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Big changes to the Big Apple’s alfresco restaurant scene are on the table — including a plan to get rid of its popular, but controversial, outdoor dining sheds.
The head of the city Department of Transportation’s Open Restaurants Program told a City Council committee on Tuesday that the makeshift structures won’t be allowed to remain standing after the COVID-19 pandemic eases.
— New York Post
The makeshift structures will be allowed to remain in place until July, according to Department of Transportation’s Open Restaurants Program director Julie Schipper, who said a more thorough application process would be enacted that would do away with “these full houses … in the... View full entry
Rents in New York City approached all-time records last month as inventory grew increasingly scarce. The median rental in Manhattan cost $3,467 last month, according to the New York Post, which cited the latest report by appraisal firm Miller Samuel. That was up a little over 2 percent from $3,392 in December, but it represented a 23 percent spike from January 2021 — falling just $5 short of the January record set in 2020, when the median rental was $3,472 per month. — The Real Deal
The median rental in Manhattan in January was just shy of the $3,540 peak in April 2020. Prices in Northwest Queens and Brooklyn also rose last month, up 28 percent and 11.1 percent year-over-year respectively. The Real Deal notes that the major force behind price growth in the housing market is... View full entry
In an effort to encourage New Yorkers to get back on subways, buses, and trains -- particularly following the sharp decline in ridership due to the pandemic -- the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced a pilot fare program that is "more affordable, more flexible and more fair." — NBC New York
The fare capping pilot will feature free, unlimited rides after 12 OMNY taps, New York’s contactless fare payment system that will replace the MetroCard on the New York City subway in 2023. Under this program, no OMNY user would pay more than $33 per week, which is the current price of a... View full entry
Writing about Twin Parks in 1973, The Times’s former architecture critic, Paul Goldberger, speculated that the project might “turn out to be important in the history of housing design.” [...] design, however compassionate, can mean only so much against the obstacles that make up the housing problem today.”
The calculus is the same half a century later. But the South Bronx isn’t. Gradually, it has been remade. Progress isn’t impossible, it’s a process.
— The New York Times
Both observed South Bronx developments, 1490 Southern Boulevard and a transformation of the Lambert Houses, are seen as examples of high-quality and effective public housing that offers residents more than just desultory amenities. The Times critic broke down the new-ish developments by... View full entry
CRE publication The Real Deal has released its annual list of the ten most commercially successful firms in New York City’s high-profile building market. Most of our readers will recognize these firms as regulars in Archinect Jobs. As the architects of record, these firms appeared in... View full entry
A creative answer to one of the most pervasive issues in American public housing is being sought by one of the largest civic authorities in the country as the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) has issued a challenge to design an affordable new all-electric heat pump for the 21st century... View full entry
After 58 years of service, the Metropolitan Transit Authority has now retired every single one of its remaining “Brightliners” (R-32 subway cars). Known for their shiny corrugated stainless-steel paneling, the Brightliners bid New York City farewell earlier this month, before they were taken by rail to be scrapped in Ohio. — Fast Company
A majority of the cars were retired over ten years ago, when more than a 1,000 of the R-32s were dumped in coastal areas in Delaware, New Jersey, and Georgia to establish artificial reefs. The plan was meant to boost recreational fishing, which at the time generated billions in state and federal... View full entry
The fight for affordable housing in New York City has come to one of Lower Manhattan’s most important developments in recent memory. An online petition organized by the New York Review of Architecture and Citygroup has been circulating that appears to call for a 75% increase in the number of... View full entry
The Central Park Conservancy, the Yale School of the Environment, and the New York City-based Natural Areas Conservancy have teamed up to launch a new initiative and climate partnership to study the impacts of climate change on urban parks. Called the Central Park Climate Lab, the program’s... View full entry
A consortium of private developers recently closed on a $600 million loan to complete renovations and infrastructure upgrades across a 1,673-unit NYCHA public housing portfolio. Boulevard Together Developer LLC, a joint venture with The Hudson Companies, Property Resources Corporation, and Duvernay + Brooks, is undertaking the refurbishment of a total of 29 buildings in East New York. — New York Yimby
The properties include the Boulevard Houses, Fiorentino Plaza, and the Belmont-Sutter Area Houses. This project is being facilitated through the NYCHA’s Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT) initiative, in which selected developments receive needed renovations, along with expanded... View full entry
The fire was started by a malfunctioning space heater in the bedroom of a third-floor apartment on Sunday. Fire officials say the door of the apartment did not close as residents fled and that allowed smoke to spread throughout the building. — The New York Times
The deaths and injuries in Sunday’s tragically avoidable accident were exclusively the product of smoke inhalation as the fire itself was contained to the apartment and outside hallway. The blaze came just days after another horrible incident in Philadelphia that claimed the lives of... View full entry
A long sought train connection between Brooklyn and Queens may finally become a reality, as New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced she wants to "take an old, unused, 14-mile-long right-of-way and create what we're calling the Inter-Borough Express" during her State of the State address Wednesday. — Gothamist
The project would repurpose an existing freight rail line that runs through Brooklyn and Queens, starting in Bay Ridge and stretching to Astoria. The route would run through neighborhoods currently not served by rail transit, including Sunset Park, Borough Park, Kensington, Midwood, Flatbush... View full entry
Get set for delays on many subway lines and bus routes. At least 1,000 workers for the MTA are out sick with COVID as the omicron variant continues to surge throughout New York City. With those absences, there will be subway and bus delays across the city as commuters return to work and school Monday. — Pix11
Amidst the rapid spread of the omicron variant, the MTA has suspended service on the B, W, and Z lines, the express service on the Number 6 train in the Bronx, express service on the Number 7 train in Queens, and partial suspension of the A train in Far Rockaway, Queens. View full entry
Architecture firms in New York City recruiting new staff may soon be required to include salary ranges in jobs postings, following the passage of a new bill through the New York City Council. The bill requires NYC employers with four or more employees to include the minimum and maximum salary... View full entry
In December, developers closed on $30.3 million in financing for the first phase of Arverne East, a master-planned community and revitalization project within a 116-acre oceanfront site in the Arverne and Edgemere neighborhoods in Queens’ Rockaway Peninsula. Led by real estate firms L+M... View full entry
