Search Results for: green

May 18, 2016

Video: ‘Degentrify America’ Takes on the Issue of Gentrification in Five Minutes

The definition of gentrification may be difficult to pin down, but filmmaker Nelson George is attempting to do so in his five-minute short "Degentrify America." In the film, George melds together national headlines with interviews and animation to paint a picture that has become all too familiar in metropolitan areas across the country. Most notable, however, is the appearance of Crown Heights resident and co-founder of the Crown Heights Tenants Union, Donna Mossman, who speaks candidly about the evictions, injustice and other ills that come with this particular kind of change. Crown Heights recently ranked #8 on NYU’s Furman Center's report of New York's 15 fastest gentrifying neighborhoods.
Watch the short film here
May 17, 2016

Craigslist Hookup: Craig Newmark Buys $5.9 Million Village Townhouse Co-op

Craig Newmark, entrepreneur and founder of now-legendary swap site Craigslist, recently purchased a three-bedroom Greenwich Village duplex according to city records, reports The Real Deal. Newmark, who started the now-international site in San Francisco in 1995, and his wife, Eileen, bought the co-op, which occupies the first two floors of a gorgeous 1845 red brick townhouse-turned-three-unit-co-op on West 9th Street, for $5.9 million; it was last listed at $5.25M.
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May 17, 2016

Glenwood’s Newest Lincoln Center-Adjacent Tower Starts Leasing With Discounted Rents

When we last checked in on Glenwood Management's latest rental development at 175 West 60th Street, the 48-story, 533-foot tall building had just topped-out and launched its affordable housing lottery offering apartments priced as low as $566/month. Now, the team has jump-started leasing on the building's 205 market-rate residences. Dubbed The Encore—likely due to its proximity to Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the tower being Glenwood's second foray on Fordham University's Lincoln Square campus superblock (Hawthorn Park was the first)—the building is centrally positioned at the meeting of Midtown West and Upper West Side. According to Glenwood, occupancy for the upscale rentals will begin on July 1, and early lease-signors, for a limited time, can capture net-effective rents of $3,483/month for alcove studios, $4,790/month for one-bedrooms, and two-bedrooms starting at $7,297/month.
more details this way
May 17, 2016

The History of the Roosevelt Island Tramway

In honor of the Roosevelt Island Tramway's 40th anniversary today, we've pulled this wonderful piece on the history of the high-flying gondola system from our archives. Commuting in New York City, whether for work or pleasure, is rarely an enjoyable experience. However, for some tourists and lucky city dwellers, the Roosevelt Island Tramway provides a delightful, high-flying travel alternative to the standard, and sometimes miserable, modes of NYC public transport. Running across the East River, this aerial tramway brings commuters to and from Roosevelt Island and Manhattan’s Upper East Side, and has carried over 26 million passengers since opening in 1976. It is one of the few forms of mass transit in New York City not operated by the MTA, but it still costs the same as the bus or subway and can be paid for with your NYC metro card. Like most things in our historic port town, both the tramway and the commute between Manhattan and Roosevelt Island has a history, and this one includes bridge elevators, high-rise rescue missions and French ski lifts.
More on how the Roosevelt Island tramway came to be
May 17, 2016

Map Mashup: The NYC Subway System Gets Re-Stylized as The London Tube

Pretty much everyone can appreciate a good map, and many of us are downright obsessed. Then there’s Cameron Booth, who has devoted a serious amount of his time to interweaving maps to transit systems all around the world with one another. The Portland, OR-based (by way of Syndey, Australia) graphic designer tweaks and reimagines the world's city transit maps on his blog; Booth has also helped test and create map apps for cities throughout the world. You could think of it as a way to travel everywhere at once, while not leaving home (as long as you stay within the bounds of this virtual transit system). Booth has tried his hand at versions of the transit systems of Paris and Portland, major U.S. highway routes and Amtrak train maps, and it’s both a graphic delight and an eye-opening way to see how cities’ transit systems get you from point a to point b. Take, for example, his project that combines the London tube diagram with the New York City subway system map.
Get a closer look at the maps
May 16, 2016

New Studies Show Historic Preservation Doesn’t Cause Gentrification Woes

The city's preservation groups have reported that the results of a series of studies, prompted by the 50th anniversary of the city's Landmarks Law, have put some numbers behind the claim that landmarking doesn't harm, and may actually improve, the economic balance of neighborhood development and growth. According to Simeon Bankoff, executive director of the Historic Districts Council, "This is the first time which preservationists–who tend to be from the humanities and subsequently math-averse–have put real data behind anecdotes." The combined reports represent the most comprehensive study to date of the impacts of historic preservation in New York City.
Find out what the numbers say
May 16, 2016

Not Tall Enough! On the World’s Stage, New York’s Supertalls Are Ungraceful Runts

Carter Uncut brings New York City’s latest development news under the critical eye of resident architecture critic Carter B. Horsley. Ahead, Carter brings us his ninth and final installment of “Skyline Wars,” a series that examines the explosive and unprecedented supertall phenomenon that is transforming the city’s silhouette. In this post Carter takes at aim the quality of design of those towers rising around the city right now, and how they fail to inspire when compared to those found internationally. The explosive transformation of the New York City skyline now underway is occurring without any plan in a very haphazard fashion. Some of the new towers are not ugly but compared to many new ones elsewhere, especially those that are free-standing, they’re not going to win many top honors. Many are very thin, mid-block incursions. Others arrogantly abut and loom over landmarks with nary a thought to context. Some clearly are aimed at one-percenters and offer lavish amenities and layouts. But many others are squeezing potential residents like sardines into very small apartments in attempts to set new “density” records.
The towers that got it wrong, and right
May 16, 2016

Downtown Brooklyn’s Newly-Launched City Tower Offering One Month Free Rent

City Tower, the second phase of Downtown Brooklyn's 1.8 million-square-foot, mixed-use mega-development, has debuted, ushering in 439 brand new market-rate rentals to the heart of the borough. For a limited time, the building is offering new renters one month for free based on a 13-month lease. The 38-story tower's current availabilities include four studios starting at $2,423/month, five one-bedrooms at $2,838/month, and three two-bedrooms at $4,154/month. The building was developed and is being managed by the long-established Brodsky Organization and was designed by the acclaimed eco-conscious architects at COOKFOX. Perched twenty floors above 700,000 square feet of retail, entertainment and dining spaces, many of City Tower's residences provide spectacular views of the harbor and Manhattan skyline.
Get the full scoop on the building this way
May 16, 2016

Sander Mulder’s Ghostly Josephine Lamp Glows With Its Whole Body

Less is more for just about everything when it comes to cramped NYC apartments; the notable exception, of course, being light. So here's a brilliant design that strikes a perfect balance between being hidden but also visually arresting when it needs to be. Sander Mulder's Josephine Lamp is a standing luminaire that takes on an almost ghostly form, only becoming apparent when one switches its on-off button.
Learn more about this magical lamp
May 15, 2016

Angular Design Dominates this East Hampton Home Renovation by Maziar Behrooz

This dynamic East Hamptons home is located on the East End of Long Island in Wainscott, New York. The owners of the property originally purchased it 20 years ago when it was just a small structure. After a few expansions and renovations over a decade, in 2008, they decided they wanted an even bigger home and enlisted the help of architect Maziar Behrooz to build anew. The owners, who are originally from France, fell in love with the natural beauty of Long Island and wanted to reimagine their property without regard to its organic confines. In response to this request, architectural plans were created to include a dramatic 9,500-square-foot extension with asymmetrical triangles and a linear orientation that unifies the pool, grounds and garden.
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May 14, 2016

Weekly Highlights: Top Picks From the 6sqft Staff

7,500-Name Waitlist Opens for 975 Affordable Units at Harlem’s Riverton Complex Rafael Viñoly Admits 432 Park ‘Has a Couple of Screw-Ups’ Behind This $1.25M Greenpoint Duplex Is a Barefoot Backyard Paradise Forgotten Four Acres of Central Park Reopens to Visitors After Almost 90 Years Williamsburg Unsurprisingly Tops List of NYC’s 15 Fastest Gentrifying Neighborhoods Preserved […]

May 12, 2016

A Mini-Solarium Brings Serious Sunlight to This $835K Kensington Apartment

It's not everyday you find a condo apartment with its own solarium—especially in the quiet, suburban-like neighborhood of Kensington, Brooklyn. This is the top floor apartment at 734 East 5th Street, an eight-unit, four-story development built in 2005. A wall of complete glass lines the east end of the apartment, creating a small solarium above the dining area. It leads out onto a patio, which isn't even the only outdoor option in this sun-flooded space.
See all the outdoor spaces
May 12, 2016

Gardener’s Majestic Hudson River Home Is Surrounded by Edible Gardens

This beautiful Hudson River estate is not only a stunning gateway with sweeping views and luscious gardens, but it's also a gardener's home with significant historic, cultural and ecological value. The estate, which is comprised of many buildings, once served as a farm, a gentleman’s club, a nursing home and a camp before Janice Parker Landscape Architects turned it into a nature-lovers retreat. In addition to featuring expansive views of the Hudson River and being surrounded by a rolling forest and farms, the estate delves deeper into the realm of Eden with its lush carpets of creeping thymus, blooming perennials and a full assortment of edible plants.
Learn more about this majestic home
May 12, 2016

Leasing Begins at Downtown Brooklyn’s One Duffield, No-Fee Units Begin at $2,400/Month

Within the human-scaled oasis between the Manhattan Bridge and the BQE, a 57,000-square-foot church conversion has wrapped up construction, releasing 84 brand-new no-fee rental apartments to the Downtown Brooklyn market. Named One Duffield, for its address at the corner of Gold and Duffield streets, the five-story building uses some of the structural bones of a prior two-story church and completely re-imagines its aesthetic into a varied composition of brown and orange brick, metal siding, and large square windows. Nataliya Donskoy of ND Architecture and Design P.C. is the designer of the building and "The Bridge Building LLC" is listed as the developer in permits.
Get pricing and see inside
May 12, 2016

7,500-Name Waitlist Opens for 975 Affordable Units at Harlem’s Riverton Complex

Like Stuyvesant Town, the Riverton Square residential development in Harlem opened in 1947 as an affordable complex for World War II veterans and was built by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. But unlike Stuy Town (and Met Life's Parkchester in the Bronx), black and Hispanic tenants weren't barred from renting in Riverton. According to the Times, over the years the seven-building site was a sought-after address for the middle-class and was home to such notables as jazz pianist Billy Taylor, former Mayor David Dinkins, and former vice president of Motwon Records Suzanne de Passe. But in 2005, again similar to its downtown counterpart, Riverton was sold to Stellar Management, who tried to swiftly remove long-term tenants and replace them with higher-paying residents. Unable to convert the rent-stabilized units to market-rate and saddled with debt, Stellar lost Riverton to its lenders in 2008. This past December, after nearly a decade in limbo, the 12-acre site was sold to A&E Real Estate Holdings for $201 million in a deal with the city which, like the recent terms at Stuy Town, dictated that 975 of the complex's 1,229 units be reserved for working- and middle-class families for 30 years. In return, the buyer will receive about $100 million worth of tax breaks and incentives. The waitlist is now open for these affordable units, and 7,500 randomly selected applicants will earn themselves a spot.
Find out if you qualify here
May 12, 2016

Take a Hands-Free Selfie; First Hip Hop Museum May Open in the Bronx

Say goodbye to the selfie stick and use a “stick and shoot” camera instead. [Business Insider] The old Bronx courthouse may be turned into the Universal Hip Hop Museum. [CityLab] This graphic novel was inspired by a Williamsburg resident’s hellish L train commute. [DNAinfo] Check out Astor Place’s new design pavilion, sponsored by downtown supertall […]

May 11, 2016

Skyline Wars: Accounting for New York’s Stray Supertalls

Carter Uncut brings New York City’s latest development news under the critical eye of resident architecture critic Carter B. Horsley. Ahead, Carter brings us his eighth installment of “Skyline Wars,” a series that examines the explosive and unprecedented supertall phenomenon that is transforming the city’s silhouette. In this post Carter looks at the "stray" supertalls rising in low slung neighborhoods. Most of the city’s recent supertall developments have occurred in traditional high-rise commercial districts such as the Financial District, the Plaza District, downtown Brooklyn and Long Island City. Some are also sprouting in new districts such as the Hudson Yards in far West Midtown. There are, however, some isolated "stray" supertalls that are rising up in relatively virgin tall territories, such as next to the Manhattan Bridge on the Lower East Side and Sutton Place.
read more from carter here
May 11, 2016

Lissoni Architettura Conceptualizes a Submerged Aquarium in the East River

By now we all know about the urban design fad of floating things in NYC's rivers (Pier55, +Pool, this island), but here's a concept for an under-water public space off Long Island City. Untapped took a look at this proposal for a submerged aquarium from Milan-based architecture firm Lissoni Architettura. Titled NYCAquatrium, it will likely never get built since it's just the winning entry in Arch Out Loud's ideas competition for a New York City aquarium and public waterfront, but it's certainly an innovative project.
See all the renderings and get more details
May 10, 2016

The Elegantly Designed Interiors at This Carroll Gardens Brownstone Can Be Yours For $3M

The location of this lovely Brooklyn townhouse at 357 Hoyt Street is a dream combination of breezy, funky Gowanus and quaint, historic and classic Carroll Gardens. Everything surrounding it is either pretty or cool (or both), and on top of being subway adjacent, the borough's flagship Whole Foods market is within just a few blocks. This enviable home is about as perfect as you can get if you’re a brownstone buff and you're not looking for four stories or a big yard. At three stories and 2,360 square feet, it's not huge, but space is used efficiently and it's still more spacious than many apartments at its asking price of $2.9 million. Renovated to perfection, the home’s interiors - designed by mother-daughter design team McGrath II - have been featured in both the New York Times home and garden section (according to the listing) and recently on 6sqft.
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May 10, 2016

First Mansion Donald Trump Ever Owned Now Selling for $45M

When Donald Trump was rising up in the real estate ranks in the early '80s (and when he was still a Democrat), he and then-wife Ivana were looking for their first "trophy mansion." In 1982, they found it in this 5.8-acre Greenwich, Connecticut estate, paying $4 million for the home on its own peninsula. At the time, Trump was busy refurbishing the Plaza Hotel, so he and Ivana infused their new home with the same ornate style of gold leaf, massive chandeliers, and moldings galore. When the couple divorced in 1991, Ivana got the mansion (among many other properties and cash), but she sold it seven years later for $15 million to owners who made the property even more opulent, adding an indoor lap pool, sauna, tennis courts, and a 4,000-square-foot guest suite addition. These owners listed the property back in January for $54 million, but it's now gotten a price chop to $45 million, according to Top Ten Real Estate News.
Live like the Donald
May 9, 2016

Williamsburg Unsurprisingly Tops List of NYC’s 15 Fastest Gentrifying Neighborhoods

Williamsburg has become the poster child for the hipsterfication of Brooklyn and NYC gentrification in general, but behind the beards and beet smoothies are actual facts to back it up. NYU's Furman Center released a report that identifies the city's 15 gentrifying neighborhoods, out of 55 total, and finds that Williamsburg/Greenpoint comes in at number one (h/t DNAinfo). Of course, it's difficult to define gentrification, but the study looks at areas that were relatively low-income in 1990 (among the bottom 40% in the city), but experienced higher rent growth over the past 20 years than other neighborhoods, a trend that the Furman Center feels is of "greatest concern in lower-income neighborhoods." Williamsburg and Greenpoint had a startling 78.7 percent jump in rent over this time period, followed by Central Harlem at 53.2 percent and Chinatown/Lower East Side at 50.3 percent.
See the full list here
May 9, 2016

20 Kitchen Cleaning Hacks for Lazy People

Our ongoing series Apartment Living 101 is aimed at helping New Yorkers navigate the challenges of creating a happy home in the big city. Last week, 6sqft rounded up a list of 15 air-purifying plants to add indoors. This week we've pulled together 20 kitchen cleaning tips for the lazy (or busy) man and woman. Most of us would probably agree that keeping a home clean with any regularity can be a formidable challenge; because really, who wants to pour hours and hours into a tedious and thankless job that only promises to return with another layer of dirt? But while housekeeping is in general a groan-worthy task, the kitchen often poses its own hell, especially when shared with roommates who seem almost clueless as to how a sponge and soap work. Though we don't have a solution for making those dirty dishes in your sink disappear, we do have 20 cleaning hacks for keeping a (reasonably) clean kitchen that even the laziest person can squeeze in between Netflix and chill sessions.
20 tips for quick and easy cleaning here
May 9, 2016

Off the Beaten Path, This $1.8M Seaport Loft Keeps It Real

Though the appliances and fixtures are state-of-the-art, and lots of consideration has been given to comfort and daily life, this 1,000-square-foot lower Manhattan loft at 330 Pearl Street is no "loft." It's just the sort of authentic downtown space your cool friends lived in when they moved to the city back in the late '80s, with its flexible open spaces (or lack of actual rooms, depending on how you look at it), industrial finishes, big windows, beams, brick, white, and custom-built almost-everything. And though it's less common to find a loft like this on the market in the places you might have back then (Soho, Noho, Tribeca), the Seaport comprises a rare corner of the city that's geared up for growth but still a bit undefined–perhaps the perfect spot for an authentic loft.
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May 7, 2016

Weekly Highlights: Top Picks From the 6sqft Staff

$250M Penthouse at 220 Central Park South Will Officially Be NYC’s Most Expensive Apartment East River Skyway Proposal Gains Steam, Would Only Cost Riders $25/Month The Whole Foods Effect: Does the Green Grocery Increase Home Values? Pinball Prohibition: The Arcade Game Was Illegal in New York for Over 30 Years Live in Extell’s Hudson Yards […]