Manhattan

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.
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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.
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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

While space in this Greenwich Village studio at 12 West 9th Street definitely has its limits, there's plenty of loveliness and luxury–not to mention clever storage and well-planned placement–in this small package. For $1.15 million, you get one of the best addresses in the city, gorgeous light, convenience, and a sweet, if diminutive place to call home. The apartment's current owners purchased the studio just a few years ago in 2013, according to records, for a shockingly pocket-sized $455,000. For a prime Village property, even a studio, that's nearly a steal, and the sellers are certainly hoping to make the most of it.
Check out its crazy closet and more stealthy storage

Distinctive Homes

The Country’s First Botanic Garden Was on 20 Wooded Acres at Today’s Rockefeller Center

View of Elgin Botanic Garden in 1801

March 30, 2016

The Country’s First Botanic Garden Was on 20 Wooded Acres at Today’s Rockefeller Center

Today, New Yorkers get to enjoy lush landscapes and beautiful plantings at the 250-acre New York Botanical Garden and the 52-acre Brooklyn Botanic Garden, but these outdoor oases weren't founded until 1891 and 1910, respectively. About 100 years prior, a public botanic garden sprouted up on 20 acres of land at what is today Rockefeller Center, and it was the first such garden in the nation. Elgin Botanic Garden was founded in 1801 by Dr. David Hosack, a physician, botanist, and educator, perhaps best known for serving as the doctor to Alexander Hamilton after his duel with Aaron Burr in 1804. He used his own money to purchase and landscape the grounds, and by 1805 it was home to more than 1,500 plant species, which he studied for medicinal purposes.
The full history of Hosack and the Elgin Botanic Garden

History

March 30, 2016

Richard Meier-Designed Tower Finally Begins Construction at Turtle Bay South Complex

Construction has finally begun on the westernmost lot of Sheldon Solow's Turtle Bay South master plan, 16 years after the developer purchased the site. Excavators are picking away at the 30,000-square-foot site at 685 First Avenue that has long held a surface parking lot and is just a small portion of a larger, long-planned development straddling First Avenue between East 35th and 41st Streets. Last August, plans were filed for 685 First, which will be a girthy 42-story residential tower with 555 rental units and 800,000 square feet of gross floor area. The tower is being designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Richard Meier, a surprising choice given the American architect is best known for his modest-scaled projects and white exteriors, while Solow is best known for their monolithic towers sheathed in black glass curtain walls. Nevertheless, when complete, the tower will be Meier's largest ever project in New York and will be just one of four residential towers and a pavilion he is scheduled to design for the billionaire developer.
More details and renderings ahead

March 29, 2016

Across from Hudson Yards, Architect Proposes 9-Acre Floating Island As an Encore to the High Line

New York architect and longtime visionary Eytan Kaufman has drawn up a conceptual plan to connect the final leg of the High Line to a new island/pier in the Hudson River. Currently, the High Line gets tantalizingly close to the waterfront in its final spur around Hudson Yards, but then swerves inland towards an anticlimactic end at the Jacob Javits Center. Kaufman's scheme called Hub on the Hudson would build a pedestrian bridge over the West Side Highway, shuttling people from the elevated park to a sprawling, circular-shaped cultural and recreational center. It's quite similar to Barry Diller's proposed Pier 55 floating park, which is planned for a Hudson River site slightly farther south in the Meatpacking District. Extending more than 700 feet into the river, and spanning nearly nine acres in size, the pie-in-the-Hudson plan would build five interconnected pyramid-shaped buildings, comprised of an art center, restaurants, and publicly accessible open spaces. A circular elevated promenade would encircle the island, which Kaufman says would contrast to the linear procession of the High Line. At ground level there will be a central reflecting pool with a promenade leading out to a marina. The pentagonal, pyramidal and circular themes expressed in the plan make its spiritual intentions quite clear: To sail the High Line's tourists back home.
Check out all the renderings this way

Architecture And Design

Middle-Income Housing Lottery Opens for 16 Newly Renovated Apartments in Harlem

152 West 124th Street (L); 70 East 127th Street (R). Via Google Street View.

March 29, 2016

Middle-Income Housing Lottery Opens for 16 Newly Renovated Apartments in Harlem

The Third Party Transfer Program (TPT) is an initiative of the NYC Department of Housing and Preservation Development that was created in 1966 where the city forecloses on properties with unpaid taxes and eventually transfers ownership to a developer who must rehabilitate the building if necessary and manage it as affordable housing. Two Harlem buildings, 152 West 124th Street and 70 East 127th Street, were renovated under this program and are now offering 16 middle-income units through the city's housing lottery. They range from $1,040/month studios to $2,165 two-bedrooms for persons earning anywhere between $36,995 and $107,875 annually, depending on household size.
Find out if you qualify

Affordable Housing

March 29, 2016

Construction Update: The Style Condominium Takes Shape in East Harlem

By Emrys Fitzgerald

Two years after renderings were first unveiled, 6sqft brings a construction update for a two-building condominium complex rising in East Harlem. Known as the Style and developed by the the Fane Organization, the property sits on a block-through parcel of land between East 131st and 132nd Streets, bound by Madison and Park Avenues. The Style's 31 residences are housed in two buildings with distinct addresses on opposite ends of the lot, but they're unified by an interconnecting lobby and courtyard. Gene Kaufman Architects is handling the design of the buildings, which are similar, but not identical. Despite the project's bold name, however, they're quite ordinary in design. The most distinguishing feature are sand-colored frames encircling the exteriors' windowed and black-paneled areas, reminiscent of Midtown's Solow Building (but without the bell bottoms).
More details ahead

March 29, 2016

$2.5M Greenwich Village Loft Offers Plenty of Light For an Indoor Garden