"Making Room: New Models for Housing New Yorkers," a new exhibit exploring micro-living at the Museum of the City of New York opened yesterday. LaunchPad is a 325 square-foot installation by Amie Gross Architects that anchors the exhibition, on view until September 15. Mayor Bloomberg simultaneously announced the winners of the adAPT competition to build NYC's first micro-unit apartment building. nARCHITECTS will break ground this year on the eastern end of 27th Street, building 55 units as small as 250 square feet.
In other news, check out furniture that changes color with heat and the potential Kinect tech for smartphones and tablets. See the headlines after the jump.
• New Adventures In Micro-Living On View In NYC | Architizer
• A Look At The New "Kinect" For Smartphones | Co.Design
• Thermochromic Furniture That Changes Color On Contact | Huff Post Home
(Photo: John Halpern/courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York via Architizer)
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It's a lovely apartment, however, it will be anything but affordable given its location despite its small size. It would be nice if there were affordable small apartments for people who live and work in the city that weren't, how do you say, dumps!
Here's one that I love - not an apartment - perhaps the patio area could be a balcony..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBYS3ZsC-cY
According to the NYTimes article the winning micro design, 3/4 of the units will be rent controlled for anyone making less than $77,000/yr. the remainder to go at market rate.
$77.000 per year income would be a lot anywhere but in NYC. Net income is just about $4K/month. Here are the rents on these units: "Twenty-two of the 55 units will be “affordable” for low- and middle-income households. That is, they will be earmarked for those with an annual income of up to $48,100, and for those earning up to $93,310. Monthly rent on the low-income apartments will initially be set at $939, while the middle-income units will go for $1,873." For someone making $77k, that's roughly half of the monthly net income - does not count utilities? This is what real estate is like in NYC. If you have a family, you can't live in one of these tiny apartments nor in good neighborhoods in Manhattan unless you've been in your apartment for over a generation..
There is no "right" to live in Manhattan - there are four other boroughs with lots of housing options. People with families or people who can't afford Manhattan can live there. People have done so for over 100 years. Lots of "real" New Yorkers grew up there.
There is also an annyoyong assumption that these apartments are only for the young - why not a middle aged person who doesn't earn very much?
There is a very strange and narrow view of NYC in most of the comments I've read about micro-apartments.
That being said, $1,800 is absurd for one of these.