Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Developer Steven Witkoff is holding off on converting Manhattan’s Park Lane Hotel into luxury condominiums — for now. The owners are contemplating a renovation of the 46-story hotel at the foot of Central Park, Witkoff said in an interview. He led a group that acquired the property from the estate of Leona Helmsley for $660…
Height – 1536 | Width – 2048 Photo: Buck Ennis Scaffolds are ubiquitous in the city. One day in 2004, workmen arrived at the corner of West 123rd Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem to erect a sidewalk shed, one of those unsightly steel-and-wooden structures that pop up any time a building is under…
Prospect Lefferts Gardens. Photo by Barbara Eldredge Yes, it’s true, the mind-boggling Brooklyn real estate boom of the last three years slowed in the fourth quarter, just as real estate agents predicted. No, not everyone will agree, but the numbers have spoken. It’s great news for buyers, who could use a break, and not bad for…
The controversial “poor door” at a luxury Lincoln Square tower is finally open — and creating New York-style financial apartheid. Tenants who were chosen to live in one of the 55 low-income units in Extell’s ritzy 33-story building recently started trickling in through the poor door — and many are disturbed by the glaring disparities….
Alejandro Aravena of Chile, whose work is modest, practical, and exceptionally elegant, has been awarded the 2016 Pritzker Prize. Last year, the jury for the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the most celebrated award in architecture, selected the German architect Frei Otto, who was 89 when he got the good news. Otto died two weeks later and…
Photo Condominiums at the Time Warner Center were found to have a number of hidden owners over a decade who had been the subjects of government investigations. Credit Edward Caruso for The New York Times Concerned about illicit money flowing into luxury real estate, the Treasury Department said Wednesday that it would begin identifying and…
The Home Ownership Meme Can Be Very Powerful Most of us are familiar with the concept of the “internet meme.” Someone does something, say “planking” on a fast-food counter, and uploads a video of him- or herself doing this to a public or social media site. Other people see the video, emulate the activity, and…
I’ve never been a fan of the “sharing economy”. Not that there’s anything intrinsically wrong with Uber, Airbnb and their peers, it’s just that there doesn’t really seem to be much “sharing” going on. It’s more like adding a technological middleman to a rental market. Now having shaken up the taxi and hotel market, the…
More than 60,000 people have applied to live in new apartments the size of garages in Manhattan. Carmel Place, a new development of 55 properties ranging from 265 to 360 square feet, complete with balconies and tall ceilings, is due to open in New York early next year. And planning officials are proposing to end…
Clayton Homes has used a pattern of deception to help extract billions from poor customers around the country — particularly people of color, who make up a substantial and growing portion of its business. The company is controlled by Warren Buffett, one of the world’s richest men. Third of a series GALLUP, N.M. — After…