There’s a gorgeous new penthouse available at 215 East 22^nd Street, right in the heart of coveted Gramercy Park. Interior designer Joseph D’Urso went for a minimalist industrial take on this duplex, which is part of the Gramercy Habitat condominium. And with rich wood to add warmth, this lofty $3.35 million condo is a surefire winner.

More pics inside

Actress Noelle Beck and her husband Eric Petterson are looking to unload their stunning four-story townhouse on Stuyvesant Square for $17 million. To give that price tag some perspective, the couple purchased the home in 1997 for just $1.6 million. That’s right, if all goes according to plan, these two could walk away with close to 20 times the amount they paid for their Gramercy pad. Now, how’s that for a dramatic plot twist?

Take a look inside here

For the vast majority of New Yorkers, the closest look they’ve gotten into Gramercy Park is peering through the perimeter wrought iron gates. As one of the most elite and inaccessible outdoor spaces in the city, only those who live in dwellings circling the park have keyed access via an annual fee. That is, until now. Thanks to a rule-breaking Airbnb-er, the world can now revel in the verdant splendor that is Gramercy Park.

Find out how this guy got all the snaps

• Get weather and train updates via text or e-mail when you wake up and when you leave work with PONCHO.
• Ephemeral New York reminds us of the beautiful fortress in Gramercy Park.
• “I’ll be there for youu!” Metro New York reports that Central Perk, the fictional cafe in Friends, is now open in Soho to celebrate 20 years since the famous 90s show premiered on television. Oh yeah, did we mention the coffee is free?!
• Four smartphone app start-ups took home a big cash prize yesterday at the fifth annual NYC BigApps competition. The contest was to develop an app that would make NYC life better. See the list of winners on AM New York.

Images: Central Perk logo via Friends Wikia (left); Mayor de Blasio presents prize to Heat Seeker team at BigApps by Agaton Strom for AM New York (right)

If you’re looking for a pied-a-terre in the coveted historic Gramercy Park, you’re in luck. An adorable one-bedroom penthouse at 206 East 18^th Street has just popped up on the market, and it’s the perfect setting for anything from dinner parties to book club. This charming pad won us over with a lovely skylit living room, so we had to take a look inside to see what else it has in store.

Take a look inside the cozy pad, here

Actress Julia Stiles may not make the news much these days, but she found her way into Variety over the weekend with the sale of her Gramercy duplex apartment. The three-bedroom pad, which sits in a six-unit brownstone building at 310 East 15th Street directly across from historic Stuyvesant Square, was placed on the market last summer for $3.5 million. While the apartment saw a price chop just a few months after being listed, Stiles still managed to finagle $2.7 million from a less than famous buyer—a pretty nice profit considering she originally paid $1.995 million for the unit 10 years ago.

Take a look inside Stiles’ former digs

• Our list of architectural saviors includes sites saved from the wrecking ball, as well as those that have remained intact and been adaptively reused.
• We looked at the history of Herald Square AND Gramercy Park (it was a nostalgic kind of week).
• Floorplans of the Woolworth Building’s $110 million ‘Pinnacle’ penthouse were revealed, making it one of the most expensive listings to ever hit the downtown market at $11,700 per square foot.
• Morpholio’s innovative Mood Board app lets you design your entire apartment on an iPad (think Pinterest on steroids).
• Created by New York-based architecture firm Gluck+, the contemporary Tower House is both a viewing platform and functional home, sitting atop a plateau on a 19-acre Ulster County property.
• A Soho loft sold for $4.7 million; it’s the second taxidermy-filled apartment we’ve encountered this summer.

Images: Mood Board App © The Morpholio Project (left); Tower House © Gluck+ (right)

Forget the legendary and uber-privileged access to the oasis known as Gramercy Park. The newest wave of private gardens are apparently so exclusive even residents can’t enjoy a stroll through the lush greenery.

Take the 2,400-square-foot courtyard currently being designed at The Sterling Mason, a new Tribeca loft building where an apartment can set you back up to $24 million. In a city where even the tiniest bit of green space is viewed as the ultimate amenity, turning what would have been a barren airshaft into a verdant outdoor sanctuary seems like a terrific idea. Tapping Deborah Nevins, one of the world’s most sought-after landscape designers to do it, an even better one. Keeping residents from enjoying more than a visual inspection of the rich white blossoms, lush green leaves, ivy walls and sculptural stream? Eh, we’re not so sure about that.

What’s up with this off limits trend?