New York is about to follow trend with Los Angeles, San Francisco, and other parts of the world, unless you’re already reading this from a closet space you rent somewhere in Manhattan. If that’s the case, congrats because your living situation is going mainstream.
The good news is this “new” style of living arrangement is set to affect rent as a whole across the entire city, possibly making it more affordable to live within the city. The bad news is that these mini-studio apartments will be max 360 square feet and will be going for $2,000 to $3,000 per month. From The New York Times:
My Micro NY, made of prefabricated modular units built at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, will be stacked into place this spring. The apartments will come with kitchenettes, wheelchair-accessible bathrooms, ceilings over nine feet high and big windows. And to help make living in a small space more palatable, tenants will have access to storage units and common spaces scattered throughout the building.
To allow this building to come to be, the city had to waive current zoning and density rules that limit apartments to no less than 400 square feet.
This is the moment where the homeless person with the Maytag box has you beat, Brooklyn hipsters. But you do have the amenities to make that panhandler wish he could church up and afford your living space. Each studio space is being designed to maximize your quality of living:
Though the micro apartments are small by typical apartment standards – between 270 and 350 feet – they are designed to optimize space and maximize the sense of openness. Features include 9- and 10-foot ceilings, a 16-foot-long overhead loft space, Juliette balconies, ample hidden storage space, and numerous common areas to encourage resident interaction.
The small size enables the city to help resolve increased demand for one- and two-person homes within a town that has limited space to grow.(via)
When you look at 27-year-old Kelli Okuji’s studio apartment that sits at around 313 square feet, you get a better picture of what to expect from these modular apartments. It’s not a bad size, but the price is still insane to a bumpkin like me. There is the benefit of living in New York and being near “the pulse,” but what happens when you get tired of it all. Swim to New Jersey?
It could be worse. This is certainly a high step up from the 78 square foot shoebox apartment from Hell’s Kitchen. He gets a walk in closet to live in for $800 a month.
(Via New York Times / Modular.Org)