Real Estate
This Yorkville studio may be small, but that doesn’t stop it from breaking all the rules.
Going micro: Small spaces can offer a lot
BY MARTHA WILKIE
Years ago, I saw an art installation that consisted
of a life-size model of a Rikers jail cell. You
stepped inside and heard a recording of voicemails
from dozens of people calling about an ad the
artist had placed offering an (imaginary) Manhattan
apartment for rent. She described it exactly like a jail
cell: a 7-foot-by-10-foot room with a bed and a toilet.
People were clamoring to pay good money to live like
a prisoner. Only in New York!
The legal defi nition of a “bedroom” in New York
City is a minimum of 80 square feet. (So a Rikers-size
one wouldn’t pass muster.) With some exceptions, the
smallest an apartment can be is 150 square feet (plus
kitchen and bath, so around 300 square feet, total).
However, on St. Mark’s Place, tiny (around 80-squarefoot)
rooms in an SRO (or former SRO?) rent for
more than $1,000 a month. It’s marketed as “dorm
style,” with shared baths down the hall.
In the early 1990s, I once looked at a windowless
space in a Tribeca loft. I said, “Oh, nice walk-in
closet!” and the would-be roommate said, “Uh, that’s
actually the room.” I couldn’t stand up in it.
On the tippy-top end, you can buy a 300-square-foot
studio at 515 Park Ave. for a cool $1.45 million. (Sale
restricted to owners already in the building.) Tiny
apartments like this in luxury buildings are intended
for staff, but can be used for storage or guests. One
like this at the Dakota went for $76,000 in 2013.
Under the Bloomberg administration, the city encouraged
developers to build “micro apartments” with
well-designed small-space elements such as Murphy
The long and short of it: This Hell’s Kitchen
studio has a lot to offer, including generous
overhead storage space.
beds and built-in storage. The fi rst example was Carmel
Place in Kip’s Bay and more are in the planning
stages.
Outside of New York City, the “tiny house” movement
is huge. If you live in Manhattan, you can easily
eat out every meal and spend all your waking hours
out and about. Who needs a chef’s kitchen when
you’re only going to store your shoes in the oven?
IMAGES COURTESY DOUGLAS ELLIMAN
Could you be happy in one of these tiny homes?
At 5 Tudor City Place, a studio for $299,000 has
the teensy-est kitchen tucked behind shutter doors:
dorm-sized fridge, two-burner stove and a mini-oven.
A beamed ceiling and beautiful casement windows
add architectural interest.
(https://streeteasy.com/building/5-tudor-cityplace
new_york/1807)
In Yorkville, a studio breaks all the rules of smallspaces
design with an extravagantly bold look: largescale
furniture, dramatic black-and-white color
scheme with pops of bright color, patterned textiles
and a fabulous kitchen with a pressed-tin backsplash.
$335,000.
(https://streeteasy.com/building/203-east-89-
street-new_york/3b)
A Hell’s Kitchen studio offers high ceilings, a decorative
fi replace and generous overhead storage space
accessed by a pretty library ladder. There’s laundry
facilities in the basement plus lovely shared outdoor
space. $445,000.
(https://streeteasy.com/building/404-west-48-
street-new_york/1d)
Near Gramercy Park, the Petersfi eld has a rental
studio for $2,950, with a doorman, elevator and gym.
The elegantly designed kitchen has white marble countertops
and new-looking steel appliances. (https://
streeteasy.com/building/the-petersfi eld-301-east-21ststreet
new_york/06a)
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