Inside One57's Park Hyatt; 'Unlocking' NYC's Air Rights

MIDTOWN/MIDTOWN WEST—Here's the very first look inside the Park Hyatt, which takes up the first 25 floors of superscraper One57. The Times first published the render of this Yabu Pushelberg-designed room, with "floor-to-ceiling windows and light wood floors... meant to give guests a sense of staying at a residence." It is set to open this summer, and rooms start at $795/night. [NYT; previously]

EVERYWHERE—Air rights are a huge commodity in the New York City real estate world, and while plenty of landowners sell them off to developers, city regulations make it hard to do so for a variety of reasons. Landmarked buildings and nonprofits have been fighting for more leeway with air rights—specifically, they want to be able to sell them anywhere in the city, not just to their neighbors—and now a new report from NYU's Furman Center will likely help their cause. The report, called "Unlocking the Right To Build," outlines how the city should change its policies to limit restrictions on the sale of air rights and produce more affordable housing. A release announcing the study says that "the report estimates that individually landmarked buildings located below Central Park alone hold more than 33 million square feet of unused development rights-the equivalent of 12 Empire State Buildings and roughly 33,000 apartments." [CurbedWire Inbox; previously; official]