Manhattan

Let's be honest. When you think of New York living, the name Soho comes up a lot. And when you think of Soho, you think of the perfect loft. Well, this $13,500-a-month rental may just check all the boxes on your wish list. We're talking 4,200 square feet of open space with the coveted sky-high ceilings, whitewashed exposed brick, hardwood floors, and oversized windows. Plus, a perfectly situated mezzanine maximizes the space and houses one of the home's two bedroom suites. Let's take a look.
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Distinctive Homes

VIDEO: Bjarke Ingels Takes Us Through His 57th Street Pyramid ‘Courtscraper’

Photo by Field Condition

May 7, 2015

VIDEO: Bjarke Ingels Takes Us Through His 57th Street Pyramid ‘Courtscraper’

Even though big dreamer and BIG architect Bjarke Ingels's 57th Street pyramid was recently christened a less-than-desirable "Via" by its developer, Ingels and his team have given the building a moniker of their own, nicknaming it "courtscraper." In this video produced by Bloomberg, the architect takes us inside his 625 West 57th Street project, which he describes as "the lovechild of a courtyard building and a skyscraper."
Watch the video here

May 7, 2015

$13M Madison Avenue Condo Will Have One of the City’s Largest Private Pools

Now that $1 million parking spots are the new norm and luxury apartment buildings are all but expected to offer outrageous amenities like vitamin C-infused showers, pet spas, and bowling alleys, developers have to get creative with their over-the-top offerings. So, how about a private swimming pool one-third the length of an Olympic pool? According to the Daily News, that's exactly what's up for grabs at newcomer 172 Madison Avenue. "It’s the Pacific Ocean compared to the wading pools in even the fanciest new condo buildings," says the paper, and that's certainly true considering it will be 50 feet long.
More here

May 7, 2015

Former Beekman Home of CBS Founder Lowers Price to $37.5M

This palatial Beekman Place mansion, designed by Eldridge Snyder, has served as a domicile to the head of CBS and to the shah of Iran's twin sister. The majestic home stands eight levels tall, with eight to ten bedrooms covering 10,500 square feet. Unfortunately, the home has had a visit from the price chopper, falling from an initial asking of $49.9 million in February 2014 to a current asking of a much lower $37.5 million.
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May 6, 2015

Gorgeous West Village Carriage House Boasts a Lovable Interior with Lots of Wood

By Emily Nonko

New York City carriage homes tend to be lovable pieces of real estate, and we're totally swooning over this one at 29 Downing Street in the West Village (h/t Curbed). It was built in 1829 and has been owned by two artists, John Bennett and Karen Lee Grant, for the last 40 years. According to the listing, upon purchasing this building it only "had one light bulb on each level, no bathroom, and only a sprocket for water." The owners transformed it into a truly spectacular residence and artist studio that is now asking $13 million. The listing calls it "a completely unique piece of art," and "one of Manhattan's certified treasures."
Tour the interior here

Distinctive Homes

May 6, 2015

New Renzo Piano-Designed Residential Tower to Rise in Soho

Renzo Piano's versatility continues to win the hearts of NYC developers, and it looks like the starchitect is finally getting his chance to flex his muscle in the residential realm. The Post reports that Piano—who just cut the ribbon to the new Whitney to rave reviews—has been chosen by Michael Shvo and Bizzi & Partners to design a brand new 290-foot tower at 100 Varick Street in up-and-coming Hudson Square bordering Soho.
FInd out more here

May 6, 2015

Billionaire Carlos Slim Looks to Break Record for Priciest Townhouse Ever Sold with $80M Ask

Carlos Slim, Mexican business magnate and former world's richest person, is looking to break the record for most expensive townhouse ever sold in NYC. As the Daily News first reported, he's listed his Upper East Side Beaux Arts mansion at 1009 Fifth Avenue for $80 million, after buying it for only $44 million five years ago from Russian oil mogul Tamir Sapir. Built in 1901, the limestone-and-red-brick home is known as the Duke-Semans Mansion and is one of the last remaining private homes on Fifth Avenue. It's located directly across from the Met, rises eight stories, and encompasses a whopping 20,000 square feet. According to the listing, the French Renaissance interiors "feature soaring ceilings, hand-carved wood paneling, lovely trompe l'oeil accents, gold-leaf trimmed fixtures and intricate plaster friezes."
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May 6, 2015

Photographer Jacob Getz Asks $5.5M for Live/Work Tribeca Loft

You'll never run out of inspiration when surrounded by this light-filled loft's high ceilings, cast-iron columns, exposed brick, and brick masonry, among other original details. In fact, the triplex maisonette has been the subject of countless significant photography and video shoots over the last 15 years, as it was home to prolific photographer Jacob Getz, who snapped pictures of the likes of Lauren Bacall and Madonna, according to the Post. The commercial live/work space covers nearly 5,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor space in the well-run 81 Walker Street condo. Your options are plenty in this potentially four-bedroom pad. Use it as is, with separate sleep, live, and work areas or use it as a studio only. Bottom line, though, this $5.5 million loft has enough space, flexibility, and charm to use as you see fit.
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Distinctive Homes

May 6, 2015

Landmarks Greenlights 190 Bowery Restoration Plan with Iconic Graffiti Intact

After several weeks of back and forth on whether or not the new owner of 190 Bowery, Aby Rosen’s RFR Realty, would keep its iconic graffiti, it's now official that the historic Germania Bank Building will remain in all its tagged glory. As Yimby reports, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the proposed restoration and conversion to an office building with ground-floor retail. The plan, conceptualized by preservation architecture firm Higgins Quasebarth & Partners with the help of MdeAS Architects, "calls for restoration of metal gates, wooden doors, stained glass, and other elements, but not removing the graffiti or cleaning the façade."
More on the approved plans here

May 5, 2015

New York Times Columnist Frank Bruni Nabs a Broadway Corridor Pad for $1.65M

By Annie Doge

The Times may be struggling to make ends meet, but it looks like their Op-Ed contributor and former chief restaurant critic Frank A. Bruni is doing just fine. City records show that the NYC tastemaker has just closed on a classic six in a brick-clad prewar at 123 West 74th Street for $1.65 million. Although the apartment is in need of quite a bit of work, Bruni has the perfect canvas to create his dream home. The apartment comes with high ceilings, well-kept hardwood floors, and is soaked in light thanks to three large south-facing windows in the living room and two bedrooms.
Have a closer look inside

May 5, 2015

The Former Upper West Side Mansion of Charles Schwab Is Asking $20 Million

By Emily Nonko

It doesn't get any grander than this 11,500-square-foot, six-story mansion on the Upper West Side. Located at 323 West 74th Street, this home has an interesting history, to say the least: It was designed by the famous architect C. P. H. Gilbert as part of a larger row of residences off Riverside Drive to rival the mansions of Fifth Avenue. The infamous moneyman and steel magnate Charles Schwab lived here from 1914 to 1917, then, according to Daytonian in Manhttan, it was used as the "scandalous love nest" for the mistress of industrialist George Gould. Today, it's been configured as an owner's triplex with an apartment below. The asking price comes in at $19.995 million.
See more interior photos here

May 5, 2015

Greenwich Village Townhouse from Infamous 1970 Explosion Gets a Price Cut and New Look

Justin Korsant's unique Greenwich Village townhouse that so famously suffered from an accidental explosion in 1970 has lowered its price from $13.5 million to $12.95 million. All eyes have been on the unique split level home with a slanted facade since word got out that Korsant had plans to overhaul the local landmark, which was redesigned by Hugh Hardy post-explosion. Instead, Korsant tabbed Hardy's own modern-day firm, H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture, to come up with Landmarks-approved plans, which include six floors, a penthouse, and an elevator. Now all you have to do is grab your contractor and make it happen.
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May 4, 2015

Amy Poehler and Will Arnett’s Former West Village Home Asks $10 Million

That's right. Live in this 1 Morton Square condo and you can brag to your friends that you'll always have a little piece of Amy Poehler and Will Arnett with you. In happier times, the former couple owned a portion of this condo combo before selling it for $2.2 million and, as the Jeffersons say, "movin' on up" to a higher and more expensive floor in the building. Now their unit, #5B has been combined with unit #5C for one exquisite four-bedroom $9.995 million pad.
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May 4, 2015

Shoes Are the Star at This SoHo Loft Redesign by Aa Studio

By Emily Nonko

Anyone who appreciates good design as much as a good pair of shoes will love this project by Aa Studio. The New York-based architecture firm focuses on space, proportion and light in home design. So given the task of a bedroom redesign that would also accommodate a large designer shoe collection, it's no surprise that the result feels so spacious. The gorgeous, bright master bedroom, located inside of a Soho penthouse, comes with sleek, grown-up cubby spaces that show off the impressive footwear display.
See more interior photos here

Extell Looks to Religion to Build Its Next 57th Street Supertall Tower

The possible skyline in 2018, via CityRealty

May 4, 2015

Extell Looks to Religion to Build Its Next 57th Street Supertall Tower

In the past, it was street names like Park Avenue and Central Park West that signaled a building's wealth and prestige, but these days it's gotten confined to a much shorter thoroughfare, 57th Street. Appropriately dubbed Billionaires' Row, the stretch has gotten much heat lately for its influx of supertall towers casting shadows on Central Park just to the north. Three of the towers in this sky-high lineup belong to Extell Development: the under-construction Nordstrom Tower at 217 West 57th Street, which will be the tallest residential building in the world when completed; 111 West 57th Street; and everyone's favorite One57. But now, as Crain's reveals, Extell is looking to expand its 57th Street portfolio with the site of the current Calvary Baptist Church and the Salisbury Hotel at 123 West 57th Street, on the same block as 111 West 57th and One57. As the paper reports, the church "will soon decide whether it will sell its sanctuary and 197-room hotel" to the developer.
More on the possible project here

May 1, 2015

West Village Rowhouse Once Home to Photographer Diane Arbus Lists for $13.5M

If you've ever seen the work of legendary photographer Diane Arbus, you know her style is a little offbeat. Born into a rich NYC family in 1923, Arbus became famous for capturing "deviant and marginal people," those who would otherwise seem ugly to most, with her camera. Unfortunately, she's also remembered for taking her own life at the age of 48 while living at the Westbeth Artists Community. But before moving to the well-known artists' complex, Arbus lived in an appropriately "secret world," a West Village back house that was once a stable, hidden behind its classic, Federal-style rowhouse at 131 Charles Street. She moved into the rear carriage house in 1959 after separating from her husband Allan Arbus and lived there until around 1968. As the Wall Street Journal reports, both the front and back houses are now on the market for $13.5 million.
Look inside this magnificent, historic home

May 1, 2015

Live in Eleanor Roosevelt’s Historic Townhouse for $18M

Yes, one of history's favorite First Ladies once called this Upper East Side place home. In fact, she wrote about her apartment in a column she had, called "My Day," referring to it as her "new little apartment." Today the building, part of the landmarked Treadwell Farm Historic District, is a single-family townhouse owned by investor Charles Ueng. He purchased it for about $9 million in 2011, spent $2 million renovating it, and now has it on the market for $18 million.
Take a look around Eleanor Roosevelt's former home

April 30, 2015

Hell’s Kitchen, Once the ‘Wild West,’ Now Undergoing Rapid Gentrification

There's yet to be an exact agreed-upon theory as to where the name Hell's Kitchen came from, but most historians agree that it had something to do with the poor tenement conditions and general filth of the neighborhood in the 19th century. Its reputation didn't get any better in the 20th century, though. After the repeal of prohibition, the area became overrun with organized crime, and until the 1980s it was known as a home base for several gangs. Today, Hell's Kitchen is no longer the "Wild West," but rather a rapidly gentrifying community ripe for new development. A neighborhood profile today in the Times looks at the transformation of the neighborhood, also called Clinton or Midtown West, which is generally defined as the area from Eighth Avenue to the Hudson River between 34th to 59th Streets. Summed up, "New buildings are going up, and older ones are being converted to high-end residences. The development of Hudson Yards and the High Line just to its south and the addition of the Time Warner Center on its northeast border have spurred growth. Prices have gone up but are still generally lower than in surrounding neighborhoods."
Find out more ahead

Photo via Le Travelist

April 29, 2015

The Four Seasons: An Iconic Interior Landmark Faces an Uncertain Future

As you probably already know, 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of the NYC landmarks law. And one of the ways the city is marking the historic event is with an exhibit at the New York School of Interior Design called Rescued, Restored, Reimagined: New York’s Landmark Interiors, which focuses on some of the 117 public spaces throughout the five boroughs that have been designated interior landmarks. In conjunction with this exhibit, Open House New York recently hosted an interior landmark scavenger hunt (for which 6sqft took eighth place out of 40 teams!), which brought participants to designated interior spaces in Manhattan, the Bronx, and Brooklyn over the course of seven hours. One of the spots we visited was the Four Seasons restaurant inside the famed Seagram Building. Through our scavenger hunt challenges here, we learned just how groundbreaking this restaurant was for its innovative design and role as the quintessential Midtown "power lunch" spot. But the Four Seasons, despite its landmark status, is facing an uncertain future.
Learn about the past, present, and future of the Four Seasons here

April 29, 2015

Rustic-Meets-Industrial Chelsea Pad Is Like a Parisian Atelier

If you value location and like exposed brick, wood beams and skylights, this $650,000 Chelsea pad at 127 West 15th Street just might be the answer to your prayers. The restored one-bedroom boasts all those features and more, including tall ceilings and a decorative fireplace. And if you want your own gym you can just forget a few items when you leave the house and run back up and down the three flights to this top-floor walk-up. We're only 50% joking.
More pics inside

Distinctive Homes

Andy Warhol’s 1960s Screen Tests to Be Played on Times Square Billboards

From a 1965 screen test of Edie Sedgwick, via Andy Warhol Museum

April 29, 2015

Andy Warhol’s 1960s Screen Tests to Be Played on Times Square Billboards

Plans for a New York City branch of the Andy Warhol Museum may have been scrapped, but starting Friday the pop artist will take over Times Square for three minutes every night of the month. As Gothamist reports, Times Square Arts will show Warhol's rarely-seen 1960s Screen Tests on the electronic billboards every night at 11:57 p.m. as part of their monthly Midnight Moment series. Warhol's 500 Screen Tests are "revealing portraits of hundreds of different individuals," both famous and not, frequent visitors to the Factory and newcomers. Those on the Times Square roster include Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg, Lou Reed, Twist Jim Rosenquist, Harry Smith, and Edie Sedgwick.
More info here

Events & Things To Do

April 29, 2015

POLL: Will Bjarke Ingels Take Over the Design for 2 World Trade Center?

Earlier this week, we reported that Bjarke Ingels was in talks to take over Norman Foster‘s design of 2 World Trade Center, noting that “if News Corporation and 21st Century Fox decide to move into 2 World Trade Center, as previously reported, developer Larry Silverstein may drop Foster’s design in favor of a new one […]

April 28, 2015

Is the Third Time a Charm for This $40M Penthouse with Glass Floors and a Seven-Car Garage?

All it takes is one glance at this head-turner to see that it's pretty special. The 11,000-square-foot duplex features glass floors, floor-to-ceiling windows offering 360 degree views of the Hudson River and the city, and 5,200 square feet of outdoor space in the form of several terraces. The stunning penthouse has had a time of it on the market, first popping up in 2012 with an $80,000 a month price tag, and then reappearing in October 2014 asking $95,000 a month. Now it's trying its hand at the sales market for $39.8 million.
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Distinctive Homes

A Family of Four Squeezes into This Tiny 640-Square-Foot East Village Apartment

Image courtesy of Dwell

April 28, 2015

A Family of Four Squeezes into This Tiny 640-Square-Foot East Village Apartment

Couples shacking up in small spaces is nothing new, but this may be the first time we've seen more than two folks squeezing into a tiny pad. Featured on Dwell, this family of four in the East Village proves that home is where the heart is—not how big your house is. So how do they manage with a baby and a nine-year-old in just 640 square feet?
Have a look inside here

April 28, 2015

Yorkville Is NYC’s Most ‘Local’ Area; Meet the Woman Who Photographed Every Bodega in Manhattan

Chatting with a second generation steel casement window restoration craftsman. [Find Everything Historic] Using data from Yelp, this map shows the most local and touristy spots in 16 major cities. In NYC, Yorkville is the most local, and the Theater District is the most touristy. [Washington Post] On Friday night, for the first time, the Empire […]

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April 27, 2015

2 World Trade Center May Ditch Norman Foster’s Design for a Bjarke Ingels Skyscraper