Search Results for: -fifth avenue

July 31, 2018

How six Italian immigrants from the South Bronx carved some of the nation’s most iconic sculptures

When the Piccirilli Brothers arrived in New York from Italy in 1888, they brought with them a skill-- artistry and passion for stone-carving unrivaled in the United States. At their studio at 467 East 142nd Street, in the Mott Haven Section of the Bronx, the brothers turned monumental slabs of marble into some of the nation’s recognizable icons, including the senate pediment of the US Capitol Building and the statue of Abraham Lincoln that sits resolutely in the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall. The Piccirillis not only helped set our national narrative in stone but they also left an indelible mark on New York City. They carved hundreds of commissions around the five boroughs, including the 11 figures in the pediment of the New York Stock exchange, the “four continents” adorning the Customs House at Bowling Green, the two stately lions that guard the New York Public Library, both statues of George Washington for the Arch at Washington Square, and upwards of 500 individual carvings at Riverside Church.
Chisel away at this tale
July 30, 2018

This 1946 map shows how Native American trails became the streets of Brooklyn

While we take for granted the paths and roads we use on a daily basis, it's interesting to find out how they came to be. It's not a new concept that paths worn by the comings and goings of early dwellers and subsequent settlers in a particular area became roads, streets and thoroughfares, often with names that reflect their beginnings. Brooklyn Heights Blog (via Viewing NYC) shares some insight into Brooklyn's familiar roads that began as Native American trails on a 1946 map titled "Indian Villages, Paths, Ponds and Places in Kings County."
Peruse the map
July 30, 2018

The New York City subway in fascinating facts and figures

When it comes to New York City’s subway system, you may think you know the letters (A,B,C,D,E,F,G,J,L,M,N,Q,R,S,W,Z) and numbers (1 through 7), all too well. But a few of the fun facts and staggering stats that add up to the seventh busiest public transit system in the world might surprise you. From the longest route (the A line is 31 miles) to the world's highest rapid transit station at Smith-9th Streets (it's 88 feet above street level), there are plenty of figures that even the most well-versed New Yorker likely doesn't know.
More stuff you never knew about the subway
July 28, 2018

RENTING IN NYC: This week’s roundup of NYC rental news

Images (L to R): 485 Marin Boulevard, Lewis Steel Building, Heritage Dean Street and 321 Wythe Avenue 321 Wythe Debuts in Williamsburg: Luxury Rentals with All-Star Amenities + Skyline Views [link] The Alabama in Greenwich Village: Furnished Rentals for Students and Young Professionals [link] Clinton Hill’s Latest Rental Debuts with Homes from $2,175/Month [link] Meet […]

July 27, 2018

For $10K/month, this West Village duplex is a tranquil townhouse retreat

In the enviable Abingdon Square enclave, above a neighborhood shop and next door to iconic Rebel Coffee, this bright and cozy aerie at 21 8th Avenue is a certain kind of West Village dream. Asking $9,995 a month, the home is comprised of the top two floors in a charming brick townhouse. As the building's only residential unit, it's tucked above a quiet village boutique.
Take the tour
July 27, 2018

‘The New L’ luxury shuttle service promises to solve L train shutdown, snacks included

As the doomsday clock ticks down the minutes to the dreaded L train apocalypse–the line is being shut down between 8th Avenue in Manhattan and Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn for Hurricane Sandy repairs starting in April of 2019–the powers that be have been telling us to take the bus, take the bus and take the bus or ride a bike. But Gothamist reports that a service called The New L hopes to keep us out of commuter hell by offering ultra-luxe commuter vans with professional chauffeurs at the wheel plus wi-fi, breakfast bars, and phone chargers.
And how much will it cost us?
July 26, 2018

880+ affordable homes, new performing arts center and public space upgrades coming to Brownsville

A proposal to revitalize Brooklyn's Brownsville neighborhood was announced one year ago, with a plan to bring a seven-building housing development to the area unveiled last month. And on Thursday, city officials released more details about the massive project, with new renderings and updates on its progress. As part of the Brownsville Plan, the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development will bring a new arts center and school run by a group from the Brooklyn Music School and a media lab run by BRIC, new retail and commercial space, and a rooftop greenhouse with locally sourced produce. Plus, two proposals were selected as the NYCx Co-Lab Challenge winners, a competition that sought to find ways to enhance the area's "nighttime experience."
Find out more
July 26, 2018

5 chances to live in the hip hub of Bushwick, from $926/month

Photo via Victoria Pickering on Flickr If you live at 682 Bushwick Avenue, chances are you would never go hungry. The rental building, which sits at the corner of Bushwick and Willoughby Avenues, is near local bars like Happyfun Hideaway and Birdy's, Mexican eatery Regalo De Juquila and artsy cafe Little Skips. A lottery launched this week at the building for five units set aside for New Yorkers earning 60 percent of the area median income. Available apartments include two $926/month one-bedrooms and three $1,042/month two-bedrooms.
Find out if you qualify
July 25, 2018

You can soar down Centre Street on a 165-foot-long zipline this August

Summer Streets is back! Starting August 4, New Yorkers can enjoy seven miles of car-free fun along Park Avenue, from Central Park to the Brooklyn Bridge. As part of the Department of Transporation's 11th annual event, activities will be offered on three Saturdays in August, from 7 am to 1 pm. While there's sadly not a dishwasher-looking waterslide this year, there will be a 165-foot-long, 30-foot-high zip line, fun hand-cycles to test out, and an eight-foot-tall bouldering wall.
Plan your summer streets fun
July 25, 2018

$699K Bushwick ‘penthouse’ comes with a private roof deck and a 421-A tax abatement

We know that displaying guitars along a funky apartment wall or leaning one or two casually against a doorway is a regularly-employed home-staging move, but in this Bushwick "penthouse" at 38 Wilson Avenue, it somehow works. And you might not even have to have a record deal yet, as the one-bedroom condo with a private roof deck and platinum-selling views also comes with a 421-A tax abatement in place 'til 2035, lowering monthly common charges to $641 a month.
Rockin' views, this way
July 25, 2018

Men of steel: How Brooklyn’s Native American ironworkers built New York

The Empire State Building. The George Washington Bridge. The United Nations. The Woolworth Building. 30 Rock. The Seagram Building. Lincoln Center. The Waldorf Astoria. Virtually all of New York’s most iconic structures were raised in part by Mohawk Native American ironworkers. Since 1916, when Mohawk men made their way to New York to work on the Hell Gate Bridge, ironworkers from two Native communities, Akwesasne (which straddles Ontario, Quebec, and New York State) and Kahnawake (near Montreal), have been “walking iron” across the city.
Get the rest of this stories-high story
July 25, 2018

First look at ODA’s boxy condo coming to busy 14th Street corner

First renderings of ODA Architecture's 13-story tower planned for Greenwich Village reveal a Tetris-inspired, boxy design, YIMBY reported on Wednesday. Much like the firm's other projects, the facade of the building, located at 101 West 14th Street, will look like a series of sculpted, stacked boxes. Developer Gemini Rosemont has filed permits to convert the site which currently holds a former bank into condos with ground floor retail. There will be 45 condos total, with 21 of them duplexes.
See the design
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 24, 2018

Astoria is getting a new food hall with outer-borough vendors

A new food hall is coming to the Astoria-Long Island City border in Queens, the Commercial Observer reported on Tuesday. Developer Vass Stevens Group is in the process of converting a former print shop, dollar store and restaurant supply store at 34-39 31st Street into a retail space with eight 2,000-square-foot storefronts. The interiors of the single-story building have been demolished and renovations, which will add new glass storefronts and doors, are set to begin soon.
Get the details
July 24, 2018

Cuomo called out for ‘extravagance’ in adding $30M worth of blue and gold tiles to East River tunnels

Gov. Andrew Cuomo reportedly ordered the MTA to spend an extra $20-30 million to add blue and gold stripes–the state's color scheme–to the white tiles that line two of the city's tunnels beneath the East River. According to the New York Post, the already cash-strapped agency was ordered to add the blue and gold details to the white tiles being used to reline the Brooklyn-Battery and Queens Midtown tunnels in Superstorm Sandy repairs, even though the funds are sorely needed for station and other infrastructure repairs. According to a construction exec, “The white tile had already been ordered, but he insisted that [the walls] be in the state colors."
What does the MTA say?
July 24, 2018

MTA to launch 14th Street Select Bus Service to help move 50K more daily riders during L train shutdown

Via Wikimedia The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) have announced that Select Bus Service will be available to riders on 14th Street in Manhattan as of January 6, 2019 ahead of the planned April 2019 L train tunnel closure for repairs to due to damage from Hurricane Sandy. The M14 is expected to become the busiest bus route in the nation during the shutdown, with more than 50,000 additional daily riders expected to move above ground along 14th Street. According to NYC Transit President Andy Byford: "Launching Select Bus Service on 14th Street is a critical part of a multi-faceted service plan to keep thousands of customers moving safely and efficiently as they commute crosstown."
Find out more
July 23, 2018

In 1923, scientists thought flying cars would solve NYC’s traffic snarls by 1973

Back in May 6sqft reported on the futuristic, fantastic flying Uber; even in 2018, though it may have wings, so to speak, the idea is still one that belongs to the future. Back in 1923, it was predicted that by 1973, flying "helicars" would be buzzing travelers around New York City and the snarled traffic on the city's roads would be a thing of the past.
It sounds so simple
July 23, 2018

East Village Target’s CBGB odes get mixed reviews

Target officially opened its first store in the East Village on Saturday, to mixed reviews from locals. During its grand opening, the chain recreated the storefront of CBGB, a famous punk rock club where the Ramones, Patti Smith and Blondie played, with a red-and-white awning that reads "TRGT." Located on 14th Street and Avenue A, the design included red newspaper boxes similar to old ones of the Village Voice paper, fake fire-hydrants and a temporary facade made to look like the housing tenements of the Village in the 1970s and 1980s. Jeremiah Moss, the author behind the Vanishing New York blog, called the new store "the most deplorable commodification of local neighborhood culture I've ever witnessed." As of Monday, the CBGB-themed storefront is no longer up.
Details here
July 23, 2018

$970K Hamilton Heights condo has a sunny disposition and a farmhouse vibe

The interiors at this Upper Manhattan condo at 370 Convent Avenue are as tranquil as they are feminine, and as spacious as they are cozy. The corner apartment is on the 4th floor of a five-story pre-war condo with only two apartments per floor. It's asking $969,000, and while it doesn't currently have a craft room, it's roomy enough to find space for one, and it would certainly fit the surroundings.
Take the tour
July 21, 2018

RENTING IN NYC: This week’s roundup of NYC rental news

Images (L to R): Summit, 333 Grand Street, Astor Broadway and Otto New Rentals Debut in Williamsburg from $1,999/Month at 150 Union Avenue [link] New No Fee Rentals Debut in Astoria; Live at Astor Broadway from $1,999/Month [link] Otto Greenpoint Debuts; Brooklyn Rentals at 211 McGuinness Boulevard from $2,339/Month [link] Live at Lyric: Upper West […]

July 20, 2018

Development dispute over P.S. 64 in the East Village continues, two decades later

P.S. 64  in 2013, courtesy of GVSHP Twenty years ago, on July 20, 1998, Mayor Rudy Giuliani sold former Public School 64 on the Lower East Side, then home to the Charas-El Bohio Community and Cultural Center, to a developer, despite opposition from the building’s occupants and the surrounding community. The decision and the building remain mired in controversy to this day. Community groups and elected officials will hold a rally in front of the building at 605 East 9th Street on Friday at 6 pm to mark the 20th anniversary of the sale and to call on Mayor Bill de Blasio to return the building to a community use.
More here
July 20, 2018

23rd Street and 145th Street subway stations to close for months beginning Monday morning

Monday will be a dark day for straphangers: At 5am, the 145th Street 3 station will close through November, the 23rd Street F, M station will close through December, and the Jamaica Center-bound 104th Street J, Z platform will close through January. This compounds the usual slew of service changes and the fact that the M is simply not running this weekend, and the E and F are having a masquerade as one another. In good news, by the MTA's estimates the Avenue U, Avenue P, Avenue N, Bay Parkway and Avenue I Manhattan-bound platforms should be reopening this month.
Compared to the above, the other changes are more palatable
July 19, 2018

New East Village Target store now open in Extell’s EVGB rental building

It might seem like it's been there forever, but the new East Village Target store at 14th Street and Avenue A opened its doors this week ahead of a scheduled grand opening Saturday, July 21. The small-format chain icon occupies the corner spot in the EVGB ("East Village's Greatest Building") rental building that opened at 510 East 14th Street this year and is now stocked and ready to supply residents (the building is 50 percent leased according to a press release from developer Extell) and the rest of the 'hood with everything from cosmetics and cleaning supplies to apples and Amy's Bowls to the cheap-but-funky home goods the store is famous for. Also beer.
Already, complaints about the beer selection
July 18, 2018

The history of Weeksville: When Crown Heights had the second-largest free black community in the U.S.

It’s a mighty sounding moniker, but the name “King’s County” also speaks to Brooklyn’s less-than-democratic origins. At the turn of the 19th century, the city of Brooklyn was known as the “slaveholding capital” of New York State and was home to the highest concentration of enslaved people north of the Mason-Dixon Line. But, after New York State abolished slavery in 1827, free black professionals bought land in what is now Crown Heights and founded Weeksville, a self-supporting community of African American Freedman, which grew to become the second-largest free black community in Antebellum America. By 1855, over 520 free African Americans lived in Weeksville, including some of the leading activists in the Abolitionist and Equal Suffrage movements.
More about free black Brooklyn