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New York City developers have been increasingly competing to seek environment-friendly accreditations based on standards like Passive House, LEED and wellness to distinguish their offerings. Recently "Zero Waste," defined by the U.S. Zero Waste Business Council as, “achieving over 90% diversion of waste from landfills, incinerators and the environment,” is rising in popularity, with good reason: Certified buildings won't be generating the mountains of garbage that are the bane of NYC living. 565 Broome Soho, the under-construction condominium tower at the crossroads of Soho, Hudson Square and Tribeca, hopes to be Manhattan’s first Zero Waste-certified residential building, CityRealty reports.
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July 21, 2017

How to keep cool without an air conditioner and cut your electricity bill

6sqft’s series Apartment Living 101 is aimed at helping New Yorkers navigate the challenges of creating a happy home in the big city. With temperatures climbing, we put together the best products and tips for keeping your apartment cool this summer. If you're not one of the lucky ones who has central cooling in their apartment, the summer months can be a challenge. A regular old fan won't always do the trick, and traditional wall-unit air conditioners are bulky, hard to install, loud, expensive to run, and often associated with health risks such as respiratory issues, headaches, and skin irritation. If you're looking to try something new this season, 6sqft has rounded up several products and innovations perfect for keeping apartment dwellers from sticking to the sheets when the mercury rises. We've also put together a list of tips for those who want to go completely off-the-grid and for those who simply can't give up the wall unit, but want to be less wasteful.
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The city added 24,293 affordable housing units this fiscal year, the most since 1989

Image via Pixbay

July 14, 2017

The city added 24,293 affordable housing units this fiscal year, the most since 1989

Image via Pixbay After more than three years into Mayor de Blasio’s $41 billion, 10-year affordable housing initiative, the city announced on Thursday that 24,293 affordable apartments and homes were secured in Fiscal Year 2017. Out of those units, 40 percent were for families earning less than $43,000 a year, with more than 4,014 homes for families of three earning less than $26,000 a year. According to city officials, the mayor’s Housing New York initiative aims to help an estimated half of a million people afford to live in New York City. Despite these promising numbers, the plan still fails New Yorkers with extremely low-income, by making their affordability benchmarks too high.
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July 12, 2017

Construction of Columbia’s Manhattanville campus to create $6.3 billion in local investment

More than ten years after it was first proposed, the expansion of Columbia University into Manhattanville is finally coming together, with its first building opening on Harlem’s west side. While some residents worried the expansion would infringe on the Harlem community, the president of the university, Lee Bollinger, said the ongoing construction will result in roughly $6.3 billion in local investment. As the Daily News reported, the school paid $578 million to minority-, women-, and locally owned firms for construction work in the last five years. The project also created more than 1,500 construction jobs each year.
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Real Estate Trends

June 26, 2017

INTERVIEW: Architect Thomas Kosbau on the exciting future of sustainable design in NYC

By Emily Nonko

Since Thomas Kosbau began working for a New York consultancy firm running its sustainable development group, in 2008, much has changed in the city's attitude toward green design. Kosbau has gone from "selling" the idea of LEED certification to building developers, to designing some of the most innovative sustainable projects in New York to meet demand. He founded his firm, ORE Design, in 2010. Soon after, he picked up two big commissions that went on to embody the firm's priority toward projects that marry great design alongside sustainability. At one commission, the Dekalb Market, ORE transformed 86 salvaged shipping containers into an incubator farm, community kitchen, event space, community garden, 14 restaurants and 82 retail spaces. At another, Riverpark Farm, he worked with Riverpark restaurant owners Tom Colicchio, Sisha Ortuzar and Jeffrey Zurofsky to build a temporary farm at a stalled development site to provide their kitchen with fresh produce. From there, ORE has tackled everything from the outdoor dining area at the popular Brooklyn restaurant Pok Pok to the combination of two Madison Avenue studios. Last November, ORE launched designs for miniature indoor growhouses at the Brooklyn headquarters of Square Roots, an urban farming accelerator.
ORE's latest project

Photo of Rikers Island courtesy of Wikimedia

June 22, 2017

De Blasio releases city’s plan to close Rikers, claims it ‘will not be easy’

In April, Mayor de Blasio announced his support of closing the jail complex on Rikers Island after protests and calls from activists and public officials. In a proposal released Thursday, the mayor says closing Rikers will take at least ten years and will require a big decline in the number of inmates there, a drop in crime rates and significant funding. As the New York Times reported, according to the city’s 51-page report, in order to close Rikers within a decade, the population at the complex needs to drop to 5,000. Currently, the daily population is about 9,400, much lower than the average of 20,000 inmates the prison held during the 1990s.
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Policy

Rendering courtesy of SCAPE Landscape Architecture

June 19, 2017

Gowanus Canal Conservancy unveils renderings for SCAPE-designed Gowanus Lowlands

The Gowanus Canal Conservancy (GCC) has announced the launch of Gowanus Lowlands, a new comprehensive vision for the transformation of Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood and a 'blueprint for NYC’s next great park.' As 6sqft has previously reported, between developers eyeing the pricey parcel of southwest Brooklyn land as Paris on the Gowanus and the city's ambitions to transform the long-embattled area into "Little Venice," all eyes have been on the neighborhood and the once-toxic, steadily improving Superfund canal that anchors it. With an important rezoning on the horizon–the process kicked off last October with meetings to gauge community opinion–passions are running high. The conservancy has identified SCAPE landscape architecture studio to guide the Lowlands vision toward reality.
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June 15, 2017

City announces $106M plan to keep neighborhoods cool this summer

After a few days of extreme heat, Mayor de Blasio launched a $106 million initiative on Wednesday to protect New Yorkers from the risks of dangerously high temperatures this summer. The Cool Neighborhoods program aims to lessen the effects of the “urban heat island effect,” a problem that occurs in New York City due to its abundance of heat-holding asphalt and concrete and lack of greenery. According to Gothamist, to reduce heat-related health risks and deaths, the city plans on planting more trees on streets and in parks, supporting forest restoration efforts and painting roofs of homes in vulnerable areas with reflective white paints.
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9/11 Tribute Museum reopens in new 36,000-square-foot space to tell victims’ personal stories

Image © 9/11 Tribute Museum

June 13, 2017

9/11 Tribute Museum reopens in new 36,000-square-foot space to tell victims’ personal stories

When it comes to remembering the 9/11 terror attacks, personal stories can be the most moving reminder. The 9/11 Tribute Museum opened in 2006 in a former deli near the National September 11 Memorial and Museum site, intended as a temporary shrine to the victims during construction of the larger museum–and it has grown even since the latter opened. The Tribute Museum offers tours of the rebuilt World Trade Center site led by survivors, first responders, relatives of victims and others with close connections to the tragedy. Crain’s reports that the museum reopened today in a much larger location, slightly further from the memorial but with more space dedicated to victims’ personal stories.
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History

U.S. officials argue 650 Fifth Avenue is a secret front for the Iranian government

Image via Google Street View

June 2, 2017

U.S. officials argue 650 Fifth Avenue is a secret front for the Iranian government

Image via Google Street View For the past few years, the federal government has claimed that the tower at 650 Fifth Avenue, owned by nonprofit the Alavi Foundation, is controlled by the Iranian government, which would violate U.S. sanctions. Since the court decision that allowed the government to seize the 36-story building was overruled last year, a trial has kicked off again this week to determine if the organization was funneling money to Iran. As reported by amNY, the government must prove the office tower, worth just under $1 billion, is a front for the Iranian government and will do so using emails, letters and journal entries from an Alavi board member.
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Policy

Redeveloping NYC’s armories: When adaptive reuse and community building bring controversy

Park Avenue Armory, image © PBDW Architects

May 30, 2017

Redeveloping NYC’s armories: When adaptive reuse and community building bring controversy

Constructed between the 18th and 20th centuries to resemble massive European fortresses and serve as headquarters, housing, and arms storage for state volunteer militia, most of America’s armories that stand today had shed their military affiliations by the later part of the 20th century. Though a number of them did not survive, many of New York City’s historic armories still stand. While some remain in a state of limbo–a recent setback in the redevelopment plans of Brooklyn's controversial Bedford-Union Armory in Crown Heights raises a familiar battle cry–the ways in which they've adapted to the city’s rollercoaster of change are as diverse as the neighborhoods that surround them.
Find out how the city's armories have fared

Image via Alan Bloom/Flickr

May 24, 2017

Governor Cuomo and the MTA announce a competition to fix the NYC subway system

Image via Alan Bloom/Flickr Seeking innovative solutions to fix the mess that is the New York City transit system, Governor Cuomo on Tuesday launched a competition called the “MTA Genius Transit Challenge.” Just one of the governor’s recently proposed ideas to fix the subway, the international competition challenges participants to develop ideas for better signaling, new car designs, and WiFi throughout the system, including in tunnels. The winner of each category will receive $1 million and a possible contract deal with the state. In addition to the challenge, Cuomo announced he has created a Penn Station Task Force to devise alternative transportation solutions during Amtrak’s track work at the station this summer.
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May 23, 2017

12 places for gardening, plant, and flowers classes in NYC

With spring in NYC ushering in blooming trees, flowering plants, and blossoming gardens, many New Yorkers wish they had better access to these natural beauties. But even if you're not fortunate enough to have a backyard, garden, or terrace (or fire escape for that matter), there are loads of ways to get your green thumb on in the city. From flower arranging in a cute Williamsburg shop to landscape design at the New York Botanical Garden to a houseplant 101 class in Chelsea, 6sqft has rounded up a dozen of the best places for gardening, plant, and flower classes in the city.
Parouse the full list

Coney Island’s landmarked Childs Restaurant reopening as huge food and drink space

Photo via NYCEDC

May 17, 2017

Coney Island’s landmarked Childs Restaurant reopening as huge food and drink space

It's been more than 60 years since Childs Restaurant left its historic home on the Coney Island boardwalk, but on Sunday the landmarked building will reopen as a massive new food and beverage concept called Kitchen 21 (h/t Eater). The formerly vacant and deteriorating space was redeveloped through a $60 million joint investment among the NYC Economic Development Corporation, Legends Hospitality (who run the dining programs at One World Trade Center and Yankee Stadium), and Cravable Hospitality Group (of David Burke Kitchen). It will hold five separate restaurants, all peddling "summer-friendly fare": casual take-out spot Coney Island Café; beer and seafood spot Community Clam Bar; gastropub Parachute Bar; rooftop wine bar Boardwalk & Vine; and a more formal restaurant called Test Kitchen.
All the details ahead

Food & Dining

May 17, 2017

NYC’s 10 best historic house museums

Did you know there are 23 house museums across the five boroughs? All of which are supported by the Historic House Trust, a nonprofit that works in conjunction with the Department of Parks & Recreation to preserve these sites of cultural and architectural significance. From farmer's cottages to gilded mansions, these public museums span 350 years of city history and offer fun additions such as art collections, historic holiday-themed events, and specialized tours. Ahead, 6sqft has put together a list of 10 house museums that represent some of NYC's most storied history.
Check out our favorite house museums

May 15, 2017

NYCxDesign 2017: The 6sqft guide to finding the best design events this month

NYCxDesign 2017, New York City’s official turn to celebrate all things design, hits town from May 3 – May 24. NYC is among the world’s design capitals and home to more designers than any other U.S. metro area. NYCxDesign spotlights the city’s diverse design community and its contributions to our economy and everyday life, and increases awareness of and appreciation for design with a collaborative mix of cultural, professional, educational and commercial offerings. This year’s celebration is the longest-running one to date. You can head in any direction and you'll stumble into a design-related event, but we've compiled a guide to a few of the top collaborative efforts and highlighted some of our picks.
Check out our NYCxD picks, this way

May 2, 2017

Apply for 50 affordable units in the Bronx’s Mt. Eden, from $558/month

Located in the Mount Eden neighborhood of the South Bronx, this affordable housing building at 1561 Walton Avenue sits just off the Grand Concourse and a block south of the Cross-Bronx Expressway. The 11-story residence contains 60 units total and includes an on-site manager, rear patio, laundry, and storage space for bikes, as well as on-site college application assistance and work-readiness training. Applications are currently being accepted for 50 of the units, ranging from $558/month one-bedrooms to $1,740/month three-bedrooms for those earning 40, 50, 60, or 80 percent of the area median income.
Find out if you qualify

Affordable Housing

May 2, 2017

Congress budget deal will reimburse NYC for Trump Tower security in ‘protection package’ split with Florida

Congress agreed to a budget deal Sunday night that allocates money to pay New York City back for funds spent on protecting Trump Tower, reports the New York Daily News. The bipartisan agreement creates a $68 million "protection package," which will reportedly be split with Florida, where Trump's Palm Beach Mar-a-Lago mansion serves as his vacation home.
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April 5, 2017

Habitat for Humanity will build 48 affordable homes for New Yorkers

In New York City, and the rest of the country, it's becoming increasingly difficult to find affordable housing. To combat this, the Habitat for Humanity NYC announced a plan to build affordable houses for buyers in Brooklyn and Queens. The organization, aimed at constructing quality housing for families in need, will bring 48 units of affordable homes to these boroughs by redeveloping abandoned or foreclosed properties. Since most of these homes have been left vacant for decades, many are run-down and have negatively impacted the surrounding neighborhoods. As Brick Underground learned, the city’s Housing Authority first acquired these properties and then sold them to Habitat for Humanity at $1 each.
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April 4, 2017

Trump buildings rank as some of the biggest polluters in NYC

With a federal budget proposal that strips significant funding to the Environmental Protection Agency, it’s not so shocking that President Trump and his son-in-law and close adviser, Jared Kushner, both own buildings that rank as the least energy-efficient in New York City. The Daily News shared a new report from ALIGN, a coalition of labor and environmental activists, which found that Trump Tower uses more energy than 93 percent of the city’s large residential buildings. Worse, the Trump Organization's Mayfair condo uses more than 98 percent. The report also revealed that a Kushner Companies' 666 Fifth Avenue (controversial for even more reasons as of late) uses more energy than 85 percent of large office buildings.
See the report here

Policy

March 31, 2017

The richest New Yorkers would benefit the most under Trump’s tax plan

New York’s top elected officials, aware of the political leanings of their constituents, continue to be outspoken in their opposition to President Trump and his administration. As Crain’s reports, City Comptroller Scott Stringer serves as one of New York’s most vocal assailants on Trump, with 50 percent of his press releases written this month attacking the president’s policy proposals. In a report released this week, Stringer analyzed Trump’s proposed federal income tax law and found that it disproportionately benefits the highest-income earners in New York. If adopted, 40 percent of all single parents would see their taxes go up, compared to 90 percent of millionaires who would see a reduction, according to Stringer.
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Policy

March 27, 2017

ODA’s slender-waisted ‘Orbit Tower’ wins the Metals in Construction 2017 Design Challenge

Metals in Construction magazine has just announced the winner and finalists in the magazine's 2017 Design Challenge, "Meeting the Architecture 2030 Challenge: Reimagine Structure." The competition invited architects, engineers, students and designers to submit their visions for combatting global warming in their design for a high-rise building. The winning design, "Orbit Tower," was created by architects and engineers from ODA Architecture and Werner Sobek New York. The building–though purely conceptual for the purposes of the competition–would be located in midtown Manhattan at 1114 Sixth Avenue on the north side of Bryant Park in place of the Grace Building.
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March 24, 2017

432 Park would have generated $30M for affordable housing with de Blasio’s mansion tax

Outside of 432 Park Avenue, Mayor de Blasio held a press conference on Thursday to discuss his mansion tax. The proposal calls for a 2.5 percent surcharge on sales of city homes valued at $2 million or more, which would in turn fund affordable housing for 25,000 senior citizens. De Blasio fittingly positioned himself outside 432 Park because, according to the city, if the proposed tax had been passed, this residence alone would have generated $30.2 million since 2015 in support of housing for low-income seniors. "And that would have been based--and this is stunning to me--on the sale of just 62 condominiums. But it would have meant enough money to subsidize affordable housing for 2,000 seniors," he said.
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March 24, 2017

City reveals garment district rezoning plans, citing incentives to move makers to Sunset Park