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November 13, 2015

Spotlight: Hands On’s Beth Prevor Connects the Deaf and Theater Communities in NYC

When New Yorkers plan a night at the theater, they likely focus on snagging the best seat in the house. For deaf theatergoers whose first language is sign language, attending a musical or play is a bit different, as they require an interpreter to sign the drama and humor. For a long time, accessibility to interpreted performances was limited, but thanks to the organization Hands On, the deaf community now has the opportunity to attend numerous off-Broadway and nonprofit theatrical happenings in the city. In addition to providing access to interpreted performances, Hands On also creates a master calendar of all local cultural events open to the deaf community. Beth Prevor is one of the nonprofit’s founders and serves as its Executive Director. She first became interested in bringing the theatrical and deaf communities together after serving as a stage manager for a production that included deaf performers. Over the last 30-plus years, her work has helped change the city’s arts landscape for deaf individuals. We recently spoke with Beth to learn more about Hands On's work, the challenges of interpreting theater, and the organization's goals for the future.
Our conversation with Beth right this way
November 13, 2015

This Sprawling Park Slope Classic Seven in ‘Brooklyn’s Flatiron Building’ Asks $2.59M

Believe it or not, there are still some cases where your money goes farther in Brooklyn. Take this four-bedroom classic seven at 47 Plaza Street West in north Park Slope, a sprawling elegant pre-war co-op in the 1928 Rosario Candela-designed building sometimes referred to as “Brooklyn’s Flatiron” due to it's pizza-slice form–which gives the home's interior a unique, er, angle. The 2,350-square-foot apartment has been recently renovated, making it comparable to the size of a modest suburban house. It’s one of those co-ops where just looking at the floor plan makes you long for a time when tiny apartments weren't a thing (Yes, there’s a separate servants’ entrance as is often the case in these co-ops). And while the ask of $2.59 million might seem like a lot, a comparable Manhattan residence might easily be twice that much, if not more.
Tour this glamorous parkside pad
November 12, 2015

VIDEO: What It’s Like to Pull Into a $1 Million Parking Spot at Annabelle Selldorf’s 42 Crosby

Soho's 42 Crosby Street left us all astounded last year when it was revealed that each of its ten on-site parking spaces would be priced at one-million dollars a pop. On a per square foot basis, the 200-square-foot rectangles will fetch more than the three-bedroom condominiums upstairs. The cool modernists at Selldorf Architects designed the 111-foot tall building, which is now finally getting its layered facade of metal and glass. We admit, the exterior is not nearly as exciting as what's depicted in the renderings, but remember, it's not yet finished! So while we await Selldorf's magic to fully brew, watch this terrific film created by VUW Studio, which shows what it feels like to be that lucky automobile coming home to its seven-figure parking spot.
Watch the envy-inducing video in its entirety here
November 11, 2015

432 Park in Numbers: New Renderings and Superlatives Will Blow You Away

Now that Macklowe Properties'/CIM Group's 432 Park Avenue is nearing completion, with occupancy slated to begin in mid-2016 and 70 percent of units reportedly in contract, the development's marketing and branding agency DBOX has released a bevy of never-before-seen images of our skyline's newest icon. Being the tower of superlatives it is, it comes as no surprise that it boasts a marketing campaign to match. Employing sky-cams, drone photography, a million-dollar film, and breath-taking renderings and photography, 432 Park has perhaps the most elaborate promotional campaign ever conceived for a Manhattan condominium. With dozens of spectacular images to choose from, we hand picked a few to recap the development of this monumental supertower. We've also put together a timeline in numbers–from its record breaking height to its 1,200-pound marble sinks–to illustrate the extraordinary undertaking  that has paved the way for the tower to become the most successful and desirable condominium ever erected in the city (sorry One57).
See it all right here
November 8, 2015

Morris Adjmi’s 465 Pacific Street Now 50 Percent in Contract

Just one month after kicking off sales, Boerum Hill's hottest new condominium development, 465 Pacific Street has already signed half of its 30 units into contract. Even more impressive is that the $55 million development is slated for completion some 18-months from now, with foundation pouring just commencing last month. The project is conceived by a partnership between Avery Hall Investments and ARIA Development Group who paid $18 million ($373 per buildable square foot) for the L-shaped lot in May 2013, a record for a large Brooklyn parcel according to Crain's New York.
more on the project
November 6, 2015

WSP Burial Vaults Belonged to a Church; Natural History Museum Expansion ‘Part Dr. Seuss, Part Jurassic Park’

The recently uncovered Washington Square Park burial vaults belonged to the Pearl Street Church or the Cedar Street Church, say archaeologists. [DNAinfo] Watch the 78-foot Rockefeller Center Christmas tree make its way into 30 Rock. [Reddit] Michael Kimmelman calls the Jeanne Gang-designed American Museum of Natural History expansion “part Dr. Seuss, part Jurassic Park, part parametric extravaganza,” […]

November 5, 2015

Renderings Revealed for Jeanne Gang’s $325M Museum of Natural History Expansion

One of the many things that makes the American Museum of Natural History so fascinating is its combination of architecture–very different styles from varying time periods that together make up 25 separate structures. The original Victorian Gothic building was erected in 1877, followed and eclipsed quickly by the southern neo-Romanesque stretch. Then, in 1936, the grand Beaux-Arts entrance was added, and in 2000 the famous glass box known as the Rose Center for Earth and Space was built. Now, the museum is growing yet again, reports the Times, this time with a $325 million expansion courtesy of Studio Gang. In addition to its hefty price tag and undulating form, the addition is significant for the fact that it will be the first female-led project associated with the museum structure, as the firm is headed up by starchitect Jeanne Gang. The Times calls the concept for the new Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education and Innovation "both cautious and audacious," noting that it "consumes less coveted park space than expected, while introducing a contemporary aesthetic that evokes Frank Gehry’s museum in Bilbao, Spain, in its undulating exterior and Turkey’s underground city of Cappadocia in its cavelike interior." The new 218,00-square-foot Center will help solve circulation issues (it will create more than 30 access points across ten buildings) and will be an integrated space for museum activities and research.
More renderings and details ahead
November 4, 2015

Where I Work: Tour KUSHNER Studios’ smart and quirky Chinatown office

6sqft’s series “Where I Work” takes us into the studios, offices, and off-beat workspaces of New Yorkers across the city. In this installment, we take a tour of architect Adam Kushner's quirky and intelligent Chinatown office space. Want to see your business featured here? Get in touch! You might remember hearing from Adam Kushner a little over a year ago when 6sqft interviewed him about building the world's first 3D-printed estate. And while this is certainly a huge project for the architect, it's only one of many that he and his three firms are working on. In addition to architecture/design practice KUSHNER Studios, which he founded in 1994, Adam heads up construction practice In House Group Inc. and 3D-printing company D-Shape Enterprises New York. What these practices have in common, other than their intellectual creativity, is that they're housed in a quirky-yet-functional Chinatown office. Adam recently took us on a tour of his office, giving us the story behind the studio's unconventional models, his vintage scooter collection, and the giant plane jutting out of the wall.
Look around the creative space
November 2, 2015

More Sky Window Extensions Create Mini Glass Alcoves in Your Apartment

As the world population continues to grow, cities are more densely populated and we're on the constant lookout for new ways to optimize the small spaces many of us occupy. In response to this growing need, Argentinean architect Aldana Ferrer Garcia created "More Sky," an extending window unit that provides apartment-dwellers with immediate access to the sky from their often cramped and sometimes dreary living space.
more on the design here
October 26, 2015

INTERVIEW: Lowline Creator James Ramsey Discusses the Challenges of Building an Underground Park

The hottest destination in the Lower East Side is not a bar, but rather a cutting edge installation hidden inside a vacant warehouse at 140 Essex Street. Just over a week ago, partners James Ramsey and Dan Barasch launched the Lowline Lab, a high-tech, miniaturized precursor to the city’s first underground park. James is the co-founder (alongside Dan) of the park, which will occupy a 40,000-square-foot abandoned trolley terminal below Delancey Street; and creator of the technology that will fill it—a remote skylight system that redirects light underground thorough a maze of optic tubes and diffuses it over a canopy to produce a subterranean environment where plants can grow and flourish (phew!). 6sqft recently took a private tour of the Lowline Lab alongside James, and he gave us some insight into the science, as well how he and Dan are approaching the challenges that come with bringing a park below ground to life. We of course asked all those questions you've been wondering about, like: Who's paying for this whole thing? And what about the rats?
Read our interview with James here
October 26, 2015

The Man Behind the Great Jack-o’-Lantern Blaze; Tour Gracie Mansion’s New Art Collection

In anticipation of its move from its 57-year, landmarked home at the Seagram Building, the Four Seasons restaurant is putting together a book of patrons’ memories. [NYP] Meet the creative director behind the Great Jack-o’-Lantern Blaze, which will feature 7,000 real and foam pumpkins this year. [NYT] Gracie Mansion reopend for public tours this Sunday. […]

October 22, 2015

Historic Charlie Parker Townhouse in Alphabet City Hits the Market for $9M

From 1950 to 1954 jazz legend Charlie "Bird" Parker, along with his common-law wife Chan Richardson, lived in the garden-floor apartment at this townhouse at 151 Avenue B in Alphabet City. It was here, at the height of his career, that Parker and his family would share Sunday dinners at a dining table shaped like a G clef, but according to his stepdaughter Kim Parker, the saxophonist liked to keep work and personal life separate, so only classical music was played in the house. In honor of the music great, Avenue B between 7th and 10th Streets was renamed Charlie Parker Place in 1992, and the historic 1849 Gothic Revival house was landmarked in 1999. And now you can own a piece of this history, as the Post reports that the home and its five apartments has hit the market for $9.25 million.
Learn more about the Charlie Parker Residence
October 21, 2015

A Behind the Scenes Look at How SHoP’s Stunning Facade at 111 West 57th Street Will Come to Life

Last month, JDS Development wowed us with an image showing a visual curtain wall mockup of their super-tower underway at 111 West 57th Street. Now the Michael Stern-led development team in partnership with Property Markets Group has released a new video and a handful of images to keep our mouths watering for what is poised to become New York's most daring skyscraper in generations. Designed by the local talents at ShoP Architects, the tower has already nervously impressed us with its extraordinary height of 1,438 feet and its jaw-dropping slenderness (a ratio of 1:24). Now that its engineers, the WSP Group, and the Times have thoroughly convinced us that the building will not fall over, we can focus our attention on the tower's elegantly detailed facade, composed of a feathery mix of terra-cotta, bronze, and glass. A recent video posted by JDS provides us with more glimpses of the cladding, a time-lapse video of how the facade will transform throughout the day, as well as some behind-the-scenes insight of the extraordinary undertaking involved to sheath this future landmark.
Watch the video and get more details
October 15, 2015

Beastie Boy Mike D Gets $5.5M for Fun and Funky Cobble Hill Townhouse

The Post reports that Beastie Boy Mike D (Michael Diamond) has sold his fun and funky Cobble Hill townhouse for $5.5 million, just $150,000 under the asking price. He and his wife Tamra Davis (a cookbook author, online cooking show host, and music video director) bought the four story, five-bedroom home back in 2011 for $3.1 million and then undertook a quirky yet modern renovation. Thanks to custom design details like Brooklyn toile wallpaper, sculptural hanging kitchen shelves, a giant mirrored swing in the bedroom, and an enormous master bath, the Italianate home was featured in several publications, including a New York Times house tour titled “Licensed to Grill.” And now, all of Mike D's hard work has paid off with a pretty nice profit.
Take the full tour
October 14, 2015

Spiffed-Up Williamsburg Loft Has Killer Views and Brilliant Built-Ins for $6,500 a Month

Williamsburg was once a neighborhood known for its big, open loft spaces. While those lofts may have gone condo and acquired dog-washing stations and compost centers, they’re still very much in existence. Case in point: this cavernous loft in the totally 21st century Esquire Lofts at 330 Wythe Avenue, just a hair south of the 'burg's decidedly factory-to-fancy Northside, on the rental market for $6,500 a month. This impressive space in a former shoe polish factory–built in 1914 and converted to condos in 2000–is listed as a one-bedroom, but it’s a duplex (in the loft sense of the word), and though there’s no floor plan, it claims a sizable 1,600 square feet. One of the best things about lofts–even well-groomed ones–is that no two are alike; former residents have carved out unique living and sometimes working spaces, and this is no exception. The standout feature here would have to be that custom-milled raised wooden storage platform.
See what else is cool in this loft
October 13, 2015

10 Imaginative and Inexpensive Ways to Frame Your Favorite Art

If you're familiar with 6sqft's post 10 Great Places to Buy Affordable Art in New York City, then you're probably now considering framing your new acquired artwork. Whether you are trying to get something framed, or you have a collection of frames just lying around, knowing how to approach the framing process will help make sure that your home decor and your efforts are on point. From where to find great frames on the cheap to creating your very own DIY editions from materials bought at your local hardware store, 6sqft has rounded up some inventive and inexpensive options to help you decorate your walls.
Start framing here
October 13, 2015

252 East 57th Street Tops Off Construction Ten Years After Innovative Public-Private Partnership

Soaring more than 700 feet into the Midtown East skyline, World Wide Group and Rose Associate's 252 East 57th Street has officially topped out. Yes, it's hard being a stand-out skyscraper in Manhattan these days; some 30 years ago, the tower would have been the highest apartment tower in the city, just besting Trump Tower and Olympic Tower on Fifth Avenue. Today, the 57-story building is the shortest and eastern-most of six super-towers underway along the southern periphery of Central Park that have been raising average building heights and asking prices to new levels.
More details ahead
October 12, 2015

Supertall Towers Getting Multimillion-Dollar Antenna Systems to Ensure Good Cell Reception

"If I can't text, I'm moving" is the title of a New York Times article that looks at the growing issue of cell phone reception in supertall towers. Of course, the main problem arises in sky-high units that are above cell tower antennas or are in the path of other signals, but new construction methods are also getting in the way. Thick concrete walls, reinforced steel floors, and low-emission windows all can weaken, if not altogether block, wireless signals. "To correct this issue, developers are installing elaborate in-house wireless networks to boost coverage within projects ranging from new rental towers in Williamsburg, Brooklyn to condominium conversions in the 1913 Woolworth Building in Manhattan," the paper explains.
More on the trend
October 9, 2015

NY Historical Society Opening a Women’s History Center; Buy Fall Leaves From New England for $20

The New-York Historical Society plans to open the Center for the Study of Women’s History in early 2017 on the building’s fourth floor. It will cost $31 million. [NYT] Portraits of nine NYC carriage drivers and their horses. [DI] Fashion designer Rachel Roy picks two local foodie entrepreneurs, one being Jessica Siskin of Misterkrisp, to model her new […]

October 9, 2015

Construction and Sales Begin on SCDA’s Billionaires’ Row Tower, 118 East 59th Street

Construction and sales have commenced on a glass-encased, 500-foot-tall condominium tower at 118 East 59th Street developed by Euro Properties and designed by Soo K. Chan of SCDA Architects. Situated mid block between Park and Lexington Avenues, the tower is surrounded by the crème de la crème of New York real estate, positioned within the nexus of several high-value locales: The Plaza District, home to the GM Building, commands the city's top office rents; nearby shopping stretches of Fifth and Madison Avenues hold the world's most coveted retail corners; and a one-mile long, super-luxury residential corridor, nicknamed Billionaires' Row, straddles the southern bounds of Central Park and is set to reshape the city skyline into a trophy shelf of wealth.
More details ahead
October 7, 2015

This $635K Washington Heights Co-op Is a Ground Floor Opportunity With Lofty Ambitions

At first glance, the price of this 1,245-square-foot well-configured and loft-like co-op in Washington Heights looks like a pretty good deal. The same spot in the parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn where one usually finds sprawling industrial-chic lofts would undoubtedly be several times more than the $635,000 ask. Upon further inspection, it becomes evident that this apartment at 447 Fort Washington Avenue occupies the building's basement. We're assuming it's been excavated enough to be legal, but even the listing prepares us for the fact that "...this lower first floor garden apartment is sublimely peaceful with no neighbors above, below or beside." It's certainly a nice-looking lower first floor garden apartment, though. In addition to the no-neighbors-because-it's-the-basement thing, keep in mind that the neighborhood is known as a no-longer-secret spot to find relatively reasonable real estate in NYC; the Times called it "affordable Manhattan," pointing out that the median price for apartments in Washington Heights was less than $500,000 in Q1 of 2015. On the other hand, a similarly-outfitted, though much larger, Cobble Hill duplex condo loft consisting of a ground floor and basement is listed for $2.85 million. So perhaps this lofty lower lair in upper Manhattan deserves further investigation after all.
Take a look around
October 6, 2015

$4M Chelsea Loft Boasts Tons of Stylish Space Inside and Out

This Chelsea co-op, located at 139 West 19th Street, has got lots of things going for it: it's super stylish, has some great interior details, there's an expansive living room along with two full bedrooms and bathrooms, and it has a huge backyard that will incite envy. It's also located in a charming central location on 19th Street between 6th and 7th avenues. The cost for all this good stuff comes in at $3.895 million.
Take the tour
October 5, 2015

$20M Tribeca Penthouse Has a 25-Foot Skylight, a Heavenly Terrace and an Industrial Past

Designed in 1887 for a wrapping paper manufacturer by architect Albert Wagner, who also designed the iconic Puck Building, 140 Franklin Street was converted to a 12-unit boutique residential condominium at the turn of the 21st century. Considered one of the city's most handsome Romanesque Revival-style buildings, it's a study in enviable contrasts; apartments have original cast iron columns, for example, and the building boasts a state-of-the-art water filtration system. Notable neighbors: J. Crew CEO Mickey Drexler has an apartment on the fifth floor that he put on the market earlier this year for $35 million. To help put this super-fancy loft–and its fancy price of $19.95 million–in context: Penthouse A was designed for the building conversion's developer; it's on the market for the first time since the building was converted. There are 5,000 square feet of interior space on two floors, plus a spectacular 2,200 square-foot roof terrace. The unit is listed as having only seven rooms, but many of them are the kind of oversized loft space to which the term "room" almost doesn't apply.
More penthouse this way
October 5, 2015

The Evolution of Adam Purple’s Concentric Garden on the LES; NYC Teens Can’t Get Enough of ‘Friends’

Seven secrets of NYC tunnels you probably haven’t heard of. [Untapped] From 1975-1980, activist Adam Purple built a concentric garden on the Lower East Side that would eventually grow to 15,000 square feet. Called the Garden of Eden, it was a safe community space and also produced food. [Colossal] This cactus chair will have you sitting […]