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Cool Map Thing: Beautiful Mapped Data Reveals Trends Across New York City

This map portrays the locations of independent coffee shops throughout Brooklyn, via You Are Here. The exceptional breadth of datasets and the advent of digital maps go hand-in-hand like, well, site-specific data and maps; people love to see information visualized. That’s what the crew behind MIT Media Lab’s You Are Here project is banking on. You Are Here was conceived by Sep Kamvar who, according to Marketplace Tech, realized that the cities we inhabit differ in subtle ways often due to deliberate decisions, and its these decisions that give shape and a certain character to the city. The visualizations take traditional maps to the next level: they don’t just tell onlookers how to get around, but reveal where things are happening…

That’s Rather Creepy: Nightmarish Doll-Filled Upper West Side Apartment Asks $1.3M

This three-bedroom condo on West 98th Street is on the market for $1.295 million, which isn’t quite as good a deal as it seems at first glance considering that it comes with a rent-stabilized tenant in place. However, if you are in the (sleazy) business of buying “investment” apartments and waiting for their occupants to die, then, really, how long is it going to be before this person’s terrifying doll collection comes alive and exacts its revenge? Probably not long, right? The dolls are looking restless, particularly the one in the box labelled “Satin Skin.” According to Gothamist, the apartment’s “aesthetic is somewhere between Mommy …

Languishing Listings: It seems that no one wants…

It seems that no one wants to move to fancy-schmancy Bronx neighborhoods like Riverdale and Fieldston. We’ve seen more than a few multi-million dollar mansions in those areas hit the market, but many of these languish on the market for six months of more. The Manhattan market is booming, but the Riverdale area has seen 30 percent less sales from 2009 to 2013 than it saw in the five years prior. NYO

Finger Building Watch: Even More Long Island City Condos Debut, Get Snapped Up

A finger building on Hunter Street in Long Island City—which is positively teeming with new residential development—launched condo sales a month ago… and already, 30 percent of the units are in contract. With a very Manhattan-y name, The Madison hit the market in late June, offering apartments starting from $500,000. According to StreetEasy, four out of six apartments that have been listed thus far are taken, with the two remaining priced at $575K and $560K, respectively. There are 14 apartments total in the modern, balconied nine-story building, which is tucked in a low-rise area south of the Queensboro Bridge ramp, west of where it turns…

Coming Attractions: 18 Stories of Luxury Rentals Coming to Troubled Tribeca Site

Charles Dayan of Bonjour Capital, the developer behind Bed-Stuy’s 333 Greene Avenue, has a new project in the works, this one at 358 Broadway in Tribeca. The site is currently home to a six-story building, which will be demolished to make way for an 18-story building containing 89 rental units. Permits filed yesterday with the Department of Buildings, also spotted by New York YIMBY, have the architect listed as Daniel Goldner and put the total square footage at 89,080. The building will be fully residential. Dayan acquired the site in a 2012 foreclosure auction, paying $12.69 million, after former …

Hanging Out: How is it determined if the…

How is it determined if the city’s historic and landmarked buildings are in need of exterior repair? Turns out there are firms of engineers and architects who, with the assistance of ropes and harnesses, rappel from buildings’ windows to get up-close to the areas in question. “You can crane your head out a window, you can use binoculars, but it’s not the same thing as being inches away from something that may be a hairline crack or confirm there is not a crack

Cornerspotter: Cornerspotted: The Affinia Hotel at 31st St. and Seventh Ave.

The Affinia Hotel now occupies the building at the southeast corner of 31st Street and Seventh Avenue, which was first erected as the Governor Clinton Hotel. The hotel across the street from Penn Station was designed by architects Murgatroyd & Ogden—the latter a Cooper Union graduate—and opened in 1929. The hotel was originally named after New York state’s first governor, George Clinton, who held the position from 1777-1795 and 1801-1804. · Hotel Governor Clinton, 371 7th Ave. at 31st St. 14to42 · Hint: This Tower Was Named After a Prominent NY Figure Curbed · Cornerspotter archives Curbed

Megatower Watch: Midtown Giant One Vanderbilt (Mostly) Wows at Landmarks

Rendering of One Vanderbilt to the left and Grand Central to the right, looking north from 42nd Street up Vanderbilt Avenue. Image courtesy Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates. As currently proposed, supertall tower One Vanderbilt will rise to 1,350 feet—1,450 at its peak—to become the city’s second-tallest building. But its top wasn’t the focus of today’s Landmarks Preservation Commission hearing. It was its bottom. The LPC met today, not to rule on the proposed office …

Rumormongering: Real estate agents in Rancho Mirage,…

Real estate agents in Rancho Mirage, Calif., are convinced that President Barack Obama has purchased an 8,200-square-foot contemporary currently in contract for $4.25M. The White House has denied the rumor, but if it were true, it would make the First Family neighbors with White House decorator Michael Smith. Curbed National has more. Curbed National

Construction Watch: 55 Photos Inside the Hudson Yards Construction Site

By the end of 2018, half of the 28-acre Hudson Yards megaproject will have sprouted on Manhattan’s west side, though right now, the site largely still looks like the active rail yard that it is, save for the beginnings of the complex’s first tower. But the 30 active train tracks are slowly being covered by a massive platform that will hold three towers, a retail complex, a six-acre public square, and a new cultural space—and that’s just phase 1. Developer Related Companies …

Sales Check: Sterling Mason’s Penthouse B Scores Full $23 Million Ask

Things are going really well over at the Sterling Mason at 71 Laight Street, where 18 of its 32 apartments are in contract following the building’s July 2013 launch. Newly included in the jamboree, the building’s largest home, Penthouse B, which just went into contract for the full ask of $23 million, TRD reports. The six-bedroom, five-bathroom apartment is a 5,620-square-foot duplex that partially occupies its top two floors, and has three powder rooms, a fireplace, a 2,625-square-foot private terrace, library, and media room. The apartment’s sale price roughly translates to $4,004-per-square-foot, and although its the building’s most expensive apartment by price tag, Penthouse A has so far commanded the building’s most expensive price per …

Broker Secrets: A writer for the Guardian…

A writer for the Guardian claims to have come into possession of the training manual given to new brokers at an unidentified New York City brokerage. It includes such pearls of wisdom as “WORRY ABOUT THE APARTMENT LATER … JUST GET THE CLIENTS INTO THE OFFICE,” and “Please do not date clients until after we rent them and collect the broker’s fee.” So, basically, exactly what you would expect. Guardian

Sold Stuff: Buyers Pick Up 177-Year-Old Chelsea Townhouse for Gut Reno

One man, Clement Clarke Moore, has two claims to fame: writing “The Night Before Christmas” and, also, totally creating the neighborhood of Chelsea. In the 1800s, Moore split up and sold off his grandfather’s estate, which dominated the area (and gave it its name), and began developing the surrounding blocks. Fast forward 200 years, and a scrap of Moore’s grandfather’s land—holding an 1836-built house at 354 West 20th Street, between Eighth and Ninth avenues—hit the market in January, asking $6.25 million. According to public records, a pair of buyers, Keith Cackowsky and Rachel Schnipper, just picked it up for $6.2 million. The rather rundown, five-…

Development Watch: Vacant Wooster Street Lot to Get Six-Story Mixed-Use Building

Rendering and construction shots via NY YIMBY. A new metal, wood, and brick mixed-use building is rising on the corner of Wooster and Broome streets in the Soho Cast Iron District. YIMBY first spotted the incoming building designed by Arpad Baksa that will bring a six-story structure with five floor-through apartments and ground floor retail to the formerly vacant site. The building that’s contextually designed to blend into the neighborhood won the approval of

Shitshows: The basement of a McKibbin…

The basement of a McKibbin Lofts building has been hit with a partial vacate order for its illegally converted apartments. A sign posted on the door begins, “The Department of Buildings has determined that conditions in this premises are imminently perilous to life.” And in the comments section of the Gothamist post, ex-residents share horror stories of their days spent in the infamous Bushwick shitshow. Gothamist; previously

Linkage: Greenpoint Ferry to Reopen; NYC is Country’s Unhappiest City

Curbed Flickr Pool / Jodie Dobson · Someone’s making a film about the horse carriage industry NYDN · Greenpoint ferry will reopen with G train outage Crain’s · Median prices on new Williamsburg properties surge DNA · A “surrender” flag appears on the Brooklyn Bridge Gothamist · You too can improve your local park TLD · Shocker: study finds that NYC is country’s unhappiest city NYP · More history on free-standing West Village home GVSHP · Rudin buys development rights for possible FiDi conversion TRD

CurbedWire: West Chelsea Rental Hosts Art Park; 171 N. 10th 50% Leased

171 North 10th Street WILLIAMSBURG—People who want to live in Williamsburg are snapping up those “very Williamsburg rentals” at 171 North 10th Street. The 20-unit building launched leasing 12 days ago, and half of the units have been taken. The studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom units, some of which have terraces have rents ranging from $2,385 to $6,695. CurbedWire Inbox; previously WEST CHELSEA/MIDTOWN WEST—Developer Related, which is responsible for such megaprojects as Hudson Yards and giant …