The Curbed Cup, our annual award to the New York City neighborhood of the year, is kicking off with 16 'hoods vying for the prestigious fake trophy. This week we'll have two matchups per day, and all the results and the full tourney bracket will be reviewed on Friday. Voting for each pairing ends 24 hours after it begins. Let the eliminations commence!
Chelsea is, obviously, already a very established neighborhood, but it still had some tricks up its sleeve this year in terms of residential development. Most notable was Walker Tower, which topped $200 million in sales in February and set a Downtown record in October after it landed a buyer for its $55 million penthouse. (Recently, Cameron Diaz bought a unit and, in a move that really captured the way things are going over there, another buyer closed on a 2BR and tried to flip it for a $2.9 million profit the following week.) Other big developments include Alchemy's 35XV and the revamped Hotel Chelsea (both in progress). There's also been a lot of new development in the western part of the neighborhood: Norman Foster's newest project on West 21st Street, Thomas Juul-Hansen's High Line-straddling project, and Cary Tamarkin's 15-unit project, just to name a few. Of course, there's starchitect Zaha Hadid's very swoopy first New York project. And we would be remiss not to mention Cindy Gallop's insane all-black condo.
Crown Heights, on the other hand, is a neighborhood on the rise. Last year it advanced into the Elite Eight of the Curbed Cup for the second year in a row, losing to Dumbo by 0.2 percent. This year, the neighborhood again saw a deluge of residential development, with planned projects too numerous to list. (The real coup would be if any of those buildings was actually going to be attractive.) Parts of the neighborhood's character are being preserved as well—a 55-block rezoning was recently passed that will limit building heights and incentivize affordable housing. Also, the newly opened Lakeside Center in nearby Prospect Park is a solid attraction, not to mention all the new restaurants.
Which neighborhood should advance?
· All Curbed Cup 2013 coverage [Curbed]
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