Micro Apartment
In July 2012, New York City announced plans for proposed “micro-unit” apartments (under 450 square feet) for a city-owned building at 335 East 27th Street, in the Kips Bay neighborhood of Manhattan. Newspaper articles dubbed the tiny units “micro apartments.”
The term “micro-loft” has been trademarked with a first use from 2006.
Gothamist
City Holds Design Contest To Create More Tiny Apartments For Solitary New Yorkers
By Carrie Dennis in News on July 9, 2012 6:02 PM
To address New Yorkers’ evolving housing needs, and create an alternative to the thousands of illegally subdivided apartments in NYC, Mayor Bloomberg announced today a competition to design a new apartment layout. And he’s thinking small. Like 300 square feet.
The adAPT NYC Competition involves a Request for Proposals from the private sector for a rental building composed of micro-units (apartments under the city’s current size restriction of 450 square feet), and is an experiment in innovative and imaginative design to create more affordable housing for the city’s growing population of 1-2 person households. Bloomberg will waive certain zoning regulations at a city-owned building at 335 East 27th Street in the Kip’s Bay neighborhood of Manhattan to test the market for the new housing model. The proposals will be judged on the treatment of light, space, accessibility, and use of shared space. A winner will be announced by the end of the year and the new design will be put on display at the Museum of the City of New York.
Wall Street Journal
NY REAL ESTATE RESIDENTIAL
Updated July 9, 2012, 11:27 p.m. ET.
City Seeks Lilliputian Living Units
By MICHAEL HOWARD SAUL And LAURA KUSISTO
New Yorkers routinely grouse about living in apartments roughly the size of a closet. Under a city contest announced Monday, that complaint might not be such an exaggeration.
A new competition launched by Mayor Michael Bloomberg calls for plans to develop dozens of so-called micro-units, studio apartments that go beyond cozy to downright compact: 275 to 300 square feet.
The Epoch Times
Microapartments Tackle Issue of Space in Manhattan
Pilot program breaks zoning rules to allow 300-square-foot apartments
By Kristen Meriwether
Created: July 9, 2012 Last Updated: July 10, 2012
New York (NY) Post
The living is squeezy: Mayor
First look at ‘micro’ apts. for singles
By SALLY GOLDENBERG, JENNIFER GOULD KEIL and BETH DEFALCO
Last Updated: 8:00 AM, July 10, 2012
Posted: 12:59 AM, July 10, 2012
And you thought you lived in a shoe box!
Mayor Bloomberg yesterday unveiled a “microunit” apartment that would make even hardened NewYorkers claustrophobic.
Tiny homes like it — between 275 and 300 square feet, the size of some ATM vestibules in Times Square—will be built in Kips Bay.
They are part of a pilot program to find housing for people who live alone or with only a partner.
The spaces are small, but the prices aren’t. They’ll likely rent for less than the market rate, which is $2,000 per month, officials said. But the final price will be set by the developer.
Business Insider
Mayor Bloomberg Proposes 300-Square-Foot ‘Micro’ Apartments For New York City Singles
Meredith Galante|Jul. 10, 2012, 10:16 AM|2,671|18
Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled yesterday plans for studio apartments in New York City that will be between 275 and 300 square feet—apartments so small they are considered illegal under current building code, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Bloomberg is currently accepting proposals for the apartments, which will be located on E 27th Street and First Avenue in Kips Bay. The apartments would help young professionals find appropriate housing in the city while they start their careers.