New York residents are increasingly moving into micro-apartments, though new dwellings below 400 square feet are illegal without a special permit.
In a city where the average apartment rents for $3,600 a month, many New York residents don’t mind living in a tiny space to save extra cash. There’s just one problem: Micro-apartments are technically illegal, according to the city’s 1987 zoning laws, which require dwellings to have an area of at least 400 square feet.
That leaves two options for homeowners who want a small space. They can find an apartment built prior to 1987, or turn to one of the newer developments that have secured a special waiver from the city.
Even as the city’s regulations make micro-living somewhat difficult, the trend has taken off in neighborhoods across Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens.
Despite their minimal square footage, these newer apartments offer innovative design features like hidden drawers and closets, along with luxury amenities like butler services and rentable ice-cream makers.
But for the thousands of residents who live in older micro apartments, the lifestyle can be somewhat dismal. Take a look.
If space isn’t an issue, micro-apartments can lend a more glamorous lifestyle at a lower price.
This loft on the Upper West Side features multi-level platforms with a small bathroom hidden beneath the stairs.
The loft is located at the top of a six-story brownstone, with access to a rooftop garden.
The stairwell features built-in drawers and shelves, which provide extra storage.
Despite its 25 feet of vertical space, the loft is incredibly tiny — only 425 square feet.
This $1.29 million Midtown apartment is starved for storage, but it includes a number of crafty design elements, like a hidden pantry.
Read more: This tiny New York apartment has a hidden 60-inch flat-screen TV and motor-powered cabinets
A pull-out cutting board has a hole for disposing of scraps in the trash can below.
The bedroom has two shoe racks, which slide from the bed frame.
Other amenities are also integrated into the unit’s design. The kitchen counter has grooves for plates and cups to dry, so water flows right into the sink.
In Manhattan’s West Village, a 242-square-foot studio is on the market for nearly $480,000.
Source: StreetEasy
The studio’s owner renovated the unit after purchasing it in 2011, and the apartment now includes a bed that folds into a storage space in the wall.
Source: Curbed
Carmel Place, located in Kips Bay, was the first New York building to exclusively offer micro apartments.
The 55 apartment units range from 265 to 360 square feet. When they opened, the monthly rent went anywhere from $2,650 to $3,150.
The apartments feature retractable beds that turn into sofas.
Though the units are tiny, residents have access to housekeeping, grocery delivery, dry-cleaning pickup, and a gym within the building.
The building is made of modular units that were prefabricated in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The pieces were then brought to Manhattan and assembled in Kips Bay.
The Carmel Place design won a competition sponsored by New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD).
Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and HPD Commissioner Mathew Wambua announced the design proposal in 2013, and the building was completed in 2016.
The service Ollie, which curates furniture in some micro-apartments, decked out 17 of the studios in Carmel Place.
Read more: We tried a service that designs fancy all-inclusive micro-apartments, no movers required
Ollie included furniture, WiFi, a TV, cable, and subscriptions to the butler service Hello Alfred and the events club Magnises.
An apartment with Ollie’s amenities generally costs about $2,800.
Some units feature white desks that slide out into larger tables, as well as coffee tables that can be raised.
This exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York was inspired by a contest for designing micro-apartments that can serve as affordable housing.
About 77,000 New Yorkers are homeless, and the city does not have enough quality homeless shelters.
Read more: Being homeless in winter can be a death sentence — but New York City has an innovative solution to the crisis
In Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood, another project from New York’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development features some of the tiniest legal units for rent in the city.
Caesura, a 12-story building, features 34 micro apartments with no more than 384 square feet.
The building also includes a “lending library” for tenants to borrow ladders, sewing machines, guitars, and ice-cream makers.
Source: The New York Times
Furnished units start at $2,588 for 314 square feet. Unfurnished apartments, which are 100 square feet larger, start at $2,360 per month.
This 350-square-foot Soho apartment — owned by architect and entrepreneur Graham Hill — lists for $750,000.
Read more: This tiny NYC penthouse costs $2,143 per square foot, but every detail was designed so it ‘functions like one twice its size’ — take a look inside
The apartment is so small, it could fit inside the average US home about seven-and-a-half times.
The unit’s folding desk is designed to support a person’s full weight.
Hill describes the concept behind the design as “less but better.”
All of the furniture is designed to serve multiple purposes. Sliding “couch cubes” offer portable seating and can double as a queen-sized bed.
Source: *faircompanies
Hill’s first micro apartment, a 420-square-foot Soho property, has an asking price of $2,369 per square foot.
Source: 6sqft
The property has won awards and been featured in its own TED talk.
But its residents would have to be comfortable with their bathroom serving as a phone room or meditation area.
Hill paid $287,000 for the apartment and spent an additional $78,000 on the renovations.
Source: 6sqft
The unit is built to accommodate one of Hill’s own inventions — an expandable bike that can go from 21 to 6 inches wide.
Source: Life Edited
Not all micro apartments are as fancy as Hill’s designs. In fact, many of them are relatively bleak.
Here’s what $600 a month will get you for a 300-square-foot apartment in Chinatown.
This Chelsea apartment has no room for an office, so the bed doubles as a workspace.
Three years ago, Grayson Altenberg moved from a shared space in Brooklyn to a 100-square-foot apartment on the Upper West Side.
Read more: This chef, who lives in a 100-square-foot apartment, is proof that kids will do anything to live in New York
The apartment cost him $1,100 a month for a main room and a bathroom.
The space has no windows, stove, or kitchen sink.
But it’s located right by Central Park, which Altenberg described as his “living room.”
Even Altenberg’s space can’t compete with one of the tiniest apartments in America, a 78-square-foot space in Hell’s Kitchen.
Read more: See How An Architect Made His 78-Square-Foot ‘Micro Apartment’ Completely Livable
Its convertible couch was built by the owner, a New York City contract architect.
Personal organizer Felice Cohen has written an e-book about living in 90 square feet — roughly the size of a Honda accord.
Source: 90 Lessons for Living Large in 90 Square Feet
While Cohen was living on the Upper West Side in 2010, the average rent for an apartment was $3,600 per month. She paid just $700.
Source: *faircompanies
“The studio changed my life,” Cohen told the New York Post. “It made me realize that I didn’t want to waste money on stuff — I had no place to put it.
Tech: 50 photos of New York City micro-apartments show how tiny living can be glamorous — or disappointing
