Upper East Side

It was announced Friday that the Met Museum would lease the Breuer building to the Frick, the New York Times reports. According to an agreement between the two venerable art institutions, the Metropolitan Museum of Art will likely sign the Met Breuer on Madison Avenue over to the Frick Collection beginning in 2020. Doing so would allow the in-debt Met to free itself of the last three years of an eight-year lease and an $18 million annual expense and enable it to put funds toward improving the modern and contemporary galleries at its Fifth Avenue flagship. Likewise, the Frick would have a suitable temporary home while the Gilded Age mansion that it inhabits is being renovated.
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Events & Things To Do

Bullet-proof Upper East Side townhouse designed by Rafael Viñoly lists for $50M

Photos by Aaron Thompson of Esto

September 25, 2018

Bullet-proof Upper East Side townhouse designed by Rafael Viñoly lists for $50M

Uruguayan-born architect Rafael Viñoly is best known for designing 432 Park, the tallest residential building in the Western Hemisphere, but apparently, he makes time for private homes, too--at least when they come with headline-making features like a bullet-proof glass facade. His firm was first tapped to design the townhouse at 162 East 64th Street back in 2015 by Argentinian business mogul and billionaire Eduardo Eurnekian. Originally, the seven-story (don't worry, there's an elevator) residence was to serve as both his home and U.S. headquarters, but it looks like he instead decided to list the finished product for $50 million (h/t CityRealty).
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To live across from Central Park, you’ll pay 25% more than every bordering neighborhood

Via Wikimedia

September 25, 2018

To live across from Central Park, you’ll pay 25% more than every bordering neighborhood

To make Central Park your front yard, you'll have to fork over $277,000 more than the median sale price of every bordering neighborhood. A new report by Property Shark looks at just how much more New Yorkers are willing to spend to be near the 843-acre oasis, a real estate trend which the group calls the "Central Park effect." According to the analysis, the median sale price of units along the first row of blocks across the park was 25 percent more expensive than that of every nearby area. And in the priciest section, the Upper East Side's Lenox Hill, that rose to a 93 percent difference.
More on the Central Park effect

Real Estate Trends

Anthony Bourdain’s Upper East Side apartment is asking $3.7M

Photo of Bourdain via Wikimedia

September 19, 2018

Anthony Bourdain’s Upper East Side apartment is asking $3.7M

By Annie Doge

The Upper East Side home of late chef Anthony Bourdain is for sale for $3.7 million, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. Located at 40 East 94th Street in the Carnegie Hill Tower, the apartment features five bedrooms, a sleek high-end kitchen, and lots of custom built-in storage. Bourdain and his ex-wife Ottavia Busia purchased the condo in late 2014 for $3.35 million, according to city property records.
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September 19, 2018

An architect’s historic UES townhouse with an elevator and a floating circular staircase asks $20M

This neo-Federal townhouse, less than a block from Central Park at 9 East 81st Street, received recent exterior and interior renovations from architect Peter Pennoyer–whose work epitomizes Upper East Side style–in partnership with the renowned landscape architect Madison Cox. Better yet, the home's owners since 2014 are Christopher Davis and Sharon Davis, who is herself a celebrated New York City-based architect (you can see her work featured on 6sqft here and here.). The listing says the house has been "fully and continually renovated by the current owner," so we can see why it's so stunning. It was last purchased for $22 million, and it's currently asking $19,950,000. But with features like an elevator, a grand floating spiral staircase, and 6,150 square feet of living space over five floors, we wouldn't rule out a bidding war.
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Distinctive Homes

September 17, 2018

Roman Abramovich signs over Upper East Side megamansion to ex-wife in $92M transfer

6sqft recently reported that construction had begun on Russia-born billionaire Roman Abramovich's Upper East Side megamansion combo of three existing townhouses on East 75th Street. Plans for the megamansion with a pool, art room, backyard and a glass and bronze curtain wall connecting the three townhouses in the rear, designed by Stephen Wang + Associates, were approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in November of 2017. The LPC approval came a few months after Abramovich announced a split from arts patron and businesswoman Dasha Zhukova, whom he married in 2008 and with whom he has a son and a daughter. Now, the New York Post reports, Abramovich has transferred ownership of the properties at 9, 11 and 13, along with at least one other Upper East Side address to his ex.
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The Second Avenue Subway’s second act: How the Q train has impacted real estate in Yorkville

Photo via Flickr cc

September 17, 2018

The Second Avenue Subway’s second act: How the Q train has impacted real estate in Yorkville

By Cait Etherington

For over a decade, a large swath of the Upper East Side was under construction, but for many residents, it felt more like being under attack. As the Q Line was being built—after a century-long wait—the neighborhood not only had to tolerate restricted traffic along Second Avenue above ground but also more dramatic interruptions. Indeed, at one point in the subway line’s construction, underground explosions even shattered the windows of several local businesses. But with the noise, traffic, and disarray of the Second Avenue Subway in the past, the surrounding neighborhood has already quickly bounced back. As per predictions, since the completion of the line, real estate values, volume of sales, and rental prices in Yorkville have experienced an upswing.
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September 14, 2018

An UES townhouse is transformed in the Arts and Crafts style, with a self-pollinating rooftop garden

For a client who had attempted two previous renovations in an Upper East Side townhouse that had retained its grand details from a 1937 remodel, the third time was a charm with the guidance of architect Anik Pearson. The townhouse received a complete overhaul of its infrastructure and service core to maximize performance and efficiency, with the layer of history reflected in its rooms and details carefully restored and preserved. Among the best of the renewal was the redesign of an existing rooftop garden to include sustainable elements like a grass roof, live-roof sedum and herb garden modules, a vegetable patch, a flower cutting garden, an orchard, a worm compost and a beehive for pollination.
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September 14, 2018

$13.5M UES mansion has a glass elevator, a 50-foot-wide garden, and two floors of the mansion next door

Manhattan's Upper East Side is filled with enormous private mansions with configurations that you'd never guess from looking at their tidy facades, and the five-story, 20-room bow-fronted house at 207 East 71st Street, asking $13.5 million, is no exception. This 10,550-square-foot brick manse, built in 1982, is one of three in a row erected by friends who happened to be prominent real estate professionals. In this particular case, the already massive house includes a long-term lease on the first two floors of the adjacent mansion, allowing for a 50-foot-wide garden–one of the widest in Manhattan.
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Distinctive Homes

September 14, 2018

Steven Mnuchin lists swank Park Avenue co-op for $33M

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has just listed the Park Avenue duplex that has been in his family since the 1960s for $32.5 million, the New York Post reports. Mnuchin bought the 12-room, 6,500 square-foot Upper East Side duplex from his aunt for $10.5 million in 2000, so even if the co-op in tony 740 Park Avenue doesn't fetch the ask, he'll pocket a tidy profit. The Rosario Candela-designed building is known for its wealthy residents who have included Rockefellers, Kochs and Bronfmans as well as being Mrs. Onassis' childhood home. The former Goldman Sachs investment banker and Hollywood film producer was based in California before accepting a position with the Trump administration and has never claimed the Park Avenue home as his primary residence.
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Three NYCHA developments on the Upper East Side ranked among the worst in the U.S.

Google Street View of the Holmes Towers

September 11, 2018

Three NYCHA developments on the Upper East Side ranked among the worst in the U.S.

The federal government ranked three Upper East Side public housing buildings as some of the worst in the United States, the New York Post reported Monday. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) gave the Holmes Towers, the Isaacs Houses and Robbins Plaza just 25 points out of a maximum of 100 as a measure of quality following recent inspections. Out of the more than 3,800 scores counted by HUD last year, the three complexes tied for 13th worst in the country.
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Affordable Housing

Construction underway for Roman Abramovich’s Upper East Side mega-mansion

Via LPC

August 14, 2018

Construction underway for Roman Abramovich’s Upper East Side mega-mansion

Russia-born billionaire Roman Abramovich is moving ahead with his plan to construct a mega-mansion on the Upper East Side, the New York Post reported on Monday. Abramovich's original proposal in 2016 called for an "18,255-square-foot mansion with a six-foot front yard, 30-foot backyard and pool in the cellar" across a combination of three townhouses on East 75th Street. Although the Landmarks Preservation Commission rejected that first plan, a proposal that kept similarly-styled facades and added a fourth property was approved soon after.
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August 8, 2018

News anchor Cynthia McFadden’s UES townhouse, once home to director Elia Kazan, asks $6M

Built in 1899, this Carnegie Hill townhouse at 174 East 95th Street has another history claim: It has been home to some serious and dedicated behind-the-camera luminaries. The four-story townhouse was for a time the address of controversial Oscar-winning stage and screen director Elia Kazan ("On the Waterfront," "East of Eden" and many more). The 4,240-square-foot, four-bedroom home is currently owned by veteran TV journalist Cynthia McFadden, who is now the senior legal and investigative correspondent for NBC News. A fine example of an Upper East Side townhouse, the home has been renovated with care using fine fixtures and finishes while preserving its 19th century grandeur.
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August 1, 2018

Jonathan Franzen closes the chapter on his $2M Upper East Side co-op

By Annie Doge

Just last month, the New York Times interviewed novelist Jonathan Franzen on his move from the Upper East Side to a suburban street in Santa Cruz, California. After having a long-distance relationship with his "spouse equivalent," writer Kathryn Chetkovich, he agreed to move to the west coast, saying he didn't miss Yorkville, the "last middle-class neighborhood in Manhattan," at all. And he's now made that perfectly clear, unloading his three-bedroom co-op at 140 East 81st Street for $2 million, according to city records.
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Tribeca and Yorkville top the list for new development condo sales in 2018

Photo via Chris Goldberg/Flickr

July 25, 2018

Tribeca and Yorkville top the list for new development condo sales in 2018

For followers of Manhattan real estate it would be hard to miss the bumper crop of innovative, eye-catching and pricey new developments rising what seems like daily in Tribeca; but big numbers for new towers may come as a surprise when they're attached to old-school Yorkville on the Upper East Side. In the city that never fails to surprise, recent research from CityRealty shows that Tribeca and Yorkville are the top neighborhoods for new development condo sales so far this year. There are, of course reasons for the unlikely pairing at the top.
See who else is on the list

July 25, 2018

$4.4M Upper East Side penthouse tops the townhouse where Marc Chagall once lived

Like many grand Manhattan properties in the neighborhood, this duplex penthouse atop a five-story townhouse at 57 East 73rd Street has an interesting past: It was once home to painter Marc Chagall (though another former Chagall residence nearby at 4 East 74th Street has attracted a bit more buzz in recent years, especially since Michael Jackson lived there in the 1990s). The 73rd Street townhouse has been divided into five condos since the artist's time. Besides having painterly penthouse bragging rights, there's a terrace that looks out over the Upper East Side neighborhood, which in turn is one block from Central Park and the Carlyle Hotel. The 1,350-square-foot home is asking $4.35 million–after several price chops from its original ask of $4.95 million in June.
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Second Avenue Subway’s next phase won’t be done until 2029

Photo via Flickr cc

July 20, 2018

Second Avenue Subway’s next phase won’t be done until 2029

According to new documents, the next leg of the extension of the Q line to 125th Street that comprises the second phase of the Second Avenue Subway will be done in 2029, the Daily News reports. And that completion date only holds if work is begun on time, in mid-2019, according to the same document from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Federal Transit Administration. The expected phase two completion date is nearly a decade after Governor Andrew Cuomo opened the first section of the project in 2017. That 2029 date refers to the time all construction equipment has left the site; MTA officials hope to begin running trains through the tunnels, bringing vital service to Harlem, in 2027.
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Transit

Second Avenue Subway eases ridership at 4,5,6 stations by 30%

Photo via Flickr cc

July 13, 2018

Second Avenue Subway eases ridership at 4,5,6 stations by 30%

The MTA has released updated ridership figures for 2017, giving an even better look at how the Second Avenue Subway is growing in popularity and impacting the Lexington Avenue line. By looking at the three comparative stations--96th Street, 86th, and 77th/72nd Streets--we can see that average weekday ridership on the 4,5,6 line has dropped 29.5, 29.2, and 23.6 percent respectively. More impressive is the fact that in 2017, the annual number of riders at the 96th Street station and 77th and 72nd Street stations were almost identical on both lines at roughly 8.5 million. And at 86th Street, the Q station hit 7.7 million riders, still impressive compared to the Lexington line's $14 million considering there are two express trains there, too.
A deeper dive

July 10, 2018

$14M townhouse in exclusive Upper East Side historic district looks like a European villa

This lavish townhouse could easily pass for a Parisian or Italian home, but it's, in fact, hiding behind a traditional brownstone facade on the Upper East Side. Located at 234 East 61st Street, the four-story residence is part of the ultra-exclusive Treadwell Farm Historic District, which encompasses only two blocks. Though it was built along with its neighbors in 1873, the house underwent a unique interior renovation in 1910 that added its 21-foot vaulted ceilings and rear, arched addition that opens to the magical south-facing garden. Other stylistically unique architectural elements that have made their way in include the wrought iron railings, ornately carved marble fireplace, and etched glass windows. After last selling in 2006 for $7.9 million, it's now asking $13.9 million.
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My 600sqft: Inside the Upper East Side studio of two doodles and their social media savvy ‘momager’

6sqft’s series “My sqft” checks out the homes of New Yorkers across all the boroughs. Our latest interior adventure brings us to social media expert and doodle mom Paige Chernick’s studio on the Upper East Side. Want to see your home featured here? Get in touch!

July 10, 2018

My 600sqft: Inside the Upper East Side studio of two doodles and their social media savvy ‘momager’

Paige Chernick’s Upper East Side apartment is immaculate, with everything in its place, no clutter in sight and not even one strand of dog hair. Besides the poufy poodles greeting you at the door, there are no immediate signs that dogs really live here. And then, upon closer examination, you’ll see the basket of plush dog toys in the corner, the framed photos of sister doodles Charlie and Sawyer wearing bathrobes in a tub and the spacious closet reserved just for their stuff. While you may not be familiar with Paige, who is a Long Island native and social media manager, you probably know her dogs. On a joint Instagram account (@puppynamedcharlie), rescue doodles Charlie and Sawyer have amassed over 90,000 fans from around the world, all who follow the adorable duo’s adventures across New York City and beyond. Self-described dog ‘momager,’ Paige has turned this hobby into a legitimate side-hustle. Paige and her pups recently gave 6sqft a tour of her spacious studio, which she describes as "metallic, minimalist and modern."
Meet Paige and her duo of doodles

Home Tours

July 10, 2018

$475K Yorkville co-op may be small, but it has a dreamy back garden

This pre-war one-bedroom co-op at 330 East 90th Street in the Upper East Side is laid out railroad-style and somewhat lacking in excess square footage. But the $475,000 ground-floor space has the rare city bonus of a private planted garden and deck with room for furniture and a grill. And besides being just a few blocks from the Q train, the apartment's interiors are as charming as they are cleverly functional.
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Distinctive Homes

June 29, 2018

For $7M, an Upper East Side penthouse with a floating study and four terraces

By Michelle Sinclair Colman

Inspired by his trip to Therme Vals in Switzerland and the architecture of Pritzker-prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor, the owner of the penthouse at 206 East 73rd hired architect Wayne Turret to create his very own spa in New York City. Turret decked out this two-bedroom, two and a half, 2,650-square-foot penthouse loft on the Upper East Side with a high design, minimal modernist, spa-like aesthetic. This unique triplex penthouse, asking $6,950,000, sits on top of the Blanca Loft Condominium near the corner of 73rd Street and 3rd Avenue.
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Distinctive Homes

June 28, 2018

Head to 116-year-old Glaser’s Bakery before they close Sunday for NYC’s best black-and-white cookie

Four months after they announced their imminent closing, Yorkville’s 116-year-old German bakery Glaser’s will serve its final treats this Sunday. They shared the news via a bittersweet Facebook post that read, "After many years of daunting hours and hard work, the third generation of bakers have come to the difficult decision to hang up their bakers’ hat and move towards retirement." Since last weekend, the lines have been wrapping around the block, with the bakers whipping up 1,650 of their black-and-white cookies at a time (they're widely regarded as the original and the best in the city).
Get a look at those lines

Uncategorized

City says work can resume on Sutton Place’s controversial 800-foot tower

Proposed massing of the tower, via CityRealty

June 27, 2018

City says work can resume on Sutton Place’s controversial 800-foot tower

By Michelle Sinclair Colman

A relatively staid neighborhood, things are heating up at the Upper East Side’s Sutton Place, again. Last December, 6sqft reported that Gamma Real Estate had to stop work on Sutton 58, their proposed 800-foot residential tower. After three years of community protest over what many consider an out-of-context supertall building, the New York City Council spoke loudly (with a 45-0 vote) and approved a height rezoning of 10 blocks between 51st and 59th Streets east of First Avenue. The rezoning required 45 to 50 percent of a building should rise below 150 feet. This was a huge blow to Gamma and would require massive changes to their plans. Most immediately, it required a halt of construction on the project. But that just changed.
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June 27, 2018

Landmarks approves Frick expansion plan despite protests from preservationists

All renderings courtesy of Beyer Blinder Belle and Selldorf Architects On Tuesday the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the most recent plan submitted by the museum for the expansion and renovation of the 1914 Gilded Age mansion it calls home in a 6 to 1 vote with one abstention, the New York Times reports. Three prior attempts by the museum in a quest to gain more space for exhibitions and programs were turned back amid vocal protests by neighborhood advocates and preservationists. The revised plan submitted by the project's architects Beyer Blinder Belle and Annabelle Selldorf includes the decision to restore the museum's original gated garden, which had been a point of controversy with those opposed to the project.
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June 21, 2018

‘Real Housewives’ Ramona Singer lists Upper East Side pad for $5M