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After facing months of intense backlash from residents and local officials, Amazon is rethinking its plan to open a massive complex in the Queens neighborhood of Long Island City, the Washington Post reported on Friday. Sources told the newspaper, which is owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, that executives at the tech company have had discussions to reassess the plan to open its "HQ2" in New York City. "The question is whether it's worth it if the politicians in New York don't want the project, especially with how people in Virginia and Nashville have been so welcoming," a source told the Post.
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Policy

Grand Hyatt, Trump’s first major Manhattan real estate coup, to be torn down for new office tower

Image: Jennifer Rotner via Flickr.

February 8, 2019

Grand Hyatt, Trump’s first major Manhattan real estate coup, to be torn down for new office tower

By Andrew Berman of Village Preservation

Developer TF Cornerstone and investment firm MSD Partners have announced plans to purchase and tear down the Grand Hyatt building adjacent to Grand Central Terminal, the Wall Street Journal reports. The hotel brand will eventually return to the site in a form different from the smoked glass-clad building that was Donald Trump’s first major Manhattan development. In its place will rise a mixed-use project that includes 2 million square feet of high-octane office space. The planned development is one of four new towers in the works as a result of a 2017 Midtown East rezoning aimed at encouraging new office buildings as well as infrastructure improvements in the east side business district.
The times they are a-changin' in East Midtown

New Developments

February 7, 2019

The 10 most charming spots in the Greenwich Village Historic District

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the designation of the Greenwich Village Historic District on April 29, 1969. One of the city’s oldest and still largest historic districts, it’s a unique treasure trove of rich history, pioneering culture, and charming architecture. GVSHP will be spending 2019 marking this anniversary with events, lectures, and new interactive online resources, including a celebration and district-wide weekend-long “Open House” starting on Saturday, April 13th in Washington Square. This is the first in a series of posts about the unique qualities of the Greenwich Village Historic District marking its golden anniversary. The Greenwich Village Historic District literally oozes with charm; so much so, it’s virtually impossible to come up with a top-10 list. But with no insult to sites not included, here is one run at the 10 most charming sites you’ll find in this extraordinarily quaint historic quarter--from good-old classics like the famous stretch of brick rowhouses on Washington Square North to more quirky findings like the "Goodnight Moon" house.
Check out the list!

History

Subway riders could save up to 9 days a year under the MTA’s Fast Forward plan

Photo via Dan Phiffer on Flickr

February 7, 2019

Subway riders could save up to 9 days a year under the MTA’s Fast Forward plan

Last May, 6sqft reported on the release of the MTA's ambitious 10-year "Fast Forward" plan to modernize New York City's transit system featuring a state-of-the-art signal system, more accessibility, a new fare payment system and thousands of new subway cars and buses. Perhaps the most ambitious part of the plan is that work previously estimated to take nearly 50 years would be completed within the next decade. But just how much would these marvelous changes improve our daily commute? Transit advocacy organization Transit Center breaks it down for a few of the city's more sluggish examples to show us how much time we might get back to do better stuff than sit on the subway.
More time to wait in line for coffee

February 6, 2019

VIDEO: See how bean-to-bar chocolate gets made at the Institute of Culinary Education

By Dana Schulz

If you don't have chocolate on the mind yet, you soon will with Valentine's Day quickly approaching. And while there's plenty of trendy treats out there--think mushroom chocolate bars and a $375 spiked hot chocolate--there's nothing quite like keeping it simple with classic cacoa flavors and traditional cooking methods. Which is exactly the mindset behind the Institute of Culinary Education's bean-to-bar chocolate lab, the first in the nation. James Beard Award-winning chef and ICE’s Creative Director/head of the chocolate lab, recently gave us a private lesson in chocolate making, from roasting and crushing the beans to tempering the final product. Ahead, watch this entire tutorial and learn about the machinery that makes it happen, what makes "real" chocolate real, and how you can get in on the action in the lab.
Watch the video here

Food & Dining

February 6, 2019

Cuomo announces $344M revamp of JFK’s Terminal 8

American Airlines and British Airways will invest $344 million over the next three years to revamp its terminal at John F. Kennedy Airport, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday. The project includes expanding and improving the customer experience at Terminal 8, where British Airways will move to from its current location in Terminal 7. The project falls under Cuomo's $13 billion plan to overhaul JFK announced last October. The Port Authority is not contributing funds to the Terminal 8 project; 90 percent of the governor's JFK plan will be privately funded.
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Transit

February 5, 2019

Trump’s childhood home in Queens hits market for $2.9M

President Donald Trump's boyhood home in Jamacia Estates is set to hit the market this week for a pricey $2.9 million. The home, which is not owned by Trump or his organization, is decorated somewhat as a shrine to the president, with lots of framed photos of him, a copy of "The Art of the Deal," and a life-size cut out of the Queens native in the living room. The owner, who bought the property in 2017 for $2.14 million under the guise of Trump Birth House LLC, requests offers be submitted via email, along with proof of funds. The home will then be sold through a closed bidding process, as first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
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Distinctive Homes

MoMA will be closed all summer as it wraps up the final phase of its $400M expansion

Exterior view of The Museum of Modern Art on 53rd Street. Rendering by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, courtesy of MoMA.

February 5, 2019

MoMA will be closed all summer as it wraps up the final phase of its $400M expansion

The Museum of Modern Art will be closed throughout the summer as it prepares to open its expanded campus on October 21st. The $400 million expansion, developed by MoMA with architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Gensler, will add more than 40,000 square feet of gallery spaces and allow the Museum to exhibit more art in new, interdisciplinary ways. The final phase of construction will expand into Jean Nouvel’s new residential tower 53W53 and into the site of the demolished American Folk Art Museum. It will add innovative performance and education spaces, expand the MoMA Design and Bookstore, and add free street-level galleries on the ground floor that will make art more accessible for all.
Get all the details

First housing lottery opens at the Bronx’s $600M affordable redevelopment of the Lambert Houses

A rendering of 988 East 180th Street, courtesy of the office of Ritchie Torres

February 4, 2019

First housing lottery opens at the Bronx’s $600M affordable redevelopment of the Lambert Houses

By Dana Schulz

It's been over two years since work got underway to demolish 14 building at the Bronx's 1970s-era Lambert Houses and replace them with taller towers that will hold 1,665 affordable apartments. In addition to doubling the site's number of affordable units, the $600 million project will have a public school and three times the amount of retail space. Though the entire overhaul won't be complete for another 11-12 years, applications are now being accepted for the first new residential building (h/t Welcome2TheBronx). The 49 below-market-rate residences are reserved for those earning 60 or 100 percent of the area median income and range from $761/month studios to $1,600/month two-bedrooms.
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Affordable Housing

City calls on architects to design innovative affordable housing on super small lots

The city hopes to develop affordable housing on this lot at 829 Freeman Street in the Bronx; via Google Street View

February 4, 2019

City calls on architects to design innovative affordable housing on super small lots

The city is calling on architects to help design innovative affordable housing on irregularly-shaped lots, the New York Times reported Monday. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development will launch a design competition, along with the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, seeking ideas for housing on 23 unusually small or narrow lots across the city. The program, called Big Ideas for Small Lots NYC, was first announced by the city last year and falls under Mayor Bill de Blasio's ambitious Housing New York 2.0 plan.
More details this way

Amazon will fund computer science classes at 130 schools throughout NYC

Students learning how to code at Monsignor Scanlan High in the Bronx. Image courtesy of Amazon.

January 30, 2019

Amazon will fund computer science classes at 130 schools throughout NYC

As part of ongoing campaigns and efforts to ease fears about the tech giant’s controversial arrival to New York City, Amazon announced yesterday that it will start offering computer science courses at 130 high schools throughout the boroughs. With funding from Amazon’s Future Engineer program, the company will start providing introductory and Advanced Placement Computer Science courses through the New York-based curriculum provider, Edhesive, as early as this fall. The plan covers 37 schools in Queens (the most of any borough), 27 high schools in Manhattan and the Bronx, 35 in Brooklyn, and 6 in Staten Island.
About the program

City Living

January 24, 2019

Asking $15M, one of the last Gramercy Park townhouses comes with keys to the park

Here’s a rare opportunity to own one of only five remaining single-family townhouses with a Gramercy Park address and one of the city’s most coveted accessories: keys to the famous neighboring park. A former 19th-century boarding house with rooms “decorated with ferns, foliage, and Autumn flowers,” according to an 1895 article in The Times, 40 Gramercy Park North is one of the last survivors from the initial period of development around the park, now sandwiched between two large apartment buildings. For $14,950,000 the six-story home carries plenty of historic charm but has been updated for modern living, complete with an elevator.
Take a look inside

Closet photo via Flickr cc; Photo of Karin and Marie courtesy of Karin Socci

January 23, 2019

Ready to ‘tidy up’ your apartment? Meet NYC’s master KonMari consultant

By Cait Etherington

Between her best-selling book, "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing," and new Netflix show, "Tidying Up," over the past five years, Marie Kondo—a diminutive Japanese organizing guru—has changed how people around the world think about decluttering their homes. But Kondo isn’t just another interior designer offering tips on storage. She believes that one’s home has a direct impact on their lives and even their personal relationships. This is why she approaches tidying from the heart and not simply the mind. As she says on her website, “Keep only those things that speak to the heart, and discard items that no longer spark joy.” With so many of us living in homes that are almost as tiny as those in Tokyo where Kondo is based and developed her method, it's no surprise that New Yorkers have been eagerly embracing Kondo’s advice. It is also likely no coincidence that one of the only certified Master KonMari consultants in North America, Karin Socci, happens to serve the New York City area. 6sqft recently reached out to Socci, founder of The Serene Home, to learn more about the KonMari method and how she helps New Yorkers put it into practice.
Hear from Karin here

Second-tallest tower in the Western Hemisphere may rise across from St. Patrick’s Cathedral

Tower Fifth rendering by TMRW courtesy Gensler

January 23, 2019

Second-tallest tower in the Western Hemisphere may rise across from St. Patrick’s Cathedral

The developers behind the distinct supertall at 432 Park Avenue want to take a second shot at altering New York City's skyline. Harry Macklowe submitted a preliminary application to the city's planning department for a 1,551-foot-tall skyscraper between 51st and 52nd Streets in Midtown across from St. Patrick's Cathedral, the New York Times reported. If the city approves the project, Tower Fifth, the name given to the proposed tower by Macklowe Properties, would become the second-tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.
See inside the proposed supertall

Make way for the Women’s March on NYC: Street closings, maps and more

2017 Women’s March on NYC; image: mathiaswasik via Flickr.

January 17, 2019

Make way for the Women’s March on NYC: Street closings, maps and more

The streets of NYC will fill once again this Saturday, January 19 for the third annual Women's March on New York City. The first march took place in 2017, as a demonstration in support of women's rights and in resistance to a growing list of gender-related injustices during the inauguration of President Donald Trump. Last year's march drew an estimated 200,000 participants. As with any jubilant mass display of human resilience, there will be street closings. Read on for info on where to march, how to avoid traffic snarls and what makes this year's march different.
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Events & Things To Do

Power to the people: Looking back on the history of public protests in NYC Parks

First Earth Day, April 22, 1970. View of crowds in Union Square, NYC Parks Photo Archive, Neg #53262_28. All of the photos in this post are courtesy of the Parks Department.

January 16, 2019

Power to the people: Looking back on the history of public protests in NYC Parks

By Lucie Levine

Maybe you’ve gathered in Union Square. Perhaps you’ve marched up Fifth Avenue to Central Park. You could have even held signs aloft in Columbus Circle, Tompkins Square, or Zuccotti Park. If you have ever been part of a protest in any park across the five boroughs, you're in good company. New York City’s parks have a rich history of social protest that stretches back to the American Revolution. Today, the NYC Parks Department's Ebony Society will kick off a celebration of that history with “Power to the People," which will feature archival photographs alongside mixed-media art on the theme of public demonstration. To celebrate the exhibit, we checked out the history behind some of the protests highlighted in the show.
Read on for the history of seven protests in NYC Parks

History

January 15, 2019

A 20-foot wall of windows stuns in this romantic Gramercy Park townhouse, asking $15M

There are many blocks in New York that leave us drooling, but the original “block beautiful” is 19th Street between Irving Place and Third Avenue, one block away from Gramercy Park. Most of the brick and brownstone rowhouses on the block were built in the 1850s but were considered dour by the turn of the century. After moving to New York in 1906, British architect Frederick Sterner bought the home at 139 East 19th Street and renovated it with what would become his playful signature touch: a coat of tinted stucco, shutters, decorative ironwork, and a projecting tile roof. Many—if not most—of the other homes on the block received Sterner makeovers, giving the street a distinctive charm. Now you can own the house right across the street from Sterner’s own, at 140 East 19th Street, for $15,250,000.
Take the tour

Distinctive Homes

January 10, 2019

Historic Harlem townhouse combo seeks record-breaking $27M

A record-shattering listing just hit the market: twin adjacent townhomes in Harlem are seeking a whopping $27,000,000 for both properties. The homes are currently independent but could be combined into a rather impressive megamansion. The price is unparalleled in the area and five times the record selling price of a Harlem townhouse, which sold last February for $5.1 million. As Mansion Global reported, listing agent Siddiq Patterson of the Corcoran Group said he believed the price was justified by the property’s scale and storied past. "The bones and the history is something you just don’t get" with other homes in the area, he stated.
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Distinctive Homes

January 9, 2019

NYC’s 10 best offbeat and hidden museums

By Rebecca Fishbein

New York is home to world-class institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, the Guggenheim, and MoMA. But this city’s museum scene has more to offer than just the Temple of Dendur—in fact, it’s full of smaller, way funkier spots serving up found art, oddities, and history, including the history of this ever-odd city itself. Here are 10 of our favorites.
Start exploring

Events & Things To Do

Sales launch at Brooklyn Heights library-replacing condo tower, from $1.1M

Renderings via Noe and Associates/ The Boundary

January 8, 2019

Sales launch at Brooklyn Heights library-replacing condo tower, from $1.1M

Nearly four years after the Brooklyn Public Library announced the sale of its Brooklyn Heights branch, sales have started at the 38-story condo building that replaced it. The Hudson Companies, the developer who bought the site in 2015 for $52 million, launched on Tuesday sales for 133 one- to five-bedroom residences at One Clinton, ranging in price from $1.088 million to roughly $5.26 million for a four bedroom. Five-bedroom and penthouse pricing will be released in the coming months.
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First weekend of 2019 starts major headaches for 7 train riders and Washington Heights station

Via Flickr

January 4, 2019

First weekend of 2019 starts major headaches for 7 train riders and Washington Heights station

New year, same subway challenges. This weekend will be the start of significant service disruptions along the 7 line—making travel between Manhattan and Queens more complicated—and of long-term construction at several stations in Washington Heights, beginning on January 5 with the closure of the 1 train's 168 Street station (some good news: A and C trains will still be servicing the station). Riders can expect to encounter skipped stops across many lines and long wait times. Read on for a detailed list of the planned service changes.
Know before you go

Transit

New renderings released of Long Island City’s Skyline Tower, Queens’ soon-to-be-tallest

Rendering via Binyan Studios

January 2, 2019

New renderings released of Long Island City’s Skyline Tower, Queens’ soon-to-be-tallest

The Skyline Tower, a 67-story condo building under construction in Long Island City, ended the year on a very high note. In addition to being named 6sqft's 2018 Building of the Year, the Hill West Architects-designed, 778-foot-tall tower became the first in Queens to pass $1 billion in total sell out. Plus, the property, which developer United Construction & Development Group first filed plans for in 2016, sits across the street from One Court Square, where Amazon is leasing one million square feet of office space before the company moves to its new HQ2 complex along the waterfront. On Wednesday, new renderings of Skyline Tower were released, showing off the interiors, views, and new subway entrance at the future tallest tower in Queens.
See the renderings

2018 Manhattan condo sales show volume drop and price cooldown from last year’s soaring heights

Rendering of 200 East 59th Street via Studio amd for Macklowe Properties

December 31, 2018

2018 Manhattan condo sales show volume drop and price cooldown from last year’s soaring heights