Search Results for: times square

October 10, 2018

Where I Work: Mendel Goldberg Fabrics has been outfitting the Lower East Side for 130 years

6sqft’s series “Where I Work” takes us into the studios, offices, and businesses of New Yorkers across the city. In this installment, we’re going inside 130-year-old Lower East Side shop Mendel Goldberg Fabrics. Want to see your business featured here? Get in touch! Mendel Goldberg Fabrics, a fourth-generation family-owned textile boutique, has been in business since 1890 and is located on a quiet side street on the Lower East Side. People who walk down Hester Street often take the time to notice the exquisite designer imported fabrics that hang in the window display as well as the huge range of brocades, silk, gabardine, lace, wool, novelty fabrics and boucle´ in a wide variety of colors and textures, which line the shops walls from floor to ceiling. Despite a devastating fire in the building in 2012 that destroyed the entire basement fabric stock and required substantial rebuilding, the business is thriving. On a recent visit to the fabric store, we had a chance to speak with Alice Goldberg, the great-granddaughter of Mendel Goldberg, about how the business went from a pushcart to a unique destination, the joys of running one of the oldest surviving shops in the neighborhood, and the secrets of some of their most high-end fabrics.
Get a fabric lesson from Alice
October 5, 2018

INTERVIEW: Take a ride with Concetta Anne Bencivenga, director of the New York Transit Museum

Concetta Anne Bencivenga wants you to visit the New York Transit Museum. After coming on as the museum's director early last year -- following Gabrielle Shubert's impressive 24-year run -- she's become "cheerleader in chief," in her own words, excited to promote the museum's exhibits and programming to a wide range of New Yorkers. With 6sqft she discusses how her diverse background brought her to the Transit Museum and what the past of New York's public transportation can teach us about moving forward. She also talks about the revamp of an existing exhibit, the introduction of new ones, and her goals moving forward as director. Do you know why the MTA subway system is featured so prominently in early comic books? Keep reading, as Concetta shares the reasons why public transit is so crucial to New Yorkers lives -- in both the obvious and more surprising ways.
Meet Concetta
October 4, 2018

10 of NYC’s most impressive Terra-cotta buildings

Terra-cotta, Latin for "fired earth," is an ancient building material, made of baked clay, first used throughout early civilizations in Greece, Egypt, China the Indus Valley. In more modern times, architects realized that "fired earth" actually acts as a fire-deterrent. In the age of the skyscraper, terra-cotta became a sought-after fire-proof skin for the steel skeletons of New York’s tallest buildings. In the early part of the 20th century, the City’s most iconic structures were decked out in terracotta. You’ll find terra-cotta on famous facades from the Flatiron to the Plaza, but the material often flies under the radar of pedestrians and architecture buffs alike because it can mimic other materials, like cast-iron or carved wood. Now, this long-underappreciated material is getting its due. On October 24th, the Historic Districts Council will present its annual Landmarks Lion Award to the terra-cotta firms Boston Valley Terra Cotta and Gladding, McBean, which work to keep terra-cotta alive worldwide, and to the preservation organization Friends of Terra Cotta, which has worked to preserve New York’s architectural terra-cotta since 1981. The ceremony will take place at Grand Central’s Oyster Bar, under the magnificent Guastavino terra-cotta ceiling recently restored by Boston Valley Terra Cotta. Fired up about finding “fired earth” around town? Here are 10 of the most impressive examples of New York terra-cotta!
Learn more about New York's Terra Cotta Treasures
September 28, 2018

$75,000/night Upper East Side hotel room is the most expensive in the nation

Most New Yorker don't spend $75,000 a year on rent, but a hotel room on the Upper East Side is asking that hefty sum for just one night. First reported by Bloomberg, the duplex penthouse suite is at the swanky Mark Hotel and boasts six bathrooms, five bedrooms, two wet bars, a 25,000-square-foot rooftop terrace overlooking Central Park, and a living room under the landmarked building's cupola that can be converted into a full-sized Grand Ballroom. In addition to being the country's most expensive hotel suite, it's also the largest at 10,000 square feet.
See the whole place
September 25, 2018

Where I Work: Chef Bill Telepan takes us inside a ‘farm-to-classroom’ hydroponic garden

In his first year as the Director of Sustainability at the Institute of Culinary Education, Chef Bill Telepan has immersed himself in the school’s indoor hydroponic garden, an agriculture system that uses LED light in a climate-controlled environment. Over 50 different crop varieties are grown at any time in the garden, providing culinary students access to herbs typically not found fresh in NYC. "As a chef, you taste things in your head and can put them all together, sort of mentally, and then prepare it," Telepan said when asked about the benefits of the garden for students. Throughout his career, he's been committed to using fresh, seasonal ingredients from local greenmarkets. He has worked in France under famed chef Alain Chapel, owned his own Upper West Side restaurant (Telepan) for a decade, and currently runs NYC seafood spot Oceana. Telepan gave 6sqft a tour of ICE’s hydroponic garden and told us how he became the institute’s first ever sustainability director, or as he describes it “a culmination of everything I’ve done as a chef and a person."
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September 24, 2018

Where old meets new: Welcoming a new era of developments in Murray Hill

Unlike many New York City neighborhoods that have reputations that travel far beyond their borders, for many years, Murray Hill has remained low key. If Murray Hill hasn’t always been quick to flaunt its assets, it may have something to do with its Quaker origins. After all, the "Murray" in Murray Hill points back to the Murray family—the clan of Quaker merchants who first settled the area in the mid-18th century. Since the days of the Murray family, much has changed in the neighborhood. The "hill" has been leveled, the neighborhood is no longer considered uptown, and since the early 2000s, the neighborhood’s reputation as a quiet and staid residential enclave has also been shattered as a younger crowd has moved in. In fact, for much of the past two decades, at least some parts of Murray Hill have become synonymous with the bar scene along Third Avenue, which is primarily known as a playground for young professionals. More recently, the neighborhood is undergoing another shift as a new era of higher-end rentals and condo developments attract a somewhat more mature demographic.
More on Murray Hill
September 19, 2018

How the East Village grew to have the most community gardens in the country

Awash in gray pavement and grayer steel, New York can be a metropolis of muted hues, but with 39 community gardens blooming between 14th Street and East Houston Street, the East Village is the Emerald City. The neighborhood boasts the highest concentration of community gardens in the country thanks to a proud history of grassroots activism that has helped transform once-abandoned lots into community oases. By the mid-1970s, as the city fought against a ferocious fiscal crisis, nearly 10,000 acres of land stood vacant throughout the five boroughs. In 1973, Lower East resident Liz Christie, who lived on Mott Street, refused to let the neglected lots in her neighborhood lie fallow. She established the urban garden group Green Guerillas, a rogue band of planters who lobbed “seed bombs” filled with fertilizer, seeds, and water into vacant, inaccessible lots, hoping they would flourish and fill the blighted spaces with greenery.
Get to the root of the story!
September 18, 2018

WeWork is officially Manhattan’s largest private office tenant

With 5.3 million square feet of office space, WeWork is officially Manhattan's largest private office tenant. Last month, we reported that the co-working giant needed just 74,000 more square feet to take the title from JPMorgan Chase & Co., and with their new, 258,344-square-foot location at 21 Penn Plaza, their 50th in the borough (they have 60 in NYC total), they've now surpassed them. The news comes via a blog post by WeWork exec Granit Gjonbalaj, who credits the company's "expertise" and the team's "holistic nature" that has allowed them to "identify, build, and deliver new locations better and more quickly than a typical developer."
Get the details
September 17, 2018

The Second Avenue Subway’s second act: How the Q train has impacted real estate in Yorkville

For over a decade, a large swath of the Upper East Side was under construction, but for many residents, it felt more like being under attack. As the Q Line was being built—after a century-long wait—the neighborhood not only had to tolerate restricted traffic along Second Avenue above ground but also more dramatic interruptions. Indeed, at one point in the subway line’s construction, underground explosions even shattered the windows of several local businesses. But with the noise, traffic, and disarray of the Second Avenue Subway in the past, the surrounding neighborhood has already quickly bounced back. As per predictions, since the completion of the line, real estate values, volume of sales, and rental prices in Yorkville have experienced an upswing.
Get the data
September 11, 2018

Storied Philip Johnson house in New Canaan, CT asks $7.7M, including plans for a modern mansion

The stories behind some of New Canaan, Connecticut's treasure trove of modernist homes have been less than uplifting. In addition to Philip Johnson's famous Glass House, the wealthy enclave boasts dozens of homes by Johnson and his colleagues known as the Harvard Five. An ongoing battle simmers between some of the town's wealthy residents who favor sprawling McMansions and a passionate contingent of modern architecture fans. At least 20 of the homes, built in the 1940s, '50s and '60s–have been torn down, usually to build larger houses on the property. One embattled example is a lesser-known Johnson house known as the Alice Ball House. The 1,700-square-foot home, built in 1953, has been referred to as a "livable version of the Glass House." And it's now for sale for $7.7 million–along with approved plans by the current owner, an architect who has envisioned a companion property on a much grander scale, including an indoor pool and a massive skylit underground garage.
Find out more about this storied modernist gem
September 11, 2018

Dawn of a new Downtown: The transformation of Lower Manhattan since 9/11

In 2010, Lower Manhattan was still deeply scarred by the attacks of 9-11. With much of the neighborhood under construction, a high vacancy rate, and few full-time residents, walking around the area, especially outside business hours, often felt like walking through a ghost town. It was, in many respects, a neighborhood in waiting. Since 2011, which marked the opening of the 9/11 Memorial—and the symbolic end of the neighborhood’s long period of recovery from the 9/11 attacks—Lower Manhattan has undergone a transformation that is difficult to ignore. New businesses have opened, new residential developments have launched, the vacancy rate has drastically declined, and in many respects, an entirely new neighborhood has taken shape.
The dawn of a new Downtown
September 10, 2018

In 1867, this lost Broadway bridge caused a feud between two hat shop owners

Lower Broadway is the city’s oldest thoroughfare and has always been one of the busiest. In fact, in 1867, the intersection of Broadway and Fulton Street was “continually thronged with vehicles of all kinds, rendering it almost impossible for pedestrians to pass.” Without the benefit of traffic lights, the crush of traffic was so snarled and thick that policemen had to untangle the flow during business hours so pedestrians could cross. Concerned that the sheer mortal hazard of simply crossing the street was losing him business, nearby hat shop owner Philip Genin convinced the City to build a bridge across Broadway that would ease foot traffic and just so happen to deliver pedestrians safely to his shop.
Hats off to the rest of the story
September 10, 2018

NYC fall art roundup: highlights of the season’s new exhibitions, openings and events

29 Rooms Once the calendar flips to September, New York City’s fall arts season heats up with high-profile museum exhibits, important gallery openings, music, dance and film events and more. Here, we offer our top picks and suggestions for the best ways to get swept up in the season’s art whirl, from Warhol at the Whitney to goats in a gallery.
Add some great art to your fall calendar
September 7, 2018

Sales to begin at super-skinny supertall 111 West 57th Street; priciest units are $57M

Despite a long history of financial and legal woes, Property Markets Group, Spruce Capital Partners and JDS Development’s tall and slender tower at 111 West 57th Street is gearing up to begin sales (for real this time) according to the New York Times. After years of lawsuit threats, reports that construction had stalled over budget overruns and a potential foreclosure, the 1,428-foot, 86-story tower will kick off sales, to be handled by Douglas Elliman, on September 13.
Pricing and more, this way
September 5, 2018

There will be no G-train service between Bed-Stuy and LIC every weekend in September

Making weekend plans in Brooklyn this month will be a bit trickier than normal. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is suspending service between Bed-Stuy's Bedford-Nostrand station and Long Island City's Court Square station every weekend in September for "track maintenance." There will be free shuttle buses available for North Brooklyn-bound straphangers (h/t Brooklyn Paper).
OH G
August 27, 2018

Top-floor Tudor City studio can be your ‘sun-drenched jewel box’ for $424K

What it lacks in space, this Tudor City studio makes up for in views and location. The 600-square-foot, top-floor, corner apartment has a compact kitchen and a Murphy bed, but it's also lined floor-to-ceiling with built-in shelving and cabinetry. And the huge pane-glass windows not only let in tons of light, but provide incredible views from the 23rd floor of the UN, East River, and Long Island City.
See what else $424,000 gets you
August 24, 2018

WeWork on track to become the biggest private office tenant in Manhattan

If WeWork leases just 74,000 square feet of office space, the co-working space company will become the biggest private office tenant in Manhattan, the blog recode reported Thursday. This means WeWork would bypass JPMorgan Chase & Co. as the largest private office tenant in the borough. WeWork currently has 57 locations in NYC and represents a little under three percent of office space in the city, but is expected to grow to represent between five and 10 percent over the next decade. How are they securing all of this square footage? Offering brokers 100 percent commissions and huge rental discounts for tenants.
More here
August 23, 2018

100 things to do in NYC that are completely free

Despite being one of the most expensive cities to live in, New York City offers many free activities, events, and attractions all year round, letting you pinch pennies when the rent check is due. From free lectures at the Met to free group meditation classes, there are tons of activities that don't cost a dime. To help New York visitors and natives alike, we've put together a guide of the 100 best wallet-friendly things to do in the Big Apple.
See the full list
August 20, 2018

New waitlist opens for mixed-income units at East Harlem’s Riverton complex, from $1,174/month

Last November, East Harlem’s Riverton Square opened up its 7,500-name waitlist for middle-income families. They've now reopened it, this time to a wider range of income brackets. Households earning 60, 80, or 125 percent of the area median income can put their name on the list for units ranging from $1,174/month one-bedrooms to $2,983/month three-bedrooms. The affordable seven-building development was built by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in 1947 to serve as housing for WWII veterans. Unlike their similar complexes, Stuyvesant Town and the Bronx's Parkchester, Riverton did not bar black and Hispanic tenants from renting. Today, the 12-acre complex offers a gated community with 12 acres of beautifully landscaped grounds and a public fountain, a new basketball court and playground, and a newly built senior center and after-school center.
Find out if you qualify
August 16, 2018

Tenement Museum will open an info kiosk at the Market Line inside Essex Crossing

The Tenement Museum will open a new kiosk at the Market Line inside the Essex Crossing development on the Lower East Side, developer Delancy Street Associates announced on Thursday. The kiosk will feature a screen with tour times and other information about the museum. When it opens later this year, the Market Line will run three city blocks and include 100 locally-sourced food, art, fashion and music vendors. The market, projected to be the largest of its kind in New York City, sits inside Essex Crossing, a 1.9-million-square foot mixed-use development.
Get the details
August 14, 2018

Private seven-acre Connecticut island with a garden wonderland sells for $21.5M

A private island in Long Island Sound known as Rogers Island just got a new owner, who paid $21.5 million for the seven-acre property off the Connecticut coast. The sellers, a couple of "island collectors" by the name of Christine and Edmund Stoecklein, are bound for the West Coast, according to Mansion Global, unloading their gorgeously landscaped land mass and even lovelier Tudor mansion for less than the $22.3 million they paid for it in 2003, to an anonymous buyer.
Take the cross-island tour
August 14, 2018

Where to experience Bangladeshi culture in NYC, from the East Village to Ozone Park

It's hard to miss the two floors of flashing, chili pepper light-adorned Indian restaurants on First Avenue and Sixth Street in the East Village. The origin of these two stacked eateries, though, is much more frequently overlooked, as is the fact that the neighborhood's adjacent "Little India" is really more "Little Bengal." New York's main Bangladeshi community is often cited as being in Jackson Heights, which boasts a large South Asian population and a great representation of its diverse culture, including the beloved Patel Brothers grocery store. Less well known is that East New York also has a large Bangladeshi community, and in the 1990s, the East Village's "Curry Row" worked to identify itself as Indian, a culture more Americans at the time were familiar with. Ahead, we look at the whole history and break down the best places to experience Bangladeshi culture in NYC.
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August 9, 2018

Financing secured for the second phase of Hudson Yards park

Financing has been secured for the extension of Hudson Park and Boulevard at Hudson Yards, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday. The first phase of the park developed with the extension of the 7 subway line to 34th Street and opened in 2015. The extension, which is part of a $500 million investment, includes a three-acre park that will run over an Amtrak rail cut from West 36th Street to West 39th Street, between 10 and 11th Avenues. This addition expands the parkland at Hudson Yards by 75 percent.
More here
August 9, 2018

The best affordable and student-friendly off-campus neighborhoods in NYC

If you can’t bear the idea of living in the dorms for another year, you’re not alone. Unless you happen to go to Columbia where over 90 percent of students live on campus, there's a high likelihood you’ll be searching for your own apartment at some point during your college years, just like 57 percent of students at NYU and 74 percent at The New School. And if you're like most students, you’ll be looking for an apartment far from downtown that strikes the right balance between affordability, commutability, and access to services. To help you make the smartest decision possible, 6sqft has compiled a list of affordable, student-friendly neighborhoods in Manhattan and Brooklyn. By New York City standards, all of these are both safe (e.g., reported fewer than 1.5447 crimes per 1000 people in June 2018) and within reach (e.g., on average, three-bedroom units can still be rented for less than $5,000 per month). Using July 2018 City Realty data on average neighborhood rents, we've broken down how much you’ll pay on average to live in a three-bedroom shared unit in each of these neighborhoods. We’ve also provided average commute times to both Union Square, which is easily walkable to NYU, The New School, and Cooper Union, and to the Columbia University campus.
Get the guide
August 9, 2018

59-block Inwood rezoning vote draws protests from residents who fear its character will be lost

On Wednesday the City Council approved a rezoning plan for a 59-block section of Inwood, a neighbhorhood often referred to as the "last affordable neighborhood in Manhattan," the New York Times reports. The plan was approved last week by the city's zoning subcommittee and the Land Use Committee. The Inwood rezoning is part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to rezone neighborhoods across the city as part of the push to create and preserve 300,000 affordable housing units by his goal date of 2026. Inwood is the fifth neighborhood–including the also-controversial East New York and East Harlem–to be approved for rezoning under the plan.
Find out more