Manhattan

This week brings another superlatively funky dream home, both totally unique and impossible to sell on a grand scale, both getting a thorough market-friendly renovation. This particular property has been in and out of the media spotlight for the past decade and with reason. A five-story historic townhouse in Chelsea has plenty of dream house potential to begin with, but the house at 232 West 15th Street also has a 30-foot long, eight-foot deep heated saltwater pool (in the living room) under a two-story solarium. Also, a cascading waterfall. Also a poolside wet bar, self-irrigated planters and seven fireplaces (six wood-burning and one ethanol) and a roof deck with an outdoor shower. And two top-floor two-bedroom apartments ready to rent if you don't need the entire 4,800 square feet. Though the home has been freshly re-imagined as a sleek, contemporary vision in white, pale wood and glass, part of the fascination has been with the fabulously eclectic interiors that its current owner's family maintained, where turtles swam in the pool and a suit of armor looked on.
Tour this amazing townhouse

April 7, 2016

New Looks Inside Tribeca’s $50M Mega-Mansion With 18 Toilets and a Rooftop Farm

Tribeca's 30,000-square-foot, potential mega-mansion is still up for grabs for $50 million. As reported by the Journal last year, the 52-foot-wide, landmarked building at 71-73 Franklin Street would be delivered vacant by its longtime owners to a suitor who could transform the property into a single, seven-story mansion. The project has launched a website with a handful of renderings prepared by Turett Collaborative to give us a better idea of of what the enormous abode could look like. Last year, Curbed gave us a 43-point rundown of the ridiculous amenities and spaces provided in the plan, which includes more than seven bedrooms, 18 toilets, a nearly 60-foot-long swimming pool, climbing wall, rooftop farm, half basketball court, 20-seat home theater, and a two-floor walk-in closet for the missus of the house.
Get a look at all the renderings

April 7, 2016

This Junior One Bedroom, Custom Designed By Architect, Is True Blue in Soho

By Emily Nonko

Looking for a starter apartment with personality? This junior one bedroom, located at the prewar Soho co-op 124 Thompson Street, is now on the market asking $785,000. The corner unit was carefully designed by an architect back in 2011, but recently changed hands, selling to actress Kay Story in 2015 for $780,000. It's being offered to a new buyer with all sorts of fun perks, like a bar and wine fridge, customized closets and soundproof windows.
It's also decked out in blue

Distinctive Homes

April 7, 2016

Lenox Hill’s Rose Modern Nears Completion; Homes Range from $2,850 to $6,650 Per Month

At the northeast corner of York Avenue and East 74th Street, a glass and metal pile of floors is nearing completion. Developed by Golden Asset LLC and designed by Stephen B. Jacobs Group, the thin-skinned tower soars 20 stories above its characterful block of brick and fire-escape adorned context. Named Rose Modern, the building anchors a corner site at 501 East 74th Street and will be near the 72nd Street station of the Second Avenue Subway, anticipated to open later this year.
Get a look inside

April 7, 2016

The Updated but Still-Funky UWS Penthouse Atop the 1920s Level Club Returns for $2.6M

The crimson Venetian plaster-dappled interior walls are gone, done in minimalist white emulsion; the tiger-skinned boho pasha’s palazzo decor has been swapped for restrained, contemporary pasha’s pre-war. The interior's more impetuous elements have likely been pared down so it doesn’t scare the hell out of anyone, but also to show off the home's enormous 25-foot arched windows, 360 degree views, and stylized 1920s architecture. The overall effect is loft-meets-Palm-Beach-mansion, and though it doesn't exactly say Upper West Side, it no longer says magic carpet warehouse—and it's certainly still unique. This $2.6 million piece of New York City history sits atop a building that’s even more unique. Known as the Level Club, the building at 253 West 73rd Street served as the 1920s private social club of the Levelers, a group of Freemasons. The landmarked exterior is definitely a conversation starter, with a Romanesque-style facade designed in the image of King Solomon’s temple bearing carved Masonic symbols: the all-seeing eye, the hourglass, the level, the hexagram and the beehive.
Find out more about this fascinating penthouse

April 6, 2016

Rafael Viñoly’s Meatpacking Building to Include World’s Largest Starbucks, See New Renderings

News broke back in May that a low-rise Rafael Viñoly-designed building was coming to the former site of Prince Lumber at 61 Ninth Avenue in the Meatpacking District. Until now, no design details have emerged for the nine-story office and retail building, but 6sqft has uncovered Viñoly's renderings, which show a stacked cube design with many terraces along its asymmetrical glass facade. The address also made headlines today because its base will hold the largest Starbucks store in the world. The 20,000-square-foot facility known as the Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room will be "part of a push to bolster growth with larger locations that offer experiences to customers," reports Crain's.
See more

April 6, 2016

The Last Day to Dine at the Iconic Four Seasons Is July 16th

By Ondel Hylton and Heather Cooper Vivares

Despite its interior landmark status and role as the quintessential Midtown "power lunch" spot, the Four Seasons has been facing an uncertain future for the past year. In May, a small victory was had when the Landmarks Preservation Commission rejected Aby Rosen's plans to re-conceptualize the Philip Johnson-designed space, but it was short-lived, as Crain's now reports that the Four Seasons will close its doors on July 16th after serving New Yorkers since 1959. Rosen did not renew the lease and plans to replace the restaurant with what will be considered a more "hip" eatery. As the Post shares, of-the-moment restauranteurs Mario Carbone, Rich Torrisi, and Jeff Zalaznick (of the Major Food Group and trendy restaurants like Parm and Dirty French) signed to take over and partner with Rosen, who will increase the rent to $3 million a year.
The full story here

Food & Dining

April 6, 2016

Herzog & de Meuron’s 215 Chrystie Street Reaches Full Height; Only Three Units Remain

Last November, 6sqft reported that Ian Schrager and the Witkoff Group’s upcoming hotel/condominium building 215 Chrystie Street had just made its way past the midway point. Now, the “tough-luxe” Bowery development has reached its full apex, 314 feet to the mechanical bulkhead, dominating the low-slung skyline of the Lower East Side. The mixed-use development will have a 356-room PUBLIC Hotel from Ian Schrager along its lower levels, topped by 11 limited condominium residences. Pritzker Prize-winning firm Herzog & de Meuron, with Beyer Blinder Belle as architects of record, designed the arthropod-esque, concrete-framed building.
More views and details this way

April 6, 2016

Arianna Huffington Wants You In Her Bed

No, really. To herald the the arrival of the media maven’s new book, “The Sleep Revolution,” which addresses the common malaise of not getting enough sleep and how it’s affecting us rather terribly, Arianna Huffington has “turned her bedroom into a sleep sanctuary.” By way of a contest accompanied by an Airbnb listing–with fabulous, full-color photos of the ultra-feminine 158 Mercer Street loft, which she purchased for $8.15 million in 2012–Arianna has invited one lucky winner and a guest to spend a night in her New York City apartment.
What else do I get?

April 6, 2016

Flower District Getting 35-Story Moxy Hotel With Affordable Rooms for Young Travelers

The remainder of Chelsea's flower district continues to shrink, blossoming new hotels instead of floral shops. This latest stalk will rise mid-block at 105 West 28th Street and will be the largest lodge yet, growing 35 stories and budding 343 rooms, according to recently approved building permits. The tower is anticipated to be among New York's first batch of Moxy hotels, a new Marriott brand focused on affordable three-star accommodations for young travelers. Last year, Bloomberg reported that Lightstone is committing $2 billion to develop and invest in lodging properties over the next few years, and will be building five Moxy hotels in New York. Recently, financing was secured for a 618-room Moxy flagship at 485 Seventh Avenue in the Garment District.
More views and details

April 5, 2016

UES Firehouse Studio That Andy Warhol Rented for $150/Month Is Now Listed for $10M

In 1959, just before his career was about to take off, Andy Warhol bought a townhouse at 1342 Lexington Avenue near 89th Street and moved in with his mother. "But after three years there, canvases had begun to fill the ground floor apartment, while Brillo boxes and Campbell’s soup cans were stacked to the ceilings," reports Blouin Art Info. So when a friend tipped him off to a vacant firehouse nearby at 159 East 87th Street, the pop artist saw an opportunity for his first official studio. He wrote a letter to the city and began paying $150/month for the two-story building with no heat or running water (h/t DNAinfo). It's here that Warhol is said to have created his famous "Death and Disaster" series from 1962-63, and now, more than five decades later, the property is on the market for $9,975,000.
Find out more this way

This 1970s East Village Windmill Was Decades Ahead of Its Time

Raising the windmill on the roof of 519. Photo credit: Travis Price via Gothamist

April 5, 2016

This 1970s East Village Windmill Was Decades Ahead of Its Time

If you want to build a windmill today, you can thank a handful of dedicated tenants in a building at 519 East 11th Street in the East Village of the 1970s. The story of the Alphabet City windmill is one of many stories, recounted in Gothamist, from the bad old days of Loisaida–as the East Village's far eastern avenues, also known as Alphabet City, were once called–the kind the neighborhood's elder statesmen regale you with, knowing well that you know nothing firsthand of a neighborhood of burned-out buildings and squatters who bought their homes for a buck. But this particular story isn’t one of riots or drug deals on the sidewalk; it’s one of redemption, no matter how brief in the context of time. The windmill was installed above an East Village building that was saved by the community, built and lifted to the roof by hand–or many hands. According to legend, the windmill kept the lights on during the chaos of the 1977 blackout.
Read all about it

April 5, 2016

Tribeca Condo With Two Voyeuristic Glass-Enclosed Bedrooms Asks $4.75M

By Emily Nonko

This Tribeca condo at 195 Hudson Street is officially listed as a one-bedroom apartment, but the current owners have fully taken advantage of the 2,325-square-foot space and added a glass-enclosed sleeping area. It doesn't have a window—or much privacy—but feels anything from dark and cramped due to those see-through walls. The windowed bedroom, too, is separated from the apartment by nothing more than floor-to-ceiling glass. Who needs privacy, anyway, when the apartment looks this nice?
Check out the rest

April 5, 2016

First Look at $45M Single-Family Mansion Replacing New York Foundling in Greenwich Village

In September 2014, the foster and child-care agency New York Foundling, one of the city's oldest charities, sold its Greenwich Village building for a staggering $45 million to an unknown buyer with the intention of converting it into a single-family mansion. It will be among the most expensive single-family residences ever purchased in Manhattan. The four-story, limestone and brick property on the northeast corner of Christopher Street and Waverly Place sits within the beloved Greenwich Village Historic District, and currently the owner is seeking approvals from the Landmarks Preservation Commission to add a pergola, mechanical equipment and an elevator bulkhead to the roof. Yet-to-be-approved permits were filed in November by HS Jessup Architecture, detailing a sprawling home of five floors and 15,000 square feet of floor area. Plans on Jessup's website show the mansion will have six bedrooms, two kitchens, its own elevator, a dressing room and walk-in closet larger than most apartments, a 50-foot lap pool, and more than 4,000 square-feet of outdoor space that will include a rooftop terrace. The architect also handled the neo-traditional penthouse addition atop 345 West 13th Street in the Meatpacking District.
More details right this way

April 5, 2016

New Views and Video of David H. Koch Center for Cancer on Manhattan’s Upper East Side

On a far-eastern block of the Upper East Side's Lenox Hill neighborhood, a unique venture is underway to build new facilities for Hunter College and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Now wrapping up its cavernous foundations, the 1.15 million-square-foot development will accommodate two separate towers: an East River-facing building that will house a 730,000-square-foot, 23-story outpatient treatment center for Memorial Sloan-Kettering; and a slightly smaller, 400,000-square-foot mid-block building for CUNY-Hunter College's schools of nursing and physical therapy. Hunter will trade its current nursing school facility at First Avenue and East 25th Street to the city where they will build a new sanitation facility. In 2012, then-mayor Michael Bloomberg awarded the institutions the right to to build upon the half-block parcel fronting the FDR Drive between East 73rd and 74th Streets. The site was previously home to a sanitation facility that was demolished in 2008 and was sold to the college-hospital for $226 million. The mammoth, 455-foot-tall structure is being designed by Perkins Eastman in collaboration with Ennead Architects and required special approvals to rise more than the as-of-right floor area and height limit. Aside from the project's size, neighbors took issue with the project's shortfall of parking spaces and the resulting congestion of a community loaded with medical facilities.
Find out more this way

April 4, 2016

Madonna Sues Upper West Side Co-Op Board Because Rules Don’t Apply to Her

By Annie Doge

Feeling above the law seems to be a new trend for Madonna. Just last week the lately-unpredictable superstar got ousted for posting fake "no parking" signs outside her Upper East Side mansion, and now the Daily News reports she's suing the board of her Upper West co-op "for changing the building rules on her and barring her children, guests and employees from using her apartment unless she is present." Madonna bought the apartment at 1 West 64th Street for $7.3 million in 2008, at which time she says the co-op rules didn't have such a stipulation. So she wants a court order saying the rule doesn't apply to her and her posse.
Get the full story ahead

Celebrities

April 4, 2016

$8M Tribeca Penthouse Is a Downtown Dream With a Dramatic Staircase and Heavenly Sunsets

If the address at 16 Debrosses Street sounds familiar, perhaps it's because the same Tribeca loft building was home to a young Lena Dunham, whose artist parents owned–and sold for $6.25 million in 2014–a duplex loft on the fourth floor. Dunham's first film, "Tiny Furniture," was filmed in the space. While that lovely and artsy loft may have been one kind of downtown dream, this tricked-out triplex penthouse, on the market for $7.995 million, is definitely another. Its 3,324 square feet may offer plenty of room for art, but this dressed-to-impress space seems better suited to entertaining and admiring the sunset against the skyline, from the Freedom Tower to the Hudson, from floor-to-ceiling windows and two separate terraces.
Check it out

Distinctive Homes

April 4, 2016

MAD Transforms Multi-Family Building Into One Glamorous Six-Floor Home

By Rebecca Paul

This beautiful Greek revival building, located at the Northwest corner of Washington Square Park, dates all the way back to the 1850s and previously functioned as a multiple family house. However, with new ownership often comes new ideas, and the current owners recently transformed the apartment building into a single-family residence. The renovation was led by the design team at Matiz Architecture & Design (MAD) and included a complete rebuild of the rear exterior, as well the addition of an central elevator providing easy access to all six floors. MAD's focus during the renovation was to conserve the existing details and restore the building's exterior while also giving the home an modern update. In addition to the architectural components, MAD was also responsible for all of the interior furnishings.
READ MORE

April 4, 2016

MTA Takes Steps to Open 7 Train Station at 10th Avenue

Last month, the Port Authority of of New York and New Jersey officially launched a design competition for a new bus terminal, which could cost up to $10 billion and require the use of eminent domain. A new Port Authority Bus Terminal aims to accommodate tens of thousands of additional riders, many of whom will then need to connect to a subway line. To accommodate all these potential new riders, the MTA is looking to revive its past plan of building a 7 train station at 10th Avenue and 41st Street, reports Crain's, which could cost up to $1 billion.
Find out more

Transit

April 4, 2016

Live in a Boutique Harlem Building for $839/Month, Lottery Launches for 71 East 110th Street

The Lovina House, located at 71 East 110th Street in East Harlem, recently opened as a boutique rental building with 14 contemporary, loft-like apartments. Three of these units are now available through the city's affordable housing lottery. This includes a $839/month studio for a single person earning between $28,766 and $36,300 annually, and two $1,089/month one-bedrooms for households with incomes between $37,338 and $52,020, depending on family size.
More info on the building and lottery

Affordable Housing

April 1, 2016

An Art Collector’s $14.5M West Village Carriage House Is Both Private Gallery and Family Home

Purchased in 1996 for $950,000 by French music producer, newspaper publisher, entrepreneur and passionate lifelong art collector Jean Lignel, this West Village carriage house received a renovation by architect Jeffrey Flanigan that transformed the 1834 landmark into both a family home and a made-to-order art gallery with 6,700 interior square feet and 1,825 square feet of outdoor space. Lignel’s collection includes many works by Keith Haring, Warhol, and celebrated contemporary artist (and mother of filmmaker Beth B) Ida Applebroog among many others. In addition to being able to showcase large art pieces, modern conveniences–like an elevator and a garage–abound. Lignel first listed this "West Village Arthouse" (as the current listing calls it) in 2007 for a whopping $20 million, possibly fresh from its extensive–and no doubt expensive–renovation. Since then, the home has been on and off the market, with broker swaps and price chops happening each time. In this latest go-round, the three-story historic home with an artistic pedigree is listed at $14.5 million.
Take a look inside this private gallery and family home

March 31, 2016

Demolition Begins for 50-Story Midtown East Skyscraper, New Rendering Released

Just northeast of Grand Central Terminal at 141 East 47th Street, Brooklyn-based New Empire Real Estate (NERE) is moving ahead with plans to build a svelte 49-story condominium tower. New building permits were filed yesterday, an updated rendering has been released, and removal of the site's low-slung structures has commenced. NERE's skyscraper will rise mid-block along the northern blockfront of 47th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues. Up until the still-under-construction hotel rising at 147 East 47th Street, the block was one of the few remaining in Midtown East that had been spared the imposition of a post-war high-rises.
Get the scoop

March 30, 2016

A Closer Look at ODA’s 75 Nassau Street & Other Nearby Towers Planned For Fulton Street

Capitalizing on a revitalized Financial District, Fulton Street is bursting with residential development activity. With a re-imagined Fulton Street Transit Hub open and the second coming of the World Trade Center shopping center and Pier 17 on the horizon, at least five sizable towers are jostling to join the street's renaissance. Most interesting of the bunch is a 40-story residential skyscraper set to rise at 75 Nassau Street. Developed by Lexin Capital and designed by ODA Architects, its 307,000-square-foot, slab-like massing is distinguished by fragmented and nibbled-away edges that run vertically along the tower's corners. At its more than 500-foot-high pinnacle, a forest of trees will top the structure, giving the high rise a profile that will recall the iconic finials of the district's skyscrapers.
More on ODA's tower and its four other neighbors

March 30, 2016

Controversial Zoning Change Would Fill Lower Manhattan Public Plazas With Retail

Whether you consider them "dead-end" corridors devoid of street life or nifty urban shortcuts (or just convenient rain shelters), the city's covered public walkways and arcades are finding themselves in something of a spotlight, reports the Wall Street Journal. This recent focus is on the covered walkways that run alongside skyscrapers in the Water Street corridor in lower Manhattan. A proposed zoning change, which would affect property owners in the Water Street Subdistrict, would allow retail to open up shop in these arcades.
Find out why some object to new retail additions

March 30, 2016

Though Pint-Sized and Pricey, This $1.15M Village Studio Has Tons of Charm and Storage