When Ariana Gordon Stecker’s 3-year-old son, Ethan, wakes each morning he runs to the floor-to-ceiling living room windows to watch barges and ferries glide along the Hudson River and helicopters skim by at eye level. From the 32nd floor of their Battery Park City residence he can spot the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor and, looking uptown, the High Line park cutting a ribbon of green through glass towers.
“We moved to this apartment last year because of the view,” said Gordon Stecker, senior vice president at the event-planning firm Save the Date. “New York City is all about views. Watching the sun set over the Hudson or seeing the Financial District lights twinkle on a snowy evening makes city life very special.”
Thirteen years after 9/11, New York City shows how resilient it can be. Reconstruction at the World Trade Center site continues, and One World Trade Center opened to commercial tenants in recent years. Towering symbolically at 104 stories and reaching 1,776 feet, the building houses offices, an observation deck and dining venues within its three million square feet of space. The site’s rebirth has been a major part of the city’s recovery story.
The National September 11 Memorial & Museum, which opened to the public in May, pairs a below-ground museum with an above-ground memorial: a plaza of trees and two granite reflecting pools set in the footprints of the original Twin Towers. The restoration and renewed global interest helped drive downtown’s resurgence. Last year the area drew more than nine million visitors, and the number of hotels in Lower Manhattan rose from six in 2001 to 18 in 2014, with additional properties under construction. Over the past 14 years the neighborhood’s residential population has grown substantially.
The Manhattan West complex © Brookfield Office Properties
Beyond the World Trade Center, dozens of redevelopment initiatives are reshaping neighborhoods across the five boroughs. Hudson Yards is the largest private real estate project in U.S. history and the most ambitious New York City development since Rockefeller Center. Spanning 28 acres and built above rail yards just west of Pennsylvania Station, the $20 billion project will deliver mixed-use towers with residential units, retail, corporate tenants and a luxury hotel. Hudson Yards is opening in phases through the 2020s, and developments on Manhattan’s far West Side, including the $4.5 billion Manhattan West complex, will add retail and entertainment destinations.
The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, the city’s largest exhibition venue, completed a $465 million renovation that added modern interiors and one of the country’s largest green roofs. The extension of subway service to the far West Side has increased demand from event planners and boosted bookings at the renovated center.
The High Line—an elevated rail line transformed into a public park—runs from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District to West 30th Street. Thousands of visitors stroll this mile-long linear park 30 feet above street level, and its opening spurred new residential and retail projects crafted by internationally recognized architects. The High Line continues to catalyze development, inspiring striking designs and revitalization along its route.
New cultural institutions are anchoring the downtown art scene. A new Whitney Museum of American Art building opened near the High Line’s southern terminus, offering multiple floors of contemporary art, a lobby restaurant and a rooftop café. MoMA has expanded gallery space into a residential tower on West 53rd Street, allowing the museum to present more of its collection alongside the city’s growing roster of ambitious architectural projects.
Signature residential towers are reshaping the skyline: Rafael Viñoly’s 432 Park Avenue ranks among the city’s tallest residential buildings, while redevelopment of South Street Seaport and new hotel-condo projects along the East River bring fresh housing and hospitality options. The long-awaited Second Avenue Subway is set to improve access on the East Side, further supporting neighborhood growth.
With 501 miles of shoreline, New York City has more waterfront than many other major U.S. coastal cities combined. Four of five boroughs include islands, and the Department of City Planning’s Vision 2020 emphasizes converting neglected waterfront parcels into parks, housing and mixed-use neighborhoods. These plans prioritize resilient, sustainable development in response to increased awareness of coastal flooding risks.
“Development of the New York waterfront depends on timing and strong public-private partnerships,” said Leslie Harwood, managing director at Newmark Grubb Knight Frank. “After Superstorm Sandy, the city had an opportunity to reimagine many older structures and rethink how parks and buildings near the water should be designed to withstand flooding.”
Brooklyn’s waterfront has its own momentum, with new hotels, restaurants and music venues opening along the East River. Rooftop dining at the Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg and poolside cocktails at the McCarren Hotel offer views of the Manhattan skyline. The historic Domino Sugar refinery is being redeveloped into a major mixed-use neighborhood, and new residential projects along Brooklyn Bridge Park include hotel components. Even smaller neighborhood investments, like a Whole Foods near the Gowanus Canal, signal broader revitalization and environmental cleanup efforts.
Queens and Staten Island are also seeing new investment. Hunters Point South in Long Island City is a 30-acre sustainable, mixed-use neighborhood featuring planted green roofs and a large waterfront park. Hallets Point in Astoria plans a waterfront esplanade as part of substantial residential and retail development. Staten Island’s waterfront projects include a large retail complex with a landscaped roof park and an observation wheel that will offer sweeping views of the harbor once completed.
Visitors will find an expanding hotel market: dozens of new hotels opened in recent years, bringing the city’s hotel room inventory to roughly 90,000 rooms, with many more properties planned. Steady growth in both business and leisure travel has kept occupancy rates high, supporting continued investment across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and beyond.
The IAC Building on West 18th Street, designed by Frank Gehry, is visible from the High Line. © Albert Vecerka/ESTO Photographics
SCENIC DRIVES
For a scenic circumnavigation of Manhattan, avoid rush hour and take the roads that trace the shoreline: the Henry Hudson Parkway/West Side Highway, the FDR Drive and Harlem River Drive. Use local streets in northern Inwood to enjoy hilly, residential scenery. This roughly 30-mile loop makes a pleasant two-hour drive that showcases waterfront parks and new developments along both the Hudson and East rivers.
From lower Manhattan, drive through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel and follow Ocean Parkway toward the southern shore. Ocean Parkway leads to a range of coastal neighborhoods: Sheepshead Bay’s seafood restaurants, Brighton Beach’s Russian cafes and shops, Coney Island’s beach and its revitalized amusement district, and the New York Aquarium. Though only about 12 miles from Manhattan, the long beachfront and ocean air create a distinctly different coastal experience.