These Beautiful, Intricate Drawings Capture NYC Landmarks
This may be stating the obvious, but the buildings of New York City are pretty amazing. We all love looking at them—heck, we'll even pay $32 to get a better view—and artists can't stop drawing them. This new batch of drawings comes courtesy Farago Design, a firm that was commissioned by the Downtown Alliance to capture the rooftops of landmarks in Lower Manhattan. Peter Farago worked with Linda Dienst, the VP of Marketing and Communications at the Alliance, to choose 30 buildings worthy of depiction, and he set out to draw them all. He explains the process in a recent blog post, and for most of his research, he "rode elevators as high as they would go, climbed stairways to rooftops, and leaned over parapets making sketches or shooting photos while Linda or my wife, Victoria, held onto [his] belt."
City's Tallest Crane Arrives To Build Its Skinniest Tower
The city's tallest freestanding crane ever has arrived at 111 West 57th Street, meaning that things are about to start going down—or rather, up—at the site of JDS's Billionaires Row supertall. Work has been ongoing on the slender, SHoP-designed building's base, which incorporates the on-site interior landmark Steinway Hall. But the arrival of the 220-foot-tall crane, first noted by YIMBY, means the building will finally begin its 1,428 foot ascent. When complete, the tower will be a slight 60 feet across. For context, that's roughly one third the length of an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
Blame Commuters For Making New York City So Crowded
E.B. White's seminal work, "Here is New York," famously describesthree types of city dwellers: the natives; the commuters; and the transplants. As the map above proves, that second population makes up a visibly massive percentage of the people who roam the streets and occupy the buildings of Manhattan and Brooklyn every (week)day. Created by Joe Lertola in 2007 and most recently covered by 6sqft, its resurfacing was prompted by a tweet from Amazing Maps. It's telling in that it elucidates the city's truly residential neighborhoods.
Cathedral-Blocking Rental Towers Reach Full Height
Field Condition headed over to the site of the two Brodsky Organization-developed rentals towers at 1047 Amsterdam Avenue, dubbed Enclave at the Cathedral, where the conjoined buildings have topped out at 15 stories apiece. The towers controversially sit right in front of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, rendering it all but invisible from the north much to the chagrin of local preservationists and archicritics like Michael Kimmelman and Justin Davidson. When completed, the buildings will have a combined 428 rental units, as well as a gallery that connects them. They are expected to be finished in 2016.
This Penthouse Practically Touches the Queensboro Bridge
The former Gnome Bakers building at 316 East 59th Street, a Cornerspotter from last year, has undergone an apparently recent residential conversation, and the penthouse is now on the rental market asking $14,000 per month. It is definitely a unique place and has that whole factory-conversion vibe going on, with soaring ceilings and exposed brick and pipes. It's very charming overall, though still not as charming as it was in the 1930s when it sported a large gnome statue eating papier-mâché bread out front. Since Gnome Bakers when bankrupt in the early '30s, the building, which pokes up adorably next to the Queensboro Bridge, has been home to businesses ranging from an exterminator to a kitchen furnishing store.
Rescuers Respond After Bed-Stuy Tenement Building Collapses
Brooklyn: 1455 Fulton Street. 10-60 transmitted for a building collapse. 1 injured. Photos @CamBautistapic.twitter.com/5OGX91lpj6
— New York City Alerts (@NYCityAlerts) July 14, 2015
A four-story tenement building on Fulton Street in Bed-Stuy collapsed earlier this afternoon, leaving rescue teams scrambling to get to the site to search for injured people and transportation snarled in the surrounding areas. According to Property Shark, 1438 Fulton Street, near Tompkins Avenue, was built in 1910; it contained five apartmentsand a retail space at the bottom. It was apparently empty, but rescuers are going to search the precious structure that remains as well as rubble. They are currently investigating whether any passersby were injured. Current reports vary, putting the number of injuries anywhere between zero and three people, so stay tuned. For now, the A and C trains are running with modified service, and some of the roads around the collapse will be blocked off.
Aby Rosen Puts 190 Bowery Up For Sale In Apparent Flip
Aby Rosen doesn't really seem like the kind of guy who can't take the heat in the kitchen (because, let's be honest, he's the subject of a lot of heat), so it's kind of surprising that the stone-cold millionaire has turned around and put the development that's been bringing him the most attention in months past right back on the market. A tipster pointed out that the developer is taking offers for 190 Bowery, which might mean that Rosen's just been in it for the clams all along. Or, being that the property's listing says it'll be "delivered vacant,"maybe his deal with the consortium of companies that planned to rent floors two through six fell through, leaving him scot free to probably make a couple million.
JFK's Pet Terminal Will Feature Horse Showers, 'Poo Chute'
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More details have been revealed about The Ark, the JFK Airport's new luxury terminal for pets, livestock, and zoo animals, and the features of the 178,000-square-foot facility range from the ingenuous to the ridiculous. On the former end of the spectrum is the "poo chute," an angled floor in the cattle pen that allows manure to slide into a receptacle below. On the latter end is the $100/night "top-dog suite," which features a flatscreen TV, a human-sized bed, and a framed photo of the customer's choosing, "to make your pet feel even more at home." Other features include, in no particular order:
· 70 horse stalls with soft floors (so the horses don't irritate their hooves)
· a walking track for the horses
· equine showers
· private space for penguins because "they need to mate all the time"
· a walking track for the horses
· equine showers
· private space for penguins because "they need to mate all the time"
Ben Shaoul Revokes Roof Rights at Pricey East Village Rentals
[Images via EV Grieve.]
Ben "The Sledgehammer" Shaoul might be in for an appendage to his rather apt nickname: Fun Hater. The notorious East Village landlord has put the kibosh on fun-having on the rooftop of his Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation-turned-Frat House apartment complex Bloom 62 on East 5th Street and Avenue B. According to a 10-page memo (!!!) issued by the building's management company that was icked up by EV Grieve, Bloom 62's roof is closed, effective immediately, due to the "destruction of private property" which includes activities that "left the amenity space looted" with errant graffiti, tabletops full of empty beer bottles, and other traces of things that kids who pay an average of nearly $5,000 rent per month are into. The management company included pictures in the memo, and they do not disappoint (and also substantiate that some building residents were being total jerks.)
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Utterly Charming 130-Year-Old Mansion Costs Only $785,000
Welcome back to The Six Digit Club, in which we take a look at a newish-to-market listing priced under $1 million, because nice things sometimes come in small packages. Send nominations to the tipline.
From the looks of it, this Stapleton mansion is perfectly respectable; charming, even, with its mansard slate roof, big front porch, and New York Harbor views. So it seems dubious that the six-bedroom home, which dates all the way back to 1887 but looks to be in pretty good health, is only asking $785,000. Yes, it's on Staten Island, but still: the property's six-digit ask is sort of unheard of, and much less charming Staten Island mansions have asked way more in the past. The house at 351 St Pauls Avenue has been owned by the same family for 47 years. Now it's on to the next one—which, let's be real, will probably be a young couple priced out of Brooklyn.
Long-Abandoned Bronx Courthouse Will Reopen in 2017
[Photo by Nathan Kensinger.]
Until the arts group No Longer Empty opened up the Old Bronx Borough Courthouse with an installation in April, the grand landmark had been boarded up and abandoned since 1978. The art show has renewed interest in the building, and according to the Times, this is exactly what owner Henry Weinstein hoped for. "I think the building was very standoffish to the community because it's been closed for so many years," Weinstein told the Times. "We wanted a way to reintroduce the building to the community." Weinstein has owned the building since 1998, but he only recently began a $10 million renovation, the details of which have been largely unknown. It's still undecided what the courthouse will be used for, but the art show has prompted interest from "more than a dozen" parties, including schools, businesses, and community groups. Weinstein said the makeover was long-delayed because of the economy, and he hopes to permanently reopen the building by 2017.
See Teddy Roosevelt's Sagamore Hill After a $10M Restoration
[The library at Sagamore Hill, Theodore Roosevelt's Oyster Bay, N.Y. residence that just underwent a $10 million restoration. All photos via the National Park Service unless otherwise noted.]
One of the final things uttered by President Theodore Roosevelt as he lay ill in bed in January 1919 was an aside to his wife, Edith: "I wonder if you will ever know how I love Sagamore Hill." A refuge for the popular leader that helped him reconnect with his childhood and, when needed, avoid the glare of the media, his Long Island home recently reopened its doors to the public this past Sunday, after undergoing an extensive restoration project overseen by the National Park Service. While it's impossible to appreciate the man's love for the only place he ever owned, the detailed renovation has given visitors an opportunity to see the sprawling family home in pristine condition, one that reflects the gregarious leader and his eclectic life.
"The goal was to protect the house first, and his collection second," says Susan Sarna, museum curator at the Sagamore Hill National Historic Site. "We were awarded the money for the restoration in 2008, and spent three years studying how to best preserve the house before we even started to pack the objects."
Vacant Midtown Office Building Will Become 'High-End' Condos
Office-to-condo conversions are creeping up on the zillions of rental-to-condo conversions in trendiness. Or, at least, in sheer number. Add one more to the list, as Isaac Chetrit (cousin to bigwig developer Joseph) and Jacob Aini just bought a building near Penn Station for $43 million in a bankruptcy auction. (In which the bidding started at $23 million.) The 14-story tower, with 63,000 square feet of space, is empty and gutted; it's been in limbo for years because of —get this—a spelling error. The new owners are aiming to "close on the purchase in the next two weeks and subsequently convert the property into high-end residential condominiums." Shocker. The 1927-built structure has some nice setbacks towards the top, and we bet Chetrit and Aini are rubbing their hands together and thinking, "Mmmmm. Penthouses with private outdoor space."
Model Gigi Hadid, Allegedly Run Out Of NYC, Lists $2.5M Pad
Supermodel Gigi Hadid, daughter of "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" star Yolanda Foster Hadid and one of Taylor Swift's best friends, has put her two-bedroom apartment in the Adjmi & Andreoli-designed condo building 250 Bowery on the market, asking $2.45 million. Hadid purchased the unit just last year, paying $1.92 million, and though the Daily News and the Post posit that her reasons for selling have to do with a stalker who keeps showing up at the building, a rep told the Daily News that the listing is "completely unrelated."
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