Manhattan

Just in time for construction to commence in the new year, things are swiftly moving ahead at Pier 57, aka the SuperPier. Last month, 6sqft uncovered a slew of new renderings of the the 450,000-square-foot, $350 million development, which is set to include 250,000 square feet of office space for a major technology company, a 170,000-square-foot food and retail market from Anthony Bourdain, and an elevated park with an outdoor movie and performance amphitheater on the roof to be used for screenings for the Tribeca Film Festival. Google has long been assumed as the office tenant, and according to the Wall Street Journal, it's official, as the company has "signed a 15-year lease with development team Youngwoo & Associates LLC and RXR Realty." Bourdain's food hall is also expected to close soon.
More details this way

Real Estate Trends

Jonah Hill Spotted Eyeing Noho Condo Conversion The Schumacher

Current photo of the Schumacher by 6sqft

December 23, 2015

Jonah Hill Spotted Eyeing Noho Condo Conversion The Schumacher

Looks like Jonah Hill is battening down the hatches in hopes of finding a new Downtown pad. Three years ago, the actor bought a Soho loft at 27 Howard Street for $2.65 million, but put it on the market in August 2014 for a hefty $3.8 million. Back in March, he chopped the price to $3.5 million, and now a tipster tells us that he was seen taking photos outside The Schumacher, the newly unveiled Noho condo conversion at 36 Bleecker Street.
Check out Jonah's options

Celebrities

December 22, 2015

Cameron Diaz Unloads Her $4.25M West Village Pad in Less Than Two Months

The market may be in its winter slump, but that hasn't affected Cameron Diaz, whose West Village apartment has gone into contract after just 47 days, reports the Observer. The actress bought the two-bedroom home in 2008 for $2.95 million and then enlisted famed California-based designer Kelly Wearstler to outfit the pre-war condo with lots of gilding and luxe finishes. After purchasing a $9.5 million home in the Walker Tower two years ago and recently marrying musician Benji Madden, Diaz put the 12th Street residence on the market for $4.25 million last month.
Take a look around

December 21, 2015

Studio DB’s Tribeca Penthouse Strikes the Perfect Balance of Beauty and Functionality

By Rebecca Paul

Tribeca has been a NYC hot spot for well over a decade and is home to one of the city's most sought-after zip codes. Thanks to its large stock of lofts and historic architecture, the trendy 'hood is chock full of drool-worthy real estate, and this classic penthouse is no exception. The home was renovated in 2014 by the design team at Studio DB, who set out to make the space both beautiful and functional for the homeowners' growing family.
See the whole renovation

December 21, 2015

More Details Revealed for Bjarke Ingels’ High Line Towers

The latest project to come from starchitect-of-the-moment Bjarke Ingels is a set of towers that will rise along the High line at 76 11th Avenue. The renderings made waves a month ago when the angular, asymmetrical structures were revealed, and at this time it was also announced that the project would encompass a hotel, retail space, and around 300 luxury condos. But new plans filed by developer HFZ Capital Group, first uncovered by The Real Deal, show that the towers' four-story base will not include a hotel, but rather retail and office space, likely because "[commercial office space] vacancy rates in the [Meatpacking District] are notoriously low–around 2 percent–while prices are high."
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December 18, 2015

$13K Furnished Rental Is a Mix of All the Coolest Downtown Dwellings

The kitchen says Greenwich Village, the bedroom reads East Village, and the large living space is pure Soho loft. Located just south of Union Square and a few blocks from almost everything else in the universe, this good old fashioned "loft-style home" at 816 Broadway is the perfect mix of cool downtown dwellings. Unless you're seeking total peace and quiet (which rules out most of New York City) there isn't much downside–other than the $13K a month rent–to moving right in to this hip, well-stocked apartment with the world just outside your door. This furnished home is available for six months or less (January-September); weekly cleaning and utilities are included in the rent.
Get a closer look

Distinctive Homes

Why Is the Face of This Clock in Central Park Rotating Backwards?

GIF created from a video by Scott Beale for Laughing Squid

December 18, 2015

Why Is the Face of This Clock in Central Park Rotating Backwards?

At first glance, it looks like an ordinary 19th century street clock, but when you notice its movement, things get a little weird. Located at Central Park's Doris C. Freedman Plaza, the clock's face rotates backwards, while the second hand appears to remain upright and stationary at all times (h/t Laughing Squid). What'll really throw you for a loop is that the clock is displaying the correct time, but because of how accustomed we are to the regular rotation, it's almost impossible to read. Titled "Against the Run," the clock was created by Alicja Kwade for the Public Art Fund. The Polish-born, Berlin-based artist wanted to challenge "the systems we invent to make sense of our lives," thereby forcing us to "see 'reality' from a new perspective."
More about the trippy clock

Events & Things To Do

December 18, 2015

Historic UWS Townhouse Filled With Bold Modern Furniture Hits the Rental Market

Original mahogany and oak paneling, inlaid parquet floors, carved mantels and a grand staircase. That's the lowdown at 315 West 78th Street, an impressive townhouse in the Riverside Drive/West End Avenue area of the Upper West Side. It's a huge house, with 4,000 square feet, 11 rooms, five bedrooms and four-and-a-half bathrooms. It also has an impressive number of historic details intact. The home has been offered as a rental for a few years now, priced between $15,499 and $16,000 a month. It's back on the market asking $16,000 and is being offered furnished or not. It's also available short term, for a minimum of a six-month stay. This is a spot we definitely wouldn't mind hanging for six months.
See the interior

December 18, 2015

Get a Look at the South Village’s Upcoming Boutique Condo, 54 MacDougal Street

By Ondel Hylton

Excavation is nearly complete at 54 MacDougal Street, a ground-up, six-story condominium being developed by Valyrian Capital and Ajax Partners. Up until 2013, a humble three-story townhouse stood at the 2,500-square-foot lot for nearly 200 years, dating its creation to around 1820 when it was built on land formerly owned by Aaron Burr. The building lot is within a once working-class and immigrant neighborhood referred to by some as the South Village. Unlike large swaths of Greenwich Village to the north and cast iron sections of Soho to the west, the motley mixture of low-rise, pre-war buildings for years lacked landmark protections. Since 2006, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) has urged the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission to designate a 35-block stretch of the neighborhood as an historic district, making it the city’s first tenement-based landmarked district. To date, two of the three phases of the district have been designated.
More details ahead

December 17, 2015

Colorful and Quirky Four-Bedroom With Pre-War Charm Asks $775K in Hamilton Heights

Some are saying that the next Harlem Renaissance is poised to happen in Hamilton Heights. And everyone's got their eye on Columbia University's planned 6.8 million-square-foot expansion into neighboring Manhattanville—it's expected to bring an influx of new residents. If you're looking to get in a little early—or you're just looking for a decent amount of living space in Manhattan that doesn't cost millions, this quirky four-bedroom co-op at 616 West 137th Street could be your lucky break.
Check it out

Distinctive Homes

December 16, 2015

Where I Work: Artist Nancy Pantirer shows us around her imaginative Tribeca loft

6sqft’s series “Where I Work” takes us into the studios, offices, and off-beat workspaces of New Yorkers across the city. In this installment, we take a tour of painter and sculptor Nancy Pantirer’s imaginative Tribeca studio. Want to see your business featured here? Get in touch! When artist Nancy B. Pantirer opened up her studio for this year's Inside Tribeca Loft Tour, guests were swooning over everything from the high ceilings to the eclectic furniture, and of course, her incredible paintings, many of which are done in a large-scale format. But what really left an impression was Nancy's welcoming nature, evident as she chatted with almost everyone who passed through her space, telling them a bit about herself, her work, and the neighborhood. Eager to share this with our readers, 6sqft was lucky enough to get a private tour of Nancy's space, where she filled us in on her process, design choices, and how she feels Tribeca has changed since she arrived in 1995.
Take our tour right this way

SHoP Architects’ Controversial Seaport Tower Won’t Move Ahead

Rendering of the proposed 494-foot tower via SHoP Architects

December 16, 2015

SHoP Architects’ Controversial Seaport Tower Won’t Move Ahead

The long-plagued condo tower designed by SHoP Architects for the Fulton Fish Market site at the South Street Seaport has been nixed, according to statements made by the Howard Hughes Corporation at a community board meeting last night. DNAinfo, who first reported on the fate of the 494-foot tower, says that the developer will instead construct a "not tall" commercial building at what's now known as the New Market Building site.
More details

Real Estate Trends

December 16, 2015

130-Year-Old Limestone Townhouse on the Upper West Side Asks $12.95 Million

It's hard not to be impressed by this 130-year-old limestone townhouse, built at 64 West 87th Street on the Upper West Side. The Jacobean Revival townhouse was designed by the 1890s architect Clarence Fagan True as a set of three—but this one is "the star of the show," according to Daytonian in Manhattan. There's an intricately carved facade with a four-story bay and an imposing stone porch with balustraded railings. It sold in 1895 to Lucius Nathan Littauer, a close friend of Theodore Roosevelt with his own political ambitions, and is known as the L. N. Littauer Mansion. Today, the facade is intact and the interior has been completely renovated by Zivkovic Connolly Architects to add some modern upgrades to the old world charm. Despite the modern upgrades, there are plenty of historic goodies left, including a truly impressive plaster ceiling that sits atop a ceramic-faced fireplace and parquet floors.
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December 15, 2015

Designer’s Boldly Renovated West Village Pad Asks $1.15M

Let's start by saying we just might live in a paper grocery bag if it were on this street. Now that we've got that out of the way–this barely-big-enough one-bedroom co-op on a dreamy West Village block at 68 Barrow Street has more than location going for it. The double-exposure floor-through got a snappy makeover in 2013 by NYC designer/developers ASH–its owner is company founder Ari Heckman–and has been featured in New York Magazine among others. Bold design choices and a modern aesthetic set this co-op apart from the average Village aerie.
Check it out here

Distinctive Homes

December 15, 2015

Gramercy Duplex With Three Exposures and Lots of Light Asks $7,500/Month

There's a certain prestige that comes with living in the Gramercy Park neighborhood. Sure, if you're renting an apartment a block away you're not going to get one of the prized keys into the park. But still, it's nice to walk by and take a peek at how the other half lives. This rental apartment, a duplex at 228 East 22nd Street, sure isn't inexpensive—it's asking $7,500 a month—but it's still less than the millions you'd pay to live in a condo off the park. Best of all, this apartment comes with plenty of exposures and big windows to soak in the beautiful neighborhood around you.
Take a look

Distinctive Homes

Living in a Micro Apartment Could Be Harmful to Your Health

New rendering of Carmel Place interiors, via Monadnock Development/nARCHITECTS

December 14, 2015

Living in a Micro Apartment Could Be Harmful to Your Health

By Diane Pham

An apple a day may keep the doctor away, but living in a micro apartment may drive you to seek professional psychological help. A recent article in The Atlantic takes a look at the tiny living trend that has taken the nation—and in particular New York, with developments like My Micro NY and teeny renovations like this one—by storm, and finds that squeezing into an extra-small space could lead to health risks. “Sure, these micro-apartments may be fantastic for young professionals in their 20's,” says Dak Kopec, director of design for human health at Boston Architectural College and author of Environmental Psychology for Design, to the magazine. “But they definitely can be unhealthy for older people, say in their 30’s and 40’s, who face different stress factors that can make tight living conditions a problem.”
find out more here

December 14, 2015

Famed Tiny Transforming ‘Life Edited’ Apartment Sells for $790K

Early last year eco-entrepreneur Graham Hill placed what might be the world's most famous tiny apartment at 150 Sullivan Street (it's been featured in the Times, it's won awards, and it even has its own TED Talk) on the market for just under $1 million. While some people balked at the asking price that gave way to a price per square foot of $2,369, Hill has managed to make a sale—albeit for a much discounted $790,000. The lucky new owner will have plenty to muse over in this micro-dwelling, which packs the functional equivalent of eight rooms into just 420 square feet.
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December 14, 2015

A Massive Living Room Defines This Two-Bedroom Soho Co-op, Asking $2 Million

This two-bedroom, two-bathroom loft comes from a historic building at 37B Crosby Street, between Broome and Grand in Soho, that's been converted to a cooperative. Like many other downtown loft apartments, it is distinguished by its massive "great room"–an open living room, dining room and kitchen. Unlike the traditional loft, the bedrooms are built out in separate spaces. The design is completely modern and refined, paired with those great old loft details like high ceilings, big windows and exposed brick (there are even two working fireplaces throughout the apartment). It's all up for sale asking a cool $2 million. The apartment last sold in 2008 for $1.495 million.
Check it out

Distinctive Homes

December 14, 2015

Soho Loft Perfection ‘By the Same Designer as Barneys’ Asks $8.77M

This 3,162 square-foot three-bedroom loft at 104 Wooster Street hits all the high notes when it comes to just-right modern interior design and what we love about lovely Soho lofts. With interiors, according to the listing, "by the same designer as Barneys," the apartment last changed hands in 2012 for $5.35 million (below its $5.7M ask) to a partner in a commercial law firm; it looks to have gotten its expertly turned-out design upgrade since then–perhaps part of the reason for the $3M price-bump. Ascending by key-locked elevator to the fourth floor of this eight-unit boutique condo building on a quintessential Soho block, you'll immediately notice the light from a wall of windows and the presence of condo comforts like central air, built-in speakers and a home automation system. For celebrity cred, Academy Award-winning director Barry Levinson ("Rain Man," "Diner," "Bugsy") owns a loft two floors below.
Get more loft inspiration this way

Distinctive Homes

December 13, 2015

Newly-Renovated Townhouse Duplex Asks $6,500 a Month on the Upper West Side

You'd be hard pressed to find an architecture-loving New Yorker who hasn't dreamt about living in one of the incredible townhouses that line Central Park, especially those on the side streets of Central Park West. Here's one to start drooling over if you can't afford the multi-million-dollar price tag and are looking to rent. 14 West 95th Street is an elegant, four-story limestone townhouse that has been broken down into rental units. As for the location, the listing calls it "perfectly situated" and we'd have to agree–right on 95th Street, directly off of Central Park West. The rental apartment that's now on the market has been renovated, so it looks more modern than old-world New York. For three bedrooms and two bathrooms over both floors, it's asking $6,500 a month.
Check it out

Distinctive Homes

December 11, 2015

A Wood Boat Hull Makes Up the Mezzanine of This Colorful Chelsea Loft

By Rebecca Paul

There is an abundance of cool lofts in Chelsea, and we love exploring the interiors of these impressive open spaces. The best part is that the design of each individual unit is often left up to the tenants, resulting in some truly unique layouts. However, it's not so often that we see two units with different owners following they same program, but for the families living in these two adjacent apartments it was the perfect solution. Together they hired SYSTEMarchitects to create two bedrooms in each of their narrow spaces, as well as access to an exterior deck that maximizes natural light and air. Plus, both spaces' 11-foot ceilings gave the design team enough room to create a sleeping and storage mezzanine, which was inspired by a wood boat hull.
See the entire space

December 11, 2015

This $23 Million Soho Loft Comes With Designer Furniture and a Motorized Headboard

This enormous and undeniably awe-inspiring condominium at 50 Wooster Street seems pretty straightforward: A huge Soho loft with a sleek and expensive-looking contemporary renovation. And you have a choice! You can rent this gleaming 4,800 square-foot downtown pleasure palace for $40k a month, or just buy it for a mere $23.3 million.
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December 11, 2015

Demolition Begins on 500-Foot UES Condo Replacing the Art & Design Building

By Ondel Hylton

Demolition has begun at the Lenox Hill site of a forthcoming 30-story condominium being developed by Orlando-based Inverlad Development and Steve Mills’ Third Palm Capital. The future 45-unit, 481-foot tower will replace the five-story Art & Design Building at 1059 Third Avenue and utilizes development rights from an adjacent apartment building at 1065 Third Avenue, which will also host an entryway for the Lexington/63rd Street station of the Second Avenue Subway. The developers paid an entity associated with the Battaglia family $31.5 million for the property in 2012. Building permits were approved in late October, granting the team the go-ahead to build a narrow, slab-shaped tower designed by Manuel Glas. According to DOB filings, the first three floors will contain office space and a healthcare facility, and above are 32 residential units. The amenity floor on level 12 will feature a fitness center, spa, swimming pool, tenants' lounge, and an outdoor terrace. Above level 13, seventeen full-floor residences will possess commanding views of the burgeoning Billionaires' Row skyline, East River and Central Park.
More details ahead

December 10, 2015

Amoeba-Like Floorplans for Herzog & de Meuron’s 160 Leroy Revealed

When you work in the real estate field, looking at floorplans can get a bit monotonous–rectangular box, square rooms, maybe a patio if you're lucky. But every once in a while, you'll see some schematics that cause pause, like these amoeba-shaped floorplans at Herzog & de Meuron's 160 Leroy (h/t Curbed). The 15-story, glassy West Village building has 49 condos, ranging from a $2.6 million one-bedroom unit to a $25 million penthouse. Depending where they're located along the undulating facade, the interior layouts can be long and windy or compact and curving.
See them all

December 10, 2015

‘Maximalist’ UES Townhouse of Designer Juan Pablo Molyneux Sells for Less Than Half Its First Ask