March 7, 2017

Herzog & de Meuron will turn Gowanus’ graffiti-covered ‘Batcave’ into an art production factory

Despite its Superfund status, the Gowanus Canal has ushered in a Whole Foods, an artisanal ice cream factory, and more than one high-end residential development, but one vestige of its gritty, industrial days has remained--the so-called Batcave. Build in 1904 as the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company's Central Power Station, the warehouse was taken out of service in the '50s, becoming in the 2000s a home for squatters, venue for impromptu dance parties, and unofficial street art display. But it looks like the former warehouse will now join the ranks of its Brooklyn-esque neighbors, as the Times reports that Pritzker Prize-winning Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron will transform the space into an art production factory and exhibition space to be called the Powerhouse Workshop, though it will preserve the iconic graffiti
Get the whole scoop
March 7, 2017

Waldorf Astoria’s iconic interiors officially made a New York City landmark

In news that will come as a surprise to no one, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously this morning to designate the interiors of the famed Waldorf Astoria a New York City landmark. According to Curbed, the decision was made within minutes without hesitation from any of the board members. The announcement also comes hot on the heels of the hotel's closure just one week ago, as its new owners, Anbang Insurance Group, undertake what's expected to be a three-year renovation and conversion that will bring forth 840 updated hotel rooms and 321 luxury condos.
more details here
March 7, 2017

Great Game Changers: How the Pan Am Building redefined Midtown architecture

Perhaps the most detested Midtown skyscraper by the public, this huge tower has nevertheless always been a popular building with tenants for its prime location over Grand Central Terminal and its many views up and down Park Avenue. It is also one of the world’s finest examples of the Brutalist architecture, commendable for its robust form and excellent public spaces, as well as its excellent integration into the elevated arterial roads around it. However, there is no argument that it is also immensely bulky with a monstrous height. As shown in the photograph ahead, to its north, the building completely overshadows the Helmsley Building, an iconic product of Warren & Wetmore's Terminal City complex. The pyramid-topped Helmsley Building once straddled the avenue with remarkable grace, and as one of the city’s very rare, “drive-through” buildings, it was the great centerpiece of Park Avenue. But by shrouding such a masterpiece in its shadows, the Pan Am Building (today the MetLife building) desecrated a major icon that will unfortunately never recover from such a contemptible slight on a prominent site.
Read more about the significance of this building here
March 7, 2017

Lottery opens for historic brownstone-replacing apartments in Harlem, from $659/month

The block of East 126th Street between Madison and Park Avenues was once a rare, uninterrupted row of century-and-a-half-old brownstones. But many of them sat vacant in recent years, their windows boarded up and adorned with graffiti. One of these was number 58 in the middle of the block. In 2012, its roof was caving in and its floors collapsing. The city deemed it structurally unsound, as the Times reported at the time, and slated it for demolition. Despite arguments from local preservationists that this would destroy the historic block's uniformity, the site was replaced with a new modern, mixed-use rental building that extends through to 125th Street. The building, which goes by 69 East 125th Street, topped off this past summer and now its 15 affordable apartments--20 percent of the total 75 rentals--are available through the city's lottery process. They're available to those earning 60 percent of the area median income and range from $659/month studios to $797/month two-bedrooms.
Find out more
March 7, 2017

Study finds Bronx residents most in danger of housing displacement due to gentrification

A new report from the Regional Plan Association finds that residents of the Bronx are at highest risk of being pushed out due to gentrification compared to other New Yorkers, according to DNAinfo. The report, titled "Pushed Out: Housing Displacement in an Unaffordable Region," looks at the effect of rising housing costs in New York City and addresses what it names "A Crisis of Affordability." The report found the threat of being pushed out due to lack of affordable housing was a threat in 71 percent of census tracts in the Bronx. Following in displacement risk was Brooklyn at 55 percent, Manhattan and Queens at 31 percent each and Staten Island at 15 percent.
People moving out, people moving in
March 7, 2017

NYCHA’s federal funding cut by $35M

Just a day after Ben Carson's confirmation as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) last week, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) penned a letter not only inviting him to tour the city's public housing stock (the largest in the country) but urging him not to support budget cuts that would ultimately affect its 400,000 residents. Roughly $2 billion of NYCHA's total $3.2 billion operating budget comes from HUD funding, which is immediately needed for the thousands of apartments in dire need of repairs. But their worst fears have come true, as the Wall Street Journal confirms that Trump's first budget cuts geared towards the city reduce NYCHA's support by $35 million, the agency's largest decrease in federal aid in five years, and this figure could very well grow to an unprecedented $150 million.
READ MORE
March 7, 2017

Live upstairs from Bethenny Frankel in this $4.75M Soho loft

For a while, anyway, as the Skinny Girl mogul and RHONY regular recently listed her renovated pad downstairs at 22 Mercer Street. But the cobblestones of Soho's Cast Iron District boast more than enough celebrities to withstand the loss, and this 2,392-square-foot loft has had its own renovation; on the market for $4.75 million, it's stellar enough that it doesn't matter who the neighbors are.
Take the tour
March 7, 2017

Apply for 50 affordable units along Bronx Park, from $734/month

The Bedford is a $22 million, 10-story, 60-unit affordable housing building in the Norwood section of the Bronx. Located at 3160 Webster Avenue, right alongside Bronx Park and just a quick walk to both the New York Botanical Garden/Bronx Zoo and Woodlawn Cemetery/Van Cortlandt Park, the project offers a small number of units for formerly homeless New Yorkers and 50 apartments reserved for those earning 50, 60, and 80 percent of the area median income. Applications are now being accepted through the city's affordable housing lottery for this larger group, which range from $734/studios to $1,745/month three-bedrooms.
See if you qualify
March 6, 2017

This striking $3.9M duplex six is as classic Upper East Side as it gets

In an architecturally striking 1929 apartment building designed by George F. Pelham, among the elegant residences of tree-lined 75th Street half a block from Central Park, this unique two-floor co-op at 14 East 75th Street is the picture of Upper East Side perfection. Set up as a "classic six," dramatic details like sixteen vertical feet of windows go beyond classic. According to the listing this duplex, asking $3.85 million, is the first available in the building in 20 years.
Check out both floors
March 6, 2017

Williamsburg wannabe Ridgewood gets a creative hub; Ikea’s new furniture is tool-free

Ridgewoood’s the Box Factory, a new hub for retail, dining, and creative office space, hopes to lure tenants from Manhattan and Williamsburg. [Curbed] In 2016, one-bedroom rents in NYC rose the most in the South Bronx. [NYT] Attend a panel discussion on Tribeca’s windowless AT&T building, thought to be an NSA surveillance site. [Swiss Institute] Ikea’s new […]

March 6, 2017

Airbnb listing at Trump Tower raises questions about security

Not even a $500,000 a day security bill or threat of frequent evacuations could stop Airbnb from infiltrating Trump Tower. The Times found a listing on the rental site for an apartment in the Midtown fortress that had been available since at least September until they last week contacted Airbnb, at which time it was taken down. The $300-$450 a night rental didn't explicitly state the address but was described as "the most secure and unique building" and asked that potential renters be "politically neutral" and not engage in political displays within the building. Despite these strange stipulations and the added nuisance of protestors and having to go through a Secret Service screening, the apartment is booked for most of the next few months, reviews are surprisingly positive, and it has a five-star rating.
But how did this all get past the secret service?
March 6, 2017

Hidden underground tunnel will take you from Rockefeller Center to Times Square

New York City's avenue blocks are long, as are its winters; getting from Rockefeller Center to Times Square can be an unpleasant, cold and crowded experience–unless you take the underground passageway, the city's largest, that spans the entire two-block-plus distance. Below, take a virtual stroll from avenue to avenue (and from the B/D/F/M to the N/R/W subways): Enter on the west side of Fifth Avenue between 50th and 51st Street and exit at Seventh Avenue and 49th Street–and buy yourself a few more minutes before you burrow into that parka.
Take a virtual trip through the tunnel
March 6, 2017

Luxe Noho developments embattled in a $10M lawsuit over a 20-foot alley

When the swanky new condo 1 Great Jones Alley began construction in 2015, part of the plan was to repave the 20-foot-wide, 137-foot-long Noho passageway with Belgian blocks and install a fancy new steel and mesh gate, turning this tiny street into a private walkway and driveway for residents. However, since the alley is not an official city street and is under the jurisdiction of the Department of Transportation, a 19th-century easement agreement said the other building that backs up to the alley, boutique co-op 684 Broadway, must also have access to it and retains part ownership. But the owners of the co-op are not happy with Madison Capital Realty's attempt to market the alley as a private amenity for 1 Great Jones Alley, and therefore have filed a $10 million lawsuit, according to the Post.
Get the full story
March 6, 2017

The best design museums in New York City

New York is an international center for design. World-famous architects and designers have learned here, lived here, and worked here. And New York shows off the immense talent in the city and elsewhere with some of the world's greatest design museums. Here is a small sample of some of the best places to see the latest and greatest works, as well as where to dig when you're looking for inspiration from the past.
See our top picks here
March 6, 2017

Bjarke Ingels moves firm to huge new headquarters in ‘Scandamerican’ DUMBO

Architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has just added heft to the big-name design, media and technology shift that has been setting up shop in Brooklyn. BIG, founded by noted Danish architect–and DUMBO resident–Bjarke Ingels, just signed a lease for 50,000 square feet at Two Trees' 45 Main Street building in the Brooklyn waterfront neighborhood, with plans to relocate their Manhattan office at 61 Broadway to the new space, which is twice the size of the company's current NYC headquarters. As 6sqft previously reported, Ingels purchased a $4 million penthouse home at 205 Water Street with views of 2 World Trade Center back in 2015.
Find out more
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March 6, 2017

Waitlist opens for middle-income apartments at downtown’s historic Front Street

In 2005, the Durst Organization and COOKFOX Architects completed a restoration of 11 landmarked rowhouses along the historic, cobblestoned Front Street in the South Street Seaport, preserving the nearly 200-year-old structures. In addition, they constructed three new buildings on the block between Beekman Street and Peck Slip to offer a total of 13 street-level retail spaces and 95 residential units above. The New York State Housing Finance Agency provided more than $46 million in funding for the project, and as such stipulated that five percent of the apartments be reserved as below-market rate. Back in 2012, a waitlist opened for these units, and as of today, the next waitlist is accepting applications. The middle-income homes are available to those earning no more than 150 percent of the area median income and range from $2,268/month studios to $2,913/month two-bedrooms.
Find out if you qualify
March 6, 2017

$2.95M for a modernized townhouse with a glass terrace right in Central Harlem

A big renovation left this four-story townhouse at 310 West 137th Street, in Harlem, feeling sleek and modern. Configured as a triplex over a rental apartment on the garden floor, the house boasts an open living plan, a new kitchen decked out with marble finishes, and also a glass terrace that looks out over a large backyard garden. While the inside feels brand spanking new, the exterior still boasts a historic facade. The property is now up for grabs, priced just under $3 million.
See the inside
March 4, 2017

February’s 10 most-read stories and this week’s features

February’s 10 Most-Read Stories NYC’s top 10 wealthiest ZIP codes will surprise you ‘The Daily Show’ host Trevor Noah buys a $10M Stella Tower penthouse VIDEO: How a man lives and works in a 78-square-foot Hell’s Kitchen ‘studio’ Hamptons home prices sag as luxury buyers head to hipper Hudson Valley New Stuyvesant Town lottery opens […]

March 3, 2017

FREE RENT: It’s all about the views in this week’s roundup of NYC’s rental concessions

Live in SHoP’s American Copper Buildings from $2,975/Mo; Read Carter’s New Review [link] Behold the Views (Present & Future) from Midtown’s 555TEN, Now Leasing with Two Months Free Rent [link] Leasing Begins at Jersey City Urby, Vertical Community + Stunning Views from $2,000/Month [link] Take In the Incredible Views at 1 QPS Tower; LIC’s Newly-Opened […]

March 3, 2017

‘Show-stopping’ Hamilton collection includes love letters and a lock of hair

Historic collections expert Seth Kaller throws his hat into the Hamilton ring for this year’s Antiquarian Book Fair, happening March 9-12 at the Park Avenue Armory. The Alexander Hamilton Collection (part of a larger collection titled “The Genius, Passions, Foibles and Flaws of our Founding Fathers” ) promises to be a unique collection of original letters, documents and imprints relating to the life and times of the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and founder of the New York Post, shown for the first time and offered for sale at the book fair.
See what's in the collection
March 3, 2017

Mapping the drinking habits of New Yorkers; the South Bronx’s affordable housing boom

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released maps that detail the health trends of New Yorkers, from diabetes and obesity to binge drinking to health insurance and checkups. [Gothamist] Looking at the slew of sophisticated, well-designed affordable housing developments coming to the South Bronx. [NYT] The Historic Districts Council has a fun new app […]

March 3, 2017

‘One57 of assisted living’ moves forward, developers file plans with DOB

The market for ultra-luxury condos may be cooling down, but developers appear to be much more optimistic about posh senior housing. Last year, 6sqft reported that Welltower Inc., the country’s largest senior housing owner by market value, had teamed up with Hines to develop the “One57 of Assisted Living,” an upscale facility at 56th Street and Lexington Avenue boasting $20,000/month rents. Now, it appears that the project is moving forward as Curbed tells us plans have been filed with the DOB to start construction.
additional details this way
March 3, 2017

NYC Food Truck Fest hits the streets March 12

It’s not even officially spring yet (that’ll be March 20) but the food trucks are already circling. NYC Food Truck Festival will be first out of the gate on March 12, organized by the Upper West Side’s excellent weekend flea market Grand Bazaar NYC. Eighteen food trucks including Gorilla Cheese, Neapolitan Pizza and Big D’s Grub […]

March 3, 2017

$10.6M Pierhouse is Brooklyn’s most expensive condo sold to date

It may pale in comparison to Manhattan's $100 million record-setter at One57, but a unit at Brooklyn Bridge Park's Pierhouse just closed for $10,669,579, setting the record for most expensive condo ever sold in the borough. Curbed first spotted the sale, which took the top spot from the $8.8 million penthouse sale in Dumbo's 1 Jay Street in September 2015.
Find out who the buyers are
March 3, 2017

Wilbur Ross cuts price of Billionaires’ Row penthouse for the third time

The U.S. Senate voted 72 to 27 last week to confirm billionaire investor Wilbur Ross as Commerce Secretary. And now that he'll be busy renegotiating the terms of Nafta and defending allegations of his questionable ties to Russia, the "King of Bankruptcy" is ramping up efforts to sell his ostentatious Billionaires' Row penthouse. Curbed reports that the 14-room, "European-style" apartment first hit the market in 2015 for $21 million, then got a price chop to $18.5 million at the end of last year, and has now been reduced again to $16.5 million, less than the $18 million he paid for it in 2007.
Take a tour
March 3, 2017

How Citi Bike stacks up against other U.S. bike shares

After initial skepticism and half-hearted arguments from bike-haters and snide remarks from bike snob cities like Seattle and San Francisco, New York City’s first official bike sharing system has turned out to be a success–that much we know. The numbers compiled by Priceonomics Data Studio for their client Spin reveal some surprising numbers when it comes to how we're using those bikes. D.C., for example, beat the other cities handily on most metrics, with San Francisco and Seattle consistently at the bottom of the list. Ok, so the research was done for a bike sharing startup hoping to expand its station-less system (more on that, too), but it’s interesting to compare statistics of share programs in the nation's biggest adopters of this new public transportation option–and get a chance to see how Citi Bike fares.
Find out more fascinating bike share facts
March 3, 2017

The Urban Lens: Fernando Paz puts a skateboard in the hands of aloof New Yorkers

6sqft’s ongoing series The Urban Lens invites photographers to share work exploring a theme or a place within New York City. In this installment, photographer and art director Fernando Paz shares his playful series of New Yorkers posing as skateboarders. Are you a photographer who’d like to see your work featured on The Urban Lens? Get in touch with us at [email protected]. In a city where "fake it 'til you make it" is a mantra shared by many of its inhabitants, Fernando Paz's cheeky photography experiment "Skateboarding loves you too" couldn't have found a better setting. For the series, the die-hard skater approached individuals from all walks of life and asked them to pose with one of his many boards—a strange exercise with the simple goal of placing a familiar but altogether foreign object in the hands of the unassuming. The results, as you will see ahead, are wonderfully humorous, apt, and also bring out what Paz says is the "strong, happy, enthusiastic, hard working, loving, and any positive adjective wanna add" spirit of New Yorkers.
learn more and see the rest of his photos series here
March 3, 2017

With Ben Carson’s confirmation as HUD Secretary, NYCHA plans next steps

Retired neurosurgeon and failed Republican presidential nominee Dr. Ben Carson is officially the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which will put him in charge of 8,000 federal employees and an agency with a $47 billion budget, tasked with overseeing most of the nation's affordable and public housing, enforcing fair housing laws, and providing low-income persons with mortgage insurance. The senate voted yesterday 58-41 to confirm his appointment; the relative lack of Democratic pushback was surprising considering Carson not only has no political experience, but no apparent knowledge of housing, development, or urban issues. Likely with this in mind, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) has already extended an invitation for Carson to come tour the city's housing developments.
What's next for HUD?
March 3, 2017

Mysterious ‘Japan Land’ renderings reveal a lantern-inspired building near Penn Station

Currently, at the corner of 8th Avenue and 31st Street, diagonal from Penn Station, you'll find a parking lot, pizza joint, and a small coffee shop. However, Nobutaka Ashihara Architects (NAA) envisions something much more spectacular for this underused locale. According to CityRealty, NAA recently rolled out a brand new website, and prominently featured on their home page is a curious scheme for a lantern-like glass tower of about 12 stories called "Japan Land."
more views here
March 3, 2017

This $2.45M Chelsea loft has authenticity, style and a magical roof garden

The authenticity? Built in 1922, Groff Studios is a former fur factory located at 151 West 28th Street in the old-school Flower District between 6th and 7th Avenues. The building's 16 full-floor 1,800 square-foot lofts have the high ceilings, original brick walls and open spaces loft lovers look for, plus the usual perks like a key-locked elevator and two staircases. Inside this quintessentially Manhattan home you'll find an open floor plan and 18 enormous windows lining three exposures. And there's that roof garden...
Take a look
March 2, 2017

Art Nerd New York’s top event picks for Armory Arts Week 2017

In a city where hundreds of interesting events occur each week, it can be hard to pick and choose your way to a fulfilling life. Ahead Art Nerd founder Lori Zimmer shares her top picks for 6sqft readers! Armory Arts Week has come to New York again, bringing a hustle and bustle of artists, galleries, art buyers, and art lovers from around the world. The main event is joined by a myriad of satellite fairs that could keep you busy for days, including a new location of the SCOPE Art Show, a fair dedicated solely to paper, and VOLTA’s focus on solo exhibitions. To pair with the fair excitement, the Public Art Fund is installing an open-air mansion just outside Central Park, and MoMA PS1 opens its galleries for a food- and booze-infused party. Head to Brooklyn to see Chad Hasegawa transform ordinary house paint into Abstract paintings, or, if historic art is more your thing, check out a 9th-century shipwreck at the Asia Society.
More on all the best events this way
March 2, 2017

Grammy-winning producer Clive Davis lists posh Midtown co-op for $7.8M

Clive Davis, five-time Grammy Award-winning producer and current chief creative officer of Sony Music Entertainment, has an estimated net worth of $800 million, and when you've got that kind of cash, you can apparently buy seven-figure trophy co-ops and never live in them. Which is exactly what LL NYC reports he did at 465 Park Avenue, where in 2015 he bought two units for $3.4 million and combined them into one sprawling duplex. He then enlisted designer Greg Schriefer to create a contemporary and artistic version of a classic New York residence, and now that the renovations have been completed and that "things changed" for the unknown family member for whom he bought the home, it's hit the market for $7.8 million.
See it all right here
March 2, 2017

Rent this duplex in the Chelsea Theological Seminary for $28,000/month

This duplex is located within one of the loveliest developments in Chelsea: the General Theological Seminary complex, which still holds a seminary but also now includes condos, community space and a hotel. This condo building, at 455 West 20th Street, offers residents access to the close, a picturesque private garden in the center of the complex. And this apartment up for grabs isn't too shabby, with three bedrooms and three bathrooms over 2,476 square feet. It's asking a hefty monthly rent of $28,000.
Take a look
March 2, 2017

Gracie Mansion’s new exhibit tells the story of NYC during World War II

In honor of the residence's 75th anniversary, the Gracie Mansion Conservancy has announced a new art installation titled "New York 1942," a collection of World War II-era objects that tell the story of New York City during this time, as well as of the period when Gracie Mansion became the official mayoral residence under Fiorello La Guardia. The exhibit will display more than 50 artifacts, documents, and pieces of art, including a signed World Series Yankees baseball, the Jacob Lawrence painting "The Migrants Arrived in Great Numbers," a photo from Weegee, ration tokens, and a first-edition print of "The Little Prince."
READ MORE
March 2, 2017

The history of tattooing in NYC – and its 36-year ban

We think of 1960s, '70s and '80s New York City as a freewheeling island of individuality and an alternative lifestyle haven, but the practice of body tattooing–more popular throughout history than many realize–was banned from 1961 until 1997. The ban was blamed on a Hepatitis B outbreak but could have had its origins in a number of things from a pre-World's Fair crackdown to a health inspector's personal vendetta. "Tattooed New York," a current exhibition at the New-York Historical Society traces the practice of tattooing from its use among Native American tribes through its history with sailors, trendy victorian ladies and more recent ink aficionados. One of the more fascinating detours of that history tells of how the scene changed with the ban, when NYC's tattoo artists set up private shops in their apartments.
Find out more
March 2, 2017

Live in a hip DUMBO warehouse conversion for $895/month, lottery opening at 181 Front Street

Back in 2012, Megalith Capital Management and Urban Realty Partners bought two neighboring DUMBO sites from the Jehovah’s Witnesses for more than $30 million. They then tapped Aufgang Architects to design both warehouse conversions: a landmarked former Brillo factory at 200 Water Street was transformed into 15 boutique condos; 181 Front Street into a 105-unit rental. Twenty percent of apartments in the latter development are reserved as affordable, and as of tomorrow, New Yorkers earning 60 percent of the area median income can apply for these 21 units, which range from $895/month one-bedrooms to $1,247/month three-bedrooms.
Get all the info here
March 2, 2017

Hollywood heavyweights behind ‘Boardwalk Empire’ and ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ list UWS pad for $1.29M

You may not know their names, but you certainly know their movies. According to the Post, Terence Winter—creator of "Boardwalk Empire" and the screenwriter who adapted “The Wolf of Wall Street”—and his wife Rachel— the Oscar-nominated producer of “Dallas Buyers Club”—have just listed their pied-a-terre at 104 West 70th Street for $1.29 million. While the home is a somewhat modest 700 square feet, it does boasts an excellent location just a few short blocks north of Lincoln Center. And, as one might expect from a showbiz power pair, fab interiors donning a mod-meets-old-Hollywood vibe.
have a closer look inside
March 2, 2017

Lottery opens for first affordable units at Essex Crossing, from $519/month

It's been almost exactly a year since Beyer Blinder Belle released renderings of Essex Crossing's site 5, a $110 million, 15-story mixed-use building that will give way to 73,000 square feet of retail space, where Trader Joes and Planet Fitness will move in, and a 15,000-square-foot adjacent park. Located just a block southwest of the Manhattan entrance of the Williamsburg Bridge at 145 Clinton Street, it will have 211 rental units, half of which will be reserved for low- and middle-income individuals. These 104 affordable apartments are now available through the city's online housing lottery, the first of the mega-development's 561 affordable residences to come online. They're set aside for those earning 40, 60, 120, and 165 percent of the area media income and range from $519/month studios to $3,424/month three-bedrooms.
Find out if you qualify
March 2, 2017

$3M Park Slope townhouse is the ideal mix of historic detail and modern ease

On a quintessential Park Slope street lined with brick homes a block from Prospect Park, behind a cheerful pair of cobalt blue doors, this well-maintained, intelligently updated two-family brownstone has a move-in ready mix of historic detail and modern ease. Built at the turn of the 19th century, the 20-foot-wide home at 510 7th Street is currently configured to offer a garden-level one-bedroom apartment with a duplex above for an income opportunity in a high-rent neighborhood; it easily converts to a single family for more space, and it's a legal three-family so three units are also an option. The three-story home is asking $2.999 million.
See more
March 1, 2017

Emmy Rossum bids farewell to her beautiful Sutton Place pied-à-terre

Actress Emmy Rossum's perfectly outfitted pied à terre has a new owner. LLNYC reports that a buyer has just scooped up the "Shameless" star's one-bedroom charmer at 455 East 57th Street for $1.1 million. Rossum quietly listed the home last November, just a month after she invited Elle Decor over to photograph the space. The full spread shares Rossum's journey of turning the "pied-à-teardown" into an elegant escape with the help of Brooklyn interior designer Antonino Buzzetta. According to Elle, Rossum asked Buzzetta for something "chic, European, the look of a modern girl who has inherited her grandmother's stuff." "I wanted it to have a young energy, but with old-fashioned touches," she said.
see more inside here
March 1, 2017

Neil Patrick Harris drops $5.5M on East Hamptons’ notorious ‘orgy estate’

As far as we know, family-man Neil Patrick Harris doesn't partake in the swinger lifestyle, so he'll likely have to do a bit of updating (and perhaps, cleaning) at his new East Hampton home--the notorious "orgy estate" where an elite sex club hosted an over-the-top event this past summer. The Post reports that Harris and hubby David Burtka dropped $5.5 million on the sprawling estate, which sits on 13.5 acres of open meadows and gardens and boasts a tennis court, pool and pool house, renovated barn, and beachy 5,500-square-foot main home.
Check it out
March 1, 2017

In black neighborhoods, 74 percent of Airbnb hosts are white

Watchdog group Inside Airbnb released a new report, which shows that across 72 predominantly African-American neighborhoods in New York City, 74 percent of Airbnb hosts are white--a startling figure considering only 14 percent of the total population in these areas is white. As outlined in the Daily News, these white hosts earned $160 million from Airbnb rentals, compared to just $48 million for black hosts.
Which neighborhoods are most affected
March 1, 2017

Steven Holl’s ‘T Space’ is an art gallery tucked away in an Upstate forest

Though it looks like this cedar cabin is floating above the terrain, the structure actually sits atop nine steel stilts. Architect Steven Holl employed the building technique to minimize the home's impact on the forested environment and likewise wrapped the construction in a cedar skin so it would meld with the trees. Known as "T Space," the minimalist art gallery is located on a privately-owned, four-acre woodland property in Dutchess County.
Learn more about this suspended woodland home
March 1, 2017

Lavish $65M penthouse unveiled at Robert A.M. Stern’s 70 Vestry

After selling the $50 million penthouse at the beginning of the year and celebrating the building's topping out last month, the Related Companies has unveiled the $65 million penthouse atop their Tribeca condo 70 Vestry, the largest apartment listed in New York this year. The massive, incredibly luxurious home is the crowning jewel of the Robert A.M. Stern-designed project, boasting close to 8,000 square feet of interior space designed by Daniel Romualdez and 3,687 square feet of private outdoor space across three levels and including a rooftop terrace. Benjamin Joseph, Executive Vice President at Related Companies, said in a press release, "A penthouse of this caliber has never before been offered in Tribeca, and may never be again."
See what all the fuss is about
March 1, 2017

Jacques Torres opening a chocolate museum; Danny Meyer’s FiDi restaurant will have city’s highest ballroom

Jacques Torres will soon open “Choco-Story New York, The Chocolate Museum and Experience with Jacques Torres” at his Hudson Square location. [Eater] The city is seeking proposals for the first publicly-funded virtual reality and augmented reality lab. [DNAinfo] Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group is opening a $30 million restaurant at 28 Liberty Street; its 60th-floor […]

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