[Via Google]
Way back in November 2013 we posted about the one-story structure at 619 E. Sixth St. between Avenue B and Avenue C hitting the market for $5.4 million.
The listing mentioned that air rights for the property were available.
Indeed, the new owner is taking advantage of that wasted air. There are now (as of December) approved permits on file with the city for a 6-story residential building here.
The work order shows a 9,235-square-foot building with five residences, likely condos. Amenities include bike storage and a two-car garage ... and the 2-floor duplex at the top includes a private rooftop terrace.
The LLC listed as the owner shares the address with Mermelstein Development. DXA Studio Architecture is listed as the architect of record.
And here are renderings via the DXA website... with more details on the building...
To the architect-ese:
This ground-up building faces an inner-block garden on 6th Street in the East Village. A desire for full expanses of glass to view the garden and the skyline beyond presented a challenge with the heat gain associated with direct southern exposure. The design includes flexible, folding wood slat screens within steel frames that provide solar shading when needed, but that allow unencumbered views when repositioned to the sides of the facade.
The facade is clad in a Danish handmade brick and includes a full width mural along a sidewall that links the building in character with its East Village neighbors where street art abounds. The five residential units, from a small studio up to a dramatic three bedroom with office and double height duplex on the top floors, incorporate a simple and timeless palette of materials throughout.
The space apparently had been home to a Japanese furniture designer. Public records show that the property went for $135,000 in 1993. The selling price last year was $4.7 million.
I love how they use our beloved community garden to advertise, but would build condos on top of it in a second if allowed.
ReplyDeleteWhat friggin views? You're only six stories. But at least you were smart enough to make the ground floor a garage because sure as hell you'll get flooded up to the four-foot water mark that is the benchmark left by Sandy by the time or soon after this is built. (No, I'm not an optimist that Nature will relent.) And if you wanted to be really edgy, you could have installed real solar panels instead of shades.
ReplyDeleteAre Danish bricks those cobblestones we imported at the turn of the century and then covered over the asphalt?
That looks hideous.
ReplyDelete"Are Danish bricks those cobblestones we imported at the turn of the century and then covered over the asphalt?'
ReplyDeleteThe cobblestones used in lower Manhattan were made by prisoners at the time. Nobody would import heavy stone unless it was for a pubic monument or a private mansion and the color or quality could not be sourced in the US.
I like that building actually. When a garage building is sold for a building like this I think it is a lot better than the carpetbagger "developers" who are buying up all the rent controlled and stabilized building in the EV. Having people that own their apartments is better than a revolving door of college and post college renters who are only here to party and get replaced with the same a year or two later.
I am more concerned with quality of life issues in the EV now than a privately own garage being sold. The city however needs to get its ass in gear and fix all the section 8 building left empty for the past several years and put the original residents back in them.
I like how the architectural rendering left the graffiti on the garage next door. I wonder if that will be a selling point: "Located just feet from a burgeoning art scene!".
ReplyDeleteSold in 1993 for $135K. Sold in 2015 for almost $5M. Goddamit.
ReplyDelete15 years ago, I thought if I could just squirrel away $100/month and be really frugal, I would eventually have enough to maybe buy an apt.
By 2005, that was already a pipe dream There was no way real estate in NYC was ever affordable to us middle class folk even again.
I was actually going to comment how they altered the graffiti next door to make it more "hip and urban."
ReplyDeleteI am amazed by all the glass facade residential buildings. You have to knot only be able to afford the rent/mortgage, but also oversize expensive custom window coverings if you want any privacy. I look at the fancy glass apartments on my block, and the windows are constantly fully covered with shades/blinds/drapes.
ReplyDeletealso, most of the cobblestones were not imported, they were brought over in ships as ballast, not needed when they left loaded with exported goods.
Why doesn't the owner of the garage next door do something with it, such as turning it into a studio for artists, architects, etc.?
ReplyDeleteI'll share my opinion as soon as Grieve digs up a picture of the front of the building. As for the back, I'd say those big glass windows are an open invitation for burglars. Who needs to case the joint anymore when you just need a good pair of binoculars?
ReplyDeleteDid they miss an opportunity to allow more light into these apartments with no windows on the mural wall?
ReplyDeleteOnce again tickled by verbiage; "...where street art abounds"
Fits right in. NOT. (gross...)
ReplyDeleteThe rendering looks like a boarded up abandoned building.
ReplyDeleteI like the design. Politically you don't like it in your hood, I get that.
ReplyDelete@9:26am: You are wrong about the source of cobblestones in NYC. (Also, "pubic monument"?) @10:30am is right about the source of cobblestones in NYC.
ReplyDeleteIt has nothing to do with politics , Anon. 2:25, and everything to do with aesthetics, of which this building displays the usual paucity found in new, "hip", edgy" construction.
ReplyDeleteThe cobblestones used in NYC were/are called Belgian Block paving stones, and yes, they were brought in as ship ballast starting in the 18th century.
I think it is a very cool looking building, but it does not fit in well with the neighboring architecture, which is a major part of successful design.
ReplyDeleteFor example, David Schwimmer's building does work pretty well on 6th street because it at least looks like it tries to fit in. This building would be great in the right environment and I don't know if East 6th is the right environment.
The new style of construction tends to be more concerned with creating the best interiors rather than the prior focus on the exterior. So, you'll see bigger windows to maximize light and things will look boxy because that tends to make for better interior layouts.
ReplyDeleteContrast this to a lot of the tenement buildings, some of which admittedly do have really great exteriors, but are infamous for having little light and terrible layouts with lots of wasted space.
To each their own, but I'd rather live in a spacious light filled boxy apartment than a gorgeous but dark tenement with a crazy layout.
At 9:26 AM, Anonymous said:
ReplyDeleteThe cobblestones used in lower Manhattan were made by prisoners at the time. Nobody would import heavy stone unless it was for a pubic monument or a private mansion and the color or quality could not be sourced in the US.
Heh heh, Beavis; he said "pubic."
7:27 AM said:
To each their own, but I'd rather live in a spacious light filled boxy apartment than a gorgeous but dark tenement with a crazy layout.
As Frank Lloyd Wright [supposedly] said, if he had to live in New Haven, he'd want to live in Harkness tower so he wouldn't have to look at it when he got up in the morning. To each their own indeed!
It's true, 7:27, but some of us like dark, tenement-like interiors, with creaky floors, wainscoting along the tub-in-the-kitchen walls, and an occasional mouse.
ReplyDeleteDoes not go well block at all!!! And hate that they use garden as selling point! I am sure none of those tenants will
ReplyDeleteVolunteer at all for the upkeep
619 East 6th Street fiasco!
ReplyDeleteSad that the designers claim to have aspirations about their designs helping the world be a better place... Neighbors, who include school children, to one such project have had to endure 9 months of drilling and pumping because of the hubris of the designers and developers who think they have to divert underground water (ha!) instead of reconsidering faulty design/site matchup! 9 months of drilling and pumping and still no beginnings of a building just slush in the street, dangerous sidewalk closure, hazardous construction trucks and monotonous noise to ensure a better learning and living environment, for who? Who's world are they making better?
I live next door, inches away and concerned about it.
ReplyDeleteWill they do the proper work and not put other buildings at risk, just to make a profit?
I truly hope that they are doing the right thing for all, not only themselves!
The work needs to be coordinated with official documents and checked right with DOB!