WASHINGTON, January 22 (RIA Novosti) - New York City might be known as “The Big Apple,” but when it comes to the size of apartments, the city is looking to go small, really small.
To better accommodate its growing number of single residents, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Tuesday plans to build the city’s smallest apartments, some of them as tiny as 250 square feet (23 square meters).
“The growth rate for one and two-person households greatly exceeds that of households with three or more people, and addressing that housing challenge requires us to think creatively and beyond our current regulations,” Bloomberg said in a statement.
Under current zoning laws, all New York City apartments must be at least 400 square feet (37 square meters). Bloomberg has said he will waive zoning regulations to accommodate smaller apartments.
Last summer, the city launched a competition asking developers to design an apartment building with units no larger than 300 square feet (28 square meters).
The city announced at a news conference Tuesday a project called “My Micro NY,” from Monadnock Development, Actors Fund Housing Development Corp, and nARCHITECTS, as the winner of the competition, beating out 33 other designs.
Based on the winning design, “My Micro NY” will be the city’s first micro-building, with 55 rental apartments located in the Kips Bay neighborhood of Manhattan.
The apartment building will be rent stabilized, with prices ranging between $940 and $1,800 a month for 250 to 370 square feet (23 to 34 square meters).
The 10-story building will feature mini-balconies, 10 foot (3 meter) ceilings, a shared roof garden, laundry room, and fitness center. Some of the units will be reserved for low income tenants, city officials said.
New York City residents on average pay $2,000 a month for a studio apartment and $2,700 a month for a one-bedroom apartment.
Construction is scheduled to begin at the end of 2014 and residents are expected to begin moving into the new apartment building by September 2015.
Other cities have also embraced micro-apartments. San Francisco recently approved construction of apartments as small as 220 square feet (20 square meters). And Tokyo and Hong Kong also offer small apartments.
