Manhattan

Here's our first look at the lofty interiors of an upcoming GF55 Partners-designed condominium at 64 East 1st Street. The seven-story property is being developed by MGM Property Group, and the site was previously occupied by the much-maligned restaurant/hookah bar La Vie. MGM purchased the 3,300-square-foot lot in late 2013 to the tune of $5.4 million and swiftly demolished the one-story building last year. Excavation work is currently ongoing.
More details ahead

July 30, 2015

Funky Decor and an Impressive Art Collection Distinguish This Greenwich Village Studio

Here's another apartment unit up for sale in the pre-war co-op building University Mews, at 39 East 12th Street in Greenwich Village. Just last month, a lofty unit in the building hit the market for $1.595 million. This one has a much different vibe. The current owner outfitted it in some incredible and unique decor, which is accentuated by the 14-foot ceilings and large windows. Its asking price? The same as the last unit–$1.595 million.
To the interior

Distinctive Homes

July 30, 2015

Ricky Martin Gets $7.55M for Noho Pad

By Annie Doge

Ricky Martin moved into 40 Bond–the Herzog & de Meuron-designed Noho condo famous for its graffiti gate and green glass/green cast iron facade–back in 2007, shortly after the building was completed. He paid $5.7 million for unit 6C, which is perfectly spacious and lovely, but has had a bit of trouble getting it off his hands, first trying to rent it and then listing it for $8.3 million back in 2013. But the Post reports that the Latin pop star has finally found a buyer, who paid $7.55 million for the three-bedroom pad.
More interior pics ahead

My 1,000sqft: Tour an Interior Designer’s Classic Greenwich Village Apartment and Terrace

Our ongoing series “My sqft” checks out the homes of 6sqft’s friends, family and fellow New Yorkers across all the boroughs. Our latest interior adventure brings us to the heart of Greenwich Village. Want your home to be featured here? Get in touch!

July 29, 2015

My 1,000sqft: Tour an Interior Designer’s Classic Greenwich Village Apartment and Terrace

Sylvia Jacobson used to walk around Greenwich Village's winding, leafy streets, admiring the old buildings and dreaming that one day she'd live in the picturesque neighborhood. And 38 years ago, she did just that. When she and her husband moved into their fifth-floor walkup they had a lot of work to do–from putting up shelves and drawers in the little kitchen, to creating a multi-purpose room that could serve as a den as well as a studio for Sylvia's writing and interior design careers, to creating a usable terrace on an empty rooftop space. Now, almost four decades later, the apartment has withstood the test of time, bringing together clever design ideas and classic decor. We were lucky enough to get a tour of this 1,000-square-foot home and its stunning 500-square-foot terrace, complete with views of neighboring buildings and even One World Trade Center. Join us to see how elegant, tasteful design never goes out of style.
Step inside Sylvia's home here

July 29, 2015

Modern Mansion Spanning 8,000 Square Feet Asks $13 Million on the Upper West Side

Here's a six-story single-family home at 337 West 87th Street with space galore: 8,000 square feet, to be exact, plus another 1,700 square feet outdoors. The whole place has been renovated with luxurious modern finishes, including a marble powder room, skylights, custom cabinetry, walk-in closets and more. In case you're wondering how you'd be able to climb six stories of your home everyday without breaking a sweat, it is outfitted with an elevator that goes from the cellar up to the penthouse level. Of course, all this doesn't come cheap, especially considering that the property is located on a tree-lined block off of Riverside Drive. The asking price is $12.995 million.
Tour the inside

Distinctive Homes

July 29, 2015

Rare UES Townhouse Addition Coming to Fifth Avenue’s Museum Mile

New buildings along Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side are hard to come by, but a rare development prospect may be in the works for a small site on a dormant stretch of the avenue in Carnegie Hill. Building permits filed yesterday detail the construction of a five-story residential addition atop an existing eight-story, 30-foot-wide townhouse at 1143 Fifth Avenue, between 95th and 96th Streets. The brick and limestone building designed by J.E.R. Carpenter, was erected in 1923, and up until recently, housed staffers of the French Embassy. Last June, the 16,000-square-foot, seven-unit property was unloaded by the French government for $36.4 million and picked up by a buyer listed as 1143 5th Ave LLC.
More on the potential development ahead

July 28, 2015

Where to Find the NYC Haunts and Houses of Famous Writers

By Jason Carpenter

New York City has always been a hub for writers. Whether they were living in luxury or getting their start as starving artists, famous writers have lived and worked all across New York, and you can still see many of these writerly abodes today. Whether you're a fan of the Beat Generation, Sci-Fi, or even Southern Gothic, you might be interested in tracking down a famous writer's home.
See where writers lived and worked here

July 28, 2015

Renderings Revealed for Bjarke Ingels’ Curved Harlem Apartment Building

Now that the hoopla surrounding his design for Two World Trade Center has simmered down, we've got a fresh set of renderings from Danish starchitect Bjarke Ingels. NY Yimby revealed the preliminary designs for his firm's 11-story East Harlem apartment building at 146 East 126th Street, which show a T-shaped structure that cantilevers over the Gotham Plaza retail center on 125th Street. The real fun is on the 126th Street side, though, where Bjarke employs a play on the conventional street wall with an undulating facade that seems to be a modern interpretation of the surrounding brick buildings. The project is being developed by none other than Extell, along with the Blumenfeld Group.
More details and renderings here

July 28, 2015

Donald Trump Gets $21M for Trump Park Avenue Penthouse

Read the rest of the story here

When you have $1.4 billion in assets, $21 million is a drop in the bucket, but the Wall Street Journal reports that's what Donald Trump just got for the sale of his penthouse in his namesake building Trump Park Avenue. The apartment is not too exciting, but it does boast 6,200 square feet, ten-foot ceilings, five bedrooms, seven-and-a-half bathrooms, and a private elevator. Trump bought the full-floor penthouse in 2002, when his company converted the Upper East Side building to condos, but never lived there. It first hit the market back in 2013 for $35 million and most recently got a price chop to $24.99 million.
Look around the whole place here

July 27, 2015

Entertain on Three Levels in This $2.5M Modern Chelsea Loft

By Michelle Cohen

While most lofts offer a spacious open interior, this recently-listed $2.5 million Chelsea triplex extends vertically as well; a stylish recent renovation gets creative with windows and skylights to maximize light flow throughout all three floors. The 1,797-square-foot, two-bedroom condo at 251 West 19th Street–known as Chelsea 19, the classic loft building was built in 1910 and converted to condos in 2002–is just the spot for a three-story soiree (or a well-divided live-and-work space).
Check out all three floors...

Distinctive Homes

New York in the ’60s: Domestic Yearnings, Yorkville Hangouts and Bartenders

Our series “New York in the ’60s” is a memoir by a longtime New Yorker who moved to the city after college in 1960. Each installment will take us through her journey during a pivotal decade. From $90/month apartments to working in the real “Mad Men” world, we’ll explore the city through the eyes of a spunky, driven female. In our first installment, we went apartment hunting with the girl, and now that she’s moved in on the Upper East Side, we learn how she went about decorating her first NYC apartment, her favorite haunts of early 1960s Yorkville, and her bartender boyfriend.

July 27, 2015

New York in the ’60s: Domestic Yearnings, Yorkville Hangouts and Bartenders

By Penelope Bareau

History

July 27, 2015

Harlem Townhouse Rental Mixes the Old and the New for $7,500/Month

Here's a historic Harlem townhouse, at 30 East 130th Street, now up on the rental market. From the exterior, it has pretty much retained its 1900s-era features. But the interior is a mix of the historic and the new as the result of a 2012 renovation. It's the type of place we picture a bunch of young professionals pooling funds to rent–at $7,500 a month with six bedrooms, you'd get decent bang for your buck. And what young New Yorker hasn't dreamed of renting a townhouse with all of their friends?
See more of the space

Distinctive Homes

Roman Abramovich; View of the three townhouses — 11, 13, 15 (from L to R)

July 24, 2015

Roman Abramovich Closes on Third UES Townhouse for His $80M Makeshift Mansion

At the beginning of the year, news broke that Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich had secretly bought a townhouse at 11 East 75th Street for $29.7 million, which followed his purchase of a townhouse two doors down for $18.3 million a month earlier. So, of course, we all assumed that he would snatch up the townhouse wedged in between to create his very own makeshift mansion. And now it's official, as the Daily News reports today that Abramovich has closed on the townhouse at 13 East 75th Street for $30 million, bringing his total up to nearly $80 million.
Find out more here

July 24, 2015

Construction Update: Tribeca’s ‘Jenga Tower’ 56 Leonard Tops Out

By Heather Cooper Vivares

Last January, 6sqft reported on the the progress of Alexico Group /Hines' project 56 Leonard: The concrete structure was around 700 feet tall with little more than 100 feet to rise. Now, alas, the 821-foot Tribeca tower, playfully known as "the Jenga building" and designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, has finally topped out! With a delivery date expected sometime next year, all that remains for its wacky floor plate configurations and erratic cantilevered projections is the remainder of its exterior cladding, which we hear will now also progress from the top down, and the interior fit-out of its 145 residences.
More details this way

July 24, 2015

This Hip, Huge Artist Loft in Soho Will Not Come Cheap

If you're looking for a short-term stay in Manhattan that will epitomize everything about the life of a glitzy artist, look no further. (Warning: it's going to cost you.) This artist loft in SoHo, at 20-26 Greene Street, is available for a two to five month rental. Of course, it's downright pricy to live as an artist with a great downtown apartment, and this particular unit is asking $10,500 a month. Look at it this way: it's cheaper than buying one for $14.5 million. Or $4.375 million. So is the interior worth this rental's price tag?
Check it out

Distinctive Homes

July 24, 2015

It’s Storage Galore at This Noho Duplex Renovation by Raad Studio

A challenge that every New York apartment dweller will face eventually is one of storage. This is a city of cozy, compact spaces, and although many of us are lacking the luxury of basements, walk-in closets, garages, etc., we usually make up for it in unique ways. (Hello, lofted apartment!) Raad studio creatively took up the challenge at a duplex in Noho, where storage is so prevalent and seamlessly integrated into the design, it demands a standing ovation from storage-starved New Yorkers everywhere.
See the full reno

July 24, 2015

$51M Time Warner Center Penthouse Sale Sets a Record for the Building

By Diane Pham

Maybe it's the location near Lincoln Center and lots of shopping, or maybe it's the unobstructed views of Central Park, or maybe it's the ease of planting tons of one's foreign cash without worry within its walls, whatever the case may be, the ultra-luxe Time Warner Center has just drawn in a record $50.92 million sale. The owner, Russian billionaire Andrey Vavilov, listed the sprawling 14-room penthouse for $75 million early last year, then dropping the price to $68 million in November, finally landing on $51 million with a buyer known only as "Columbus Family LLC," according to city documents filed today. As CityRealty reveals, the transaction is the highest ever recorded at the building; the runner-up, incidentally, the same unit, which traded hands last in 2009 between Vavilov and Austrian investor Gerhard Andlinger for $37.5 million.
Have a closer look inside

Real Estate Trends

July 24, 2015

Tribeca’s 45 Park Place Site Cleared to Make Way for Slender 660-Foot Skyscraper

The site of a SOMA Architects-designed Tribeca skyscraper has finally been cleared, signaling that groundwork and construction of the slender 38-story tower may soon be before us. The 12,000-square-foot lot at 45 Park Place owned by El Gamal's SoHo Properties, was formerly three battered pre-war buildings, two of which were a downtown outpost of Burlington Coat Factory. The upcoming as-of-right project will total approximately 135,000 gross square feet and contain 50 condominiums, a public plaza, and a museum designed by French architect Jean Nouvel. A 2010 iteration of the project involving an Islamic cultural center became encircled in controversy due its proximity the World Trade Center site. But now with legal hurdles cleared, the site fully assembled, and city approvals in place, the glass and steel skyscraper is poised to move forward.
Get the scoop here

July 22, 2015

How You Can Live in a Billionaire’s Row Condo for Free AND Make Six Figures

By Diane Pham

Get a job as one of their building managers. As DNA Info reports, if you're just a regular Joe or Jane looking to take up residence in one of the city's priciest towers, you don't need to be a billionaire—or even a millionaire for that matter. The resident managers at four headline-stealing, ultra-luxury towers will live rent-free, in very large apartments, while also earning respectable six-figure salaries for their services.
Find out more here

July 22, 2015

Lauren Bacall’s $23.5M Dakota Apartment Finds a Buyer

Ever since Lauren Bacall passed away last summer, it's been all eyes on her longtime Dakota apartment. First, in November, we learned that the actress's Central Park West home would list for a jaw-dropping $26 million. Then, less than two weeks later, the listing hit, a bit disappointing to many as the photos were the newly-staged versions. But this past March, interior photos of how the place looked when the movie star resided there for more than 50 years were dug up, revealing a treasure trove of antiques and artwork and showcasing beautifully intact original details like fireplaces with carved mantles, huge mahogany doors, and crown molding. In April, the price was reduced by $2.5 million, but now, the Daily News reports that Bacall's wood-paneled apartment has been purchased by a mystery buyer.
See inside the legendary apartment here

July 22, 2015

Soak in Views of Morningside Park from this $1M Classic Six Co-op

Who doesn't love a classic six Manhattan apartment, especially with views of the park? This may not be Central Park, and this may not be a storied Upper East Side co-op building, but we're still loving this apartment up for sale at La Touraine, a 24-unit prewar co-op at 50 Morningside Drive in Morningside Heights. It's got stunning views of Morningside Park, not to mention a beautiful interior. The price isn't cheap, but it's certainly less than a classic six on the market with views of Central Park. The ask comes in at $1.05 million.
Check it out

Distinctive Homes

July 22, 2015

New Renderings of 435 West 19th Street, Condo with Private Pools and a Sky Garage

Work has begun on on Six Sigma's upcoming condo at 435 West 19th Street, and the head-to-toe renovation/addition of the 1924 building seems intent on housing all the most outrageous frills of recent West Chelsea builds under a single roof. Boutique design-and-build firm Six Sigma acquired the 20,000-square-foot office building, once home to the photography studios and sound-stages of CityStage, for $21 million in August 2014. According to the developer's website, Pei Partnership, a firm founded by the sons of renowned Chinese architect I.M. Pei, is crafting the design. Pei Partnership, not to be confused with Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, was also the designers of The Centurion, the Midtown condo lavishly clad in a cascade of Burgundy limestone.
Find out more about this project

July 21, 2015

BIG Ideas: Bjarke Ingels Talks 2 WTC and Why Today’s Skyscrapers Lack Confidence

By Michelle Cohen

Helping to kick off the 2015 New York Times Cities for Tomorrow conference, Danish architect Bjarke Ingels—principal of Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), the firm responsible for 2 World Trade Center, Google HQ in Mountain View (with Thomas Heatherwick), the Dry Line and the pyramid-shaped “Via,” AKA 625 West 57th Street, among many others—talked “social infrastructure” with New York Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman. The baby-faced “starchitect 2.0” was his usual quotable and slightly mischievous self, yet, as always, provided plenty of insight on the topic at hand. Well-known for his suggestion that “Architecture at its best is really the power to make the world a little bit more like our dreams," Ingels offered his views on the ideal workspace design, what makes a memorable skyscraper and what some of his toughest challenges have been, in addition to speaking to the architect’s role in the social evolution of modern cities.
Find out the highlights and watch a video of the discussion

Architecture And Design

July 21, 2015

This Sweet West Village Rental Will Win You Over with Its Oversized Windows and Private Roof Deck

By Aisha Carter

There's a cute new two-bedroom rental listed at 255 West 4th Street. The floor-through apartment features two wood-burning fireplaces, a renovated bathroom and kitchen, walk-in closets and skylights, in 1,000 square feet of space. There's also a sizable private roof deck with panoramic city views. And it's available just in time for fall, in early to mid-September.
More pics inside

Distinctive Homes

July 21, 2015

Perfectly Preserved Harlem Townhouse Asks $3 Million