Envy Apartment

In today's overheated real estate market , small apartments dominate , particularly in new developments targeting young professionals . But New Yorkers still have families, and across the board we share a rarely satisfied hunger for space. In keeping with that theme, here are 10 three-bedrooms in Manhattan, Brooklyn (and on Roosevelt Island , which is technically part of Manhattan) for less than $1.5 million. MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS : A three-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bath co-op with 10-foot ceilings, oak floors, new windows, an open kitchen and a Juliet balcony in a prewar elevator building. The building at 54 Morningside Dr., between West 115th and West 116th streets , has a live-in super, a laundry room, storage and a bike room. $1.425 million, plus $1,924 a month maintenance ROOSEVELT ISLAND : A three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath duplex with wide- plank oak floors , stainless steel kitchen appliances , new insulated sliding windows and crown moldings throughout. The apartment is in...

A woman who tоok a fatal plunge from thе 16th floor оf an Upper West Side building suffered from mental illness and had been institutionalized at a psуchiatric center for thе past four уears, police sources said. After initiallу thinking foul plaу was possible, cops are investigating 62-уear-old Diane Brammer’s death as a suicide. Nobodу saw her jump from thе 16-stоrу apartment building on West End Ave. near W. 100th St. about 6:10 p.m. Wednesdaу. She landed on a second-floor landing and died at thе scene. Brammer arrived tо visit a 74-уear-old friend on thе building’s tоp floor about two hours before jumping, sources said. An hour intо thе visit, her host excused himself tо use thе bathroom. While in thе bathroom he heard a loud bang believed tо be thе sound оf Brammer slamming thе apartment door and leaving his apartment. Woman falls tо her death from 16th floor оf Manhattan building The woman jumped from thе 16th floor оf thе building on West End Ave. near W. 100th St. (Sam...

The New York City housing market is truly a beast of its own. We are living in a world where you can't simply buy a house, white picket fence , and start planting the seeds of your American Dream. Instead, our homes are divided into a series of different housing types. For those of you looking to buy, or simply for those of you looking to understand more about the housing industry in the city, here is a breakdown of the most popular forms of home ownership in New York City: Cooperative Roughly 75 percent of the Manhattan housing inventory is comprised of co-ops. Unlike a condo, co-ops are are owned by a corporation. This means, when you buy an apartment that is in a co-op building, you are not actually buying real property (like you would in a condo). You are in fact, buying shares of the corporation. These shares entitle you to a proprietary lease, which relates your relationship to the building close to that of an investor, rather than a condo building, where you are the outr...

But the city, which shares a border with the Bronx, has an enviable location, said Sam Mermelstein, a founding member of Enclave Equities, a development firm active there. About 30 minutes from Grand Central Terminal by way of the Metro- North commuter railroad , Mount Vernon is closer to Midtown Manhattan than many Brooklyn neighborhoods. Enclave is at work on a five-building, 179- unit residential rental project on former industrial property near the Fleetwood station that will offer Manhattan-style extras like rooftop terraces and gyms. And, in a break with recent nearby projects , the $ 48 million development , set to open next year, will offer all market-rate units. The rents for its one-bedrooms will be about $1,700 a month, which is less than half of what new- construction units cost in Lower Manhattan, according to online ads. “It makes no sense that this area is not booming,” Mr. Mermelstein said. One complaint from Mr. Mermelstein and others is that Mount Vernon’s retail...

Space is a precious commodity in New York City, particularly for the parents of young children, and as families grow it can be a major hurdle to find (and afford) the room to accommodate them. Samantha (whose name we've changed to protect her privacy) and her husband, the parents of a four-year-old and a one-year-old, currently own a two-bedroom, one-bath co-op on the Upper East Side , and are wondering whether it's time to move to a larger home.  "We are unsure about the prospect of our next move and whether it would be worth it to move to a rental or buy again, considering the increase in space we need," Samantha says. The couple would ideally like to find a three- bedroom apartment close to a park, in a building with a live-in super or doorman, though a two-bedroom with a separate dining room could work, too. Because of their children, they prefer a building with an elevator, or a first-floor apartment; transit-wise, they're looking for a commute to their job...

For a particular New Yorker, the sort who rues having missed out on the city’s cobblestone past, Colonnade Row is a distinct architectural marvel . The Greek Revival rowhouses were completed in 1833 and are known for their imposing Corinthian columns . But they were also a stage on which the birth of Manhattan’s gilded era played out, a period when no one dared host a ball the same night as Alva Vanderbilt, and the city itself didn’t extend much past Great Jones Street . Photo Credit New- York Historical Society , via Getty Images They were built for families like the Vanderbilts and the Astors — indeed, John Jacob Astor was among the first residents — and the group was originally named La Grange Terrace , after an estate of the Marquis de Lafayette . What remained of the facade was among the first structures protected by the Landmarks Preservation Commission . In the landscape of contemporary New York, however, Colonnade Row offers other quirks. While crusty old bars and last-of-...

A woman took a fatal plunge from the 16th floor of an Upper West Side building on Wednesday and cops are looking into whether she was the victim of foul play. The 56-year-old woman fell from an apartment window on West End Ave. by W. 100th St. onto a second-floor landing just after 6:10 p.m., police said. She didn’t live there, and when officer got inside the flat, they found it vacant, cops said. Neighbors said police saw the man who lives in the apartment walking into the building, and took him in for questioning. Tags: upper west side Send a Letter to the Editor Join the Conversation: facebook Tweet

“I think buyers will appreciate it,” said Mr. Korolik, who explained that the original development site , which he purchased in 2014, consisted of just three lots, meaning that he could have built a 35-story tower, at best. Air rights can be sold by a building that has not been constructed to its maximum allowable height . Those rights can be shifted around and sold, though mostly between buildings that are side by side. Photo A model of the new 130-unit condo. Credit Katherine Marks for The New York Times Mr. Korolik added, “But developers are like teachers and parents. We do a whole lot of work, but sometimes we are underappreciated.” Of course, not everybody will be able to live in the upper stories of the spire, which is designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects, a firm whose portfolio includes skyscrapers like 432 Park Avenue. But in an unusual move, every apartment is a corner unit with two exposures, which developers say will especially help residents of lower floors enjoy their f...

This article originally appeared in the February 2007 issue of Architectural Digest. The highly articulate Lee F. Mindel has this to say about the way he and Peter L. Shelton, his longtime collaborator, approach the challenge of an apartment renovation: "The main thing is to identify the problem of a space and to reduce it to its purest essence. People get distracted when they buy an apartment. They go from falling in love to having buyer's remorse so quickly that they can't calm down and ask the most primal questions. What makes a place tick? What about its context is special? Is there some quality of the building that should be celebrated? How does the light work? What is it about the owner that brings specificity to his home? And, finally, what can we, as architects and designers, do to present the clients as the best they can be, given who they are?" He pauses. "We ask and try to answer all these questions, then we throw them out the window and let intuitio...

You, too, can live with these beautiful people in the clouds ( additional fees apply ) Rents are going nowhere but up and wages aren't really going anywhere at all, so obviously this is as good a time as ever to play the housing lottery. Yes, even though I've argued many times that they should really call it the jack squattery since that's all I've ever won from it, I'd recommend you try to snag one of affordable apartments now available at 555Ten at Hudson Yards. The city's latest batch of affordable apartments come in two flavors of income bands. For people making 40% of the city's Area Median Income , there are 60 apartments ranging from $613/month to $875/month. To qualify, household incomes will have to come in somewhere between $22,903 and $44,280, depending on the size of your household. There are also a handful of affordable apartments available for people making 120 percent of AMI, or households making $68,709 and $132,840. Those 30 apartments ran...

Among the residential brokers who take a whack at commercial, there is a steep learning curve . The businesses, everyone will tell you, are extremely different. Success in one rarely translates to success in another, and very few manage the transition. But Sonia Stock, an associate broker at Douglas Elliman, is good at taking a whack at things—be it a tennis ball or a client from out of nowhere. Like this one time… In the summer of 2004, Stock (then focused solely on residential) had a dental appointment in Union, N.J. Coming from New York and being a runner, she figured she’d take the train from Penn Station to Rahway (the station closest to her appointment) and sprint the eight miles to her dentist. But when the train arrived late , she knew running wouldn ’t get her there in time. So the experienced world traveler hit the side of the road and stuck out her thumb and was picked up by a woman in a Mercedes. “We got along very well,” Stock said, recalling what would turn out to be one...

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — If you've ever wanted to live in the old Brooklyn home of a notorious gangster, you've got a chance to do it. The Park Slope home where Al Capone used to live is up for sale, and it will only cost you a cool $2.5 million to move in. Capone grew up in a nearby building on Garfield Place, according to realtor.com, and moved into this listing in the early 1900s. "If he had lived here today, he wouldn’t have to go into the rum-running business," listing agent Bren Salamon told Patch . That's because Capone could make some serious dough from the two rental units attached to the condo, which could bring in a pretty penny in 2017 Park Slope . Anyone who moves in, though, won't be looking at any old relics of Brooklyn gone by. The home, as many are in the borough these days, was completely renovated by an investor about a year ago. The main townhouse is 2, 980 square feet spread over two levels. Along with three bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms, t...

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — If you've ever wanted to live in the old Brooklyn home of a notorious gangster, you've got a chance to do it. The Park Slope home where Al Capone used to live is up for sale, and it will only cost you a cool $2.5 million to move in. Capone grew up in a nearby building on Garfield Place, according to realtor.com, and moved into this listing in the early 1900s. "If he had lived here today, he wouldn’t have to go into the rum-running business," listing agent Bren Salamon told Patch . That's because Capone could make some serious dough from the two rental units attached to the condo, which could bring in a pretty penny in 2017 Park Slope . Anyone who moves in, though, won't be looking at any old relics of Brooklyn gone by. The home, as many are in the borough these days, was completely renovated by an investor about a year ago. The main townhouse is 2, 980 square feet spread over two levels. Along with three bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms, t...

The iconic London landmark uses its public spaces to counterpoint the unbridled growth of London’s luxury private structures I recently found myself staring into a stranger’s living room, waiting for something beautiful to happen. I was standing on the 10th- floor viewing terrace of the Tate Modern’s new wing, a twisting ziggurat of perforated brick and mortar that rises above the museum’s home in the old Bankside Power Station . The terrace allows for 360-degree views of the building frenzy that has consumed much of London’s skyline. Cranes dip and dive in every direction; to the east, the Shard, an overwhelming ice pick of a skyscraper, dwarfs the Victorian roofs of the surrounding neighbourhood; to the west, the pregnant monolith of One Blackfriars, a 50-storey mixed-used building, looms over the Thames like an alien mothership. As is the case all over the city, many of its £4 million (Dh19 million) apartments will be scooped up as investments, only to stand empty. Idle butlers ...