square-foot, four bedroom home was on the market for $19.95 million.
See inside

Updated view of 3 Hudson Boulevard adds 300-foot spire, making it tallest in Hudson Yards

Rendering of 3 Hudson Boulevard courtesy of FX FOWLE

August 8, 2017

Updated view of 3 Hudson Boulevard adds 300-foot spire, making it tallest in Hudson Yards