13. Hell’s Roofdeck

(54th to 60th Streets, Tenth to Eleventh Avenues)

Because it’s a no-man’s-land no longer.

• 
  By S.Jhoanna Robledo 
• Published Apr 3, 2011

(Photo: Courtesy of Extell Development Center)

Despite being sequestered in the heretofore nameless netherland behind the Time Warner Center, the blocks north of Hell’s Kitchen have begun morphing into a luxury corridor of sorts, replete with rentals and condos in buildings gilded with all sorts of amenities. (It seems only right that Urbani Truffles, the Italian supplier of fancified funghi, chose to open their American flagship here.) Donald Trump’s march southward on Riverside Boulevard has been leapfrogged by Extell and its army of gleaming residential towers. Last December, the City Council approved the developer’s plans to build Riverside Center on eight acres hugging the waterfront, with five glassy high-rises stocked with market-rate and affordable housing, a movie theater, a school, a hotel, and nearly three acres of parkland.


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12. Murray Bay

(a.k.a. the Thirties east of Second Avenue) 

Because it just awoke from a 50-year real-estate nap.

• 
  By S.Jhoanna Robledo 
• Published Apr 3, 2011

(Photo: Robert L. Faulkner/Courtesy of 303 E. 33rd)

The last time anything exciting, buildingwise, happened here was in the early sixties, when I. M. Pei built two high-rises in the International Style between 30th and 34th Streets. Almost five decades later, this monotonous stretch finally has landed another noteworthy edifice: 303 East 33rd Street (left). It’s no Pei, but it does hold the distinction of being the area’s first LEED-certified condominium.

Illustration by Mark Nerys

ASK A BUYER

Rick Marx, a partner at Ernst & Young, moved from Tampa last year into a two-bedroom apartment in 303 East 33rd Street.

Why’d you pick this neighborhood?
I work uptown, downtown, midtown, so I need someplace that’s central. We started looking in the Flatiron, but they didn’t really have a lot of new construction, so we kept moving east. And then I saw this building and I just fell in love.

What was it that sold you?
First of all, I think it’s really interesting from the outside. And it’s set back from the road just enough. You know how in New York, if you’re on a lower floor, you’re looking out onto another building? Here, it feels open.

Was buying in a green building a priority?
No, it really wasn’t. I tell people it’s a green building, and they kind of look at me. I’m very conscious of the environment, but I’m not big into the cause.

So you’re not munching on granola all day.
Not at all. People come in and they think my countertop’s marble, but it’s recycled glass. And the counters in the bathrooms look like stone, but they’re recycled plastic. It’s that kind of green.

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4. Marcus Garvey Park

Because it’s Harlem’s answer to Madison Square Park.

• By S.Jhoanna Robledo 
• Published Apr 3, 2011

(Photo: Susan Wides for New York Magazine)

Which comes first, the cleaned-up park or the prospering community? In the case of this vibrant slice of ever-transforming Harlem, it’s a little bit of both. Marcus Garvey Park itself is undergoing a near–$8 million renovation, including smoothed-out sidewalks and the transformation of its existing bandshell into a state-of-the-art amphitheater. Amid the neat stretches of always-in-demand brownstones, a 28-story glass condo with an indoor pool (5th on the Park) has sprung up on Fifth Avenue and 120th Street, while nearby, on 123rd Street, there’s the recently constructed Windows on 123, a pair of buildings graced with limestone-balconied apartments and full-floor lofts.

Courtesy of NYMAG