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For those who can't decide between the suburban and the urban lifestyle, there's a simple solution: build a vinyl-sided house on the top of an old Brooklyn apartment building (which is way better than a trailer on Willoughby Avenue). This gem has been around for a while and is just East of Bedford on the southside of Williamsburg. While its residents most likely enjoy unobstructed city views from their rooftop abode, according to a Google satellite image they have not put any grass or astroturf up there to resemble a backyard...so no croquet or badminton just yet.
We're wagering this is a legal construction, in which the owner might have roof rights or bought the air rights from the neighboring buildings. Has anyone ever been invited up to one of these urban McMansions?
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The zoning committee must be thrilled.
Also you don't buy air rights. You have air rights up to space if you buy a building. Your rights also extend to the center of the earth if you also own the land.
But zoning laws prevent people from building 70 story buildings in 4 story neighborhoods - sometimes.
So any house that could conceivably exist in a suburb is now considered a McMansion?
matty -- air rights are bought and sold in NYC all the time -- where have you been???
There's a pair of these skytop McMansions going up on the building at the SE corner of 97th & B'way -- there are absurd looking.
This all started with that brown house on top of a tenement on the LES -- 3rd and 12th or so.
There oughtta be a law!
actually, matty, you're wrong. you CAN buy air rights from adjoining properties. assuming you don't violate any zoning laws with your expansion.
That guy doesn't seem to be violating anyone's air rights. The additions isn't going over the property line. You don't have to buy any air rights going upwards of your property line.
So for example, the metlife building bought Grand Central Station's Air rights because it violated the space going upward from the station.
However, a property can go upwards and not have to buy air rights from anyone so long as it stays within its property lines.
Just one step closer to the floating houses of the future.
matty, a property can not go up indefinitely so long as it stays within its property lines. each zoning district in the city has strict height and setback regulations. additionally, each property has a maximum amount of floor area that can be built. once this maximum floor area is reached, you would need to purchase air rights from an adjoining property or eliminate floor area from somewhere else on the lot in order to enlarge.
I mean, unless someone previously purchased air rights above the building you bought.
Aaaaaaand I've lost interest. :D
Air rights are an attempt to preserve historic underbuilt properties. So instead of knocking down a property that is too small for a zoned area the owner can sell off the buildable area to other local properties. Usually you will see it used on landmarked buildings.
"once this maximum floor area is reached, you would need to purchase air rights from an adjoining property or eliminate floor area from somewhere else on the lot in order to enlarge."
I did not know this. You can buy air rights from another building to make your building taller?
So its based on buildable area (in new york).
I stand corrected.
Yes, but usually only landmarked buildings would be willing to sell off this extra builing space- otherwise you are devaluing the property that sells off air rights. Other restrictions probably apply.
Notice the steep roof of this add-on- it is probably being claimed as an "attic" to gain and extra 20% on the allowable FAR- but even this is subject to zoning so not always applicable.
The window units alone disqualify this from being a McMansion. No self-respecting suburbanite would build a home without central air.
McMansion? Really?
Looks like a McDump
air rights? who the fuck cares. Look at that monstrosity. What an eyesore. I'd be embarrassed if that thing was in my neighborhood. It would be cool to live in one though.
MidCFrank, its actually on 13th and 3rd, and is exactly where I was thinking of when I saw this post. I'm obsessed with that place and have been dying to know more about it! They even have a little garden up there and everything it looks like a little log cabin on top of an apartment building!
hmm, i always thought you bought air rights to immediately neighboring buildings to make sure they didn't get taller, screwing up your view or building a brick wall up against your window...
This house is right across the street from where I live- its in South Williamsburg. And actually its really nice looking, especially at night because they have big windows and a skylight. And its not an eyesore considering a few of the buildings going up within a block or two of this- its on top of a 6 story building and there are 16-story condos going up a block further down the street. I'm envious of whoever lives here.
from knowing someone who used to live in the building i can confirm its "mcdump".
The sky city tenants liked to leave trash lying about, when coupled with the shoddy construction and intense rain storms, it often flooded out the apartment below creating misery for the entire building. They really didnt plan this one out
I guess irony is now considered an amenity in Billyburg.
did anyone try to find out who owns the building? seems like that would have been basic research for this (pointless?) post..
There's a really neat little place on the top of a bldg at the north west corner of the nexus of the universe, errr 1st and 1st. You can see it best from 1st st just east of 1st ave.
It looks like a little wood sided cottage from nantucket or something. Super neat.
I just found it on the the web version of google maps street view. Double click on the east side of 1st and 1st.
I used to live in the apt below the "mcmansion"! It actually is a mcdump, I agree. It's an interesting and intriguing thought, but didn't pay off in the end. The apt. I lived in below was ten times nicer and more roomy. The ceilings in the mcdump are about 4 feet tall, and the rooms in the triangular part are tiny! I'm talking you can barely stand in there!
Also, it had a BAD vibe. Everyone was cool in the building, but the tenants upstairs (albeit different) were always irresponsible and disrespectful. Because of their utter ignorance, they clogged their drainpipe with trash, and due to the shoddy construction job, our ceiling below literally had a monsoon come through it, and not just once, but a few times...
Anyway, all in all, these places are definitely unique, but not always in a good way.