Queens House Is Uninviting on the Outside, Party on the Inside
Our semi-regular feature, Monday Mansion, examines the most interesting mega homes on the market in the far reaches of New York. Have a listing in mind that we're missing? Tell us about it. To the outer boroughs we go!
At first glance, this four-bedroom, four-bathroom home in Jamaica Estates is all harsh angles and clashing colors and dissonant window sizes. But open the door. Take a good, hard look at its incredibly shiny interiors, which tell another story. A more aggressive story. Probably a story from a decade that has passed. Fancy a grand piano and a sunken dance floor? A pool table and fully stocked bar in a basement den of debauchery? A black- and red-tiled hot tub, sauna, and steam roomset-up? Mirrored walls galore? All of the above can be yours—for a mere $1.69 million.
Bask In the Glory of 117 Instagrams of the #NewWhitney
After securing a pre-scheduled ticket, paying the $22 admission fee, and undertaking the trek to 99 Gansevoort, the public finally made its way into the brand-new, long-awaited Whitney Museum of American Art on May 1, 2015. Nestled between the Hudson River and the High Line, the Whitney is an impressive $422 million bauble in Manhattan's Meatpacking District. Like an heiress to Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's fortune, the #NewWhitney has opened with all the pomp and circumstance of a well-heeled debutante ball. In just one week, actress Chloë Sevigny and musician Le1f made appearances, First Lady Michelle Obama cut a ceremonial ribbon, and fashion brand Max Mara custom-designed a luxury handbag for the occasion.
But how did the common people celebrate the new building? The clear answer is: They took a photo of it. So far, the Whitney has been greeted by 6,205 Instagrams, 1,605 likes on Facebook, and an untold number of tweets. It's the most social museum ever—and we have the proof.
$500/Month Studios Exist in an Unrezoned East New York
The city is on the verge of rezoning East New York, and with that rezoning comes the implied promise of gentrification and exploding prices, and the explicit-but-who-knows-if-it-will-really-happen promise of lots more newly developed affordable housing. (UPDATE:The East New York rezoning plan, according to the Department of City Planning, actually includes both preserving existing affordable units and making building new ones mandatory.) When it's optional, affordable housing is often promised by developers and then neglected when push comes to shove. But Mayor de Blasio is committed enough to the cause that some, such as super-luxury architect Robert A.M. Stern, are worried that so much of it will be built as to turn East New York into "the re-creation of a kind of large-scale poor district." This doesn't seem incredibly likely.
Affordable housing seekers in Brooklyn may not have to wait for the rezoning, though, because the lottery just opened for 223 affordable units in four new buildings at 481 Williams Avenue, 491 Sheffield Avenue, 494 Georgia Avenue, and 494 Sheffield Avenue.
A Treehouse and Lush Gardens Grow in Brownstone Brooklyn
Welcome to House Calls, a new feature in which Curbed tours New Yorkers' lovely, offbeat, or otherwise awesome homes. Think your space should be featured next? Drop us a line.
Gennaro Brooks-Church purchased his Carroll Gardens townhouse in 2008, as he says, amidst the first wave of gentrification that these days courses through the neighborhood. "I was the dumb guy who bought the most expensive house on the block," Brooks-Church recalls of his buy, which was immediately followed by the crash and recession. As a result, Brooks-Church was left with limited resources: his two hands, an acute interest in natural building, and a respect for his surroundings that would mediate the townhouse's renovation.
This Building's Successor Serves the Same Purpose Today
Welcome back to Cornerspotter, Curbed's game in which you try to identify the location of a particular building or streetscape in a historic photograph. Impress us and your fellow Curbed readers with your uncanny insight into New York City and its past!
Built in the 1860s nor far from the waterfront, this building filled an important need for neighborhood residents and was just one of many like it in this particular area. Its replacement, built in the 1920s and still standing to this day, serves the same purpose, even though the tenant has changed. Name the building and its location.
· Cornerspotter archives [Curbed]
· Cornerspotter archives [Curbed]
Huge Times Square Billboards May Be Nixed for 'Beautification'
[Stuart Monk / Shutterstock]
A seemingly unnecessary battle is underway in Times Square, and it could result in the tourist trap area losing its iconic billboards. Capital NY reports that the Department of Transportation is under federal pressure to remove the massive billboards that hang along Broadway and Seventh Avenue because they exceed the 1965 Highway Beautification Act, which limits signage within 660 feet of a highway to 1,200 square feet. Up until a few years ago, the roadways were not under the jurisdiction of the act, but the 2012 transportation spending act MAP-21 placed a bunch of new roads on the National Highways System, including Broadway and Seventh Avenue. These roads now must meet federal requirements or the government will take away 10 percent of a state's highway funds.
'Posh' Condos in Old Cabrini Medical Center To Start at $1.3M
[Left: 215 East 19th Street. Right: 225 East 19th Street. Renderings by Woods Bagot.]
The former Cabrini Medical Center is well on its way to starting its new life as condos, and representatives for the development say those condos will hit the market this summer, with prices starting at $1.3 million. New renderings recently gave a closer look at each of the development's four buildings, and a teaser site clarifies their addresses and locations, and provides a flowery description of the 223 apartments: "Gracious studio to four bedroom condominium residences. Posh garden homes and dramatic penthouses." Expect duplexes, full-floor homes, maisonettes, and penthouses with large terraces. The project, named Gramercy Square, will also have a 25,000-square-foot courtyard designed by Rick Parisi of M. Paul Friedberg and Partners, the same team that designed the courtyard for the Greenwich Lane.
Landlord Fights 91-Year-Old Tenant Over Rent-Stabilized Pad
BLDG Management founder Lloyd Goldman has been accused by the daughter of one of his tenants, 91-year-old former opera singer Ruth Berk, of getting Berk declared incompetent and placed in a nursing home against her will in order to get her rent-stabilized apartment in 95 Christopher Street in the West Village. Berk was removed from her apartment in 2013 after an anonymous call to Adult Protective Services (that her daughter and lawyer say must have come from the landlord) and was just returned there after a judge ruled that she was competent. (Berk reportedly wowed the judge by singing "Summertime" and "My Funny Valentine.")
Brooklyn's Tallest Tower-To-Be Unveils Rentals From $2,890
- [Photos via Ava DoBro's website.]
32 IMAGES
AvalonBay's massive new rental tower, which will be the tallest in Brooklyn when it is complete, has just unleashed a slew of interior renderings, floorplans and pricing for the first batch of its mind-boggling 861 units. Brownstoner first reported the reveal. Formerly called Avalon Willoughby West, it has been renamed Ava DoBro. The 575-foot, 58-story building has so far only released units up to the sixth floor, with move-ins projected for August 14 and later. Now for the good stuff: studios start at $2,890; one-bedrooms at $3,300; two-beds at $4,185; and three-beds at $5,625. The glass facade of the SLCE-designed building is currently rising.
POPULAR
Are Warren Buffett's Neighbors Forcing Him to Buy Their House?
Warren Buffett's across-the-street-neighbors in Omaha, Nebraska are not above using their celebrity-adjacent location to help sell their home. Actually, "not above" is quite the understatement—the neighbors, Phil and Anne Huston, have created a website called www.livenexttowarrenbuffet.com (complete with photos labeled "THIS IS WARREN'S HOUSE") and their asking price is 10 shares of Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett's company. The message seems clear. Either Buffett can buy the house, for more than it's probably worth, or the Hustons will sell to one of his fanatical shareholders who will spend all day pretending to mow the front lawn in hopes of being able to engage the Oracle of Omaha in conversation. It's the rare case of real life turning out to be even worse than an Onion article.
15 Central Park West Two-Bedroom Wants 'Only' $7 Million
A two-bedroom apartment on the eighth floor of 15 Central Park Westhas been listed for $7 million, a notably small amount for the famously expensive Robert A.M. Stern-designed building. The unit was purchased for $2.6 million in 2007 by a couple, Miami-based real estate person Z. Richard Mecik and Marina Martsyalene, the general manager of an airport equipment supplier, according to Michael Gross, the Varys of 15 CPW. The apartment, though cheap by the building's standards, is still asking over $5,000 per square foot, as is customary for the Limestone Jesus. The other two units currently listed are a larger $10.9 million two-bedroom and another two-bedroom on the 30th floor, asking $26 million, over $10,000 per square foot.
Stabilized Queens Tenants Finally Win 'Poor Fence' War
After ringing the alarm on a "poor fence" debacle playing out at a Long Island City rental building, stabilized tenants whose gigantic terrace was quartered off by a DMZ-style fence have won the war. The Postreports that couple Erik Clancy and Erin McFadzen have successfully lobbied Q41 developer Queensboro Development to remove the wire partitions that they claimed were installed to thwart instances of "porch envy" amongst market-rate tenants in the building. "Every time someone comes over, I have to explain why the fence is there . . . and tell them we're rent stabilized, like it's a badge I have to wear," McFadzen told the Post before the issue was resolved.
$18M Soho Penthouse Includes Terrace by High Line Designer
A swanky four-bedroom, 4.5-bathroom penthouse with a wraparound terrace just hit the market for an even $18 million. But this isn't just any outdoor space—it's designed by Dutch landscape designer Piet Oudolf of High Line fame. The seller is Beth Swofford, a "CAA motion picture literary uber-agent" who is also getting rid of her Sunset Strip home in LA. (The New York digs are waaaaaay more expensive.) Swofford bought at the swanky Soho Mews building in 2010—where Justin Timberlake once had a place—paying "just" $9.975 million.
Squibb Park Bridge Will Reopen By Late Spring, Hopefully
[Squibb Park Bridge in March, via Brooklyn Heights Blog]
When Squibb Park Bridge finally reopens, the bouncy wooden walkway will not be quite as bouncy. The 400-foot-long, zig-zagging bridge, which connects the Brooklyn Heights promenade to Brooklyn Bridge Park, closed last August after its bounce became too much, and repairs will likely lessen the bounce permanently. The bridge had only been opened for 17 months before it closed, and park officials still don't know what went wrong, though a spokesperson for the park told the New York Times that they believe it is a "misalignment" issue. Engineers are currently "pulling it back into alignment and testing it, section by section," but they still can't say when it could reopen. In the fall, they said spring, and now that spring is underway, officials say it will be late spring.
Robert De Niro Spent Two Years in This Lavish $40M Penthouse
Although, according to a Curbed commenter, the current owner of Perry Street's flashy glass-floored penthouse is "not a celebrity," the Post reports that it was at one time home to one of the most recognizable celebrities of them all: Robert De Niro. The Post says the real estate aficionado and veteran actor posted up in the $39.5 million digs on Perry Street following a 2012 fire that caused significant damage to his 88 Central Park West apartment. De Niro lived in the duplex penthouse at 165 Perry Street for two years prior to his ongoing stay in A-Rod's former apartment at 15 Central Park West. The actor and wife Grace Hightower continue to wait it out uptown, without the benefit of a seven-car garage, as their Brentmore apartment gets made anew.
SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER
FOLLOW CURBED NY
See On
- What It Takes to Restore a 1929 Brooklyn 'Wonder Theater'
- How Ice Skating Made Fifth Avenue a Fashionable Destination
- Bleecker Street's Evolution From Sleepy Suburb to America's Left Bank
- Following Hook Creek Through Ghost Towns and Wetlands
- How Brooklyn Heights Became the City's First Historic District
- Remembering the Grand Spectacle of the 1939 World's Fair
- The Strange History of the East Village's Most Famous Street
- The Battle Over NYC's Folk Art Museum, Now Lost to MoMA
- How SHoP Became NYC's Go-To Megaproject Architects
- Tracing Three Centuries of Williamsburg's Bedford Avenue
- A 24-Hour Stay on the Rapidly Changing Governors Island
- The Gilded Age Origins of New York City's Rooftop Gardens
- How NYC's Decade of Rezoning Changed the City of Industry
Your answer to the question, "Where should I stay in New York City?"
NEWS BY NEIGHBORHOOD
MASTHEAD
- Senior EditorHana Alberts
- Senior EditorJessica Dailey
- EditorJeremiah Budin
- Associate EditorZoe Rosenberg
- Features EditorSara Polsky
- Weekend EditorRowley Amato
- PhotographyWill Femia
- PhotographyMax Touhey
- PublisherVox Media
MONTHLY ARCHIVES
All archivesFROM OUR PARTNERS
PREFERENCES
Open external links in new tabs?
Get daily updates and breaking news alerts from Curbed NY delivered straight to your inbox:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please leave a comment-- or suggestions, particularly of topics and places you'd like to see covered