It's not news that New Yorkers live in tiny apartments. There's a very specific type of sadness every New Yorker experiences when she visits her friends in another city and stays in their double-the-space, half-the-price apartments.
It is possible, though, to life-hack the apartment search. You can find a gem of an apartment that really exceeds expectations. Like, it has an oven and space for a couch. That type of exceeding expectations.
Hopefully, the innovation of the lifesaving app Oliver will prevent more New Yorkers from shacking in shoeboxes. Unfortunately, a lot of New Yorkers shack in shoeboxes. This is evidenced by the apartments below.
Oliver is a parrot (in the form of an app) that helps you rent an apartment seamlessly without a broker.
Please note, the apartments below were thankfully NOT located with Oliver.
So read on to discover the tiniest apartments in NYC. And if you love #TinyApartmentPorn and want to gape at more tiny New York City apartments, check out this one, this one, and this one too.
1. This 90-square-foot studio on the Upper West Side
[via Inhabitat] Good thing renter Felice Cohen isn't too picky about space!
Her 12 by 7 foot apartment only sets her back $700 a month in a neighborhood where the average monthly rent costs $3,600.
So her apartment is sort of a steal. Unless, you know, you really enjoy things like being able to sit up in bed.
Or... being able to stretch your legs out on the toilet.
But hey, she's making it work.
[via Inhabitat] We just really, really hope Cohen isn't planning on having a party anytime soon. That'd make things difficult, right?
Cohen told Inhabitat her apartment is "worth it." But, she also said she had a panic attack the first night she ever slept there. So... we guess this is sort of a give and take situation.
There are few in this world that could survive this for too long. For those who don't have to even sweat it, there's Oliver.
2. This 78-square-foot mini studio in Hell's Kitchen
Manhattan architect Luke Clarke Tyler's apartment isn't big enough for a bed.
But luckily, he knows how to build stuff. So using some plywood and 2x4s he built a custom bed that doubles as a couch.
When his bed is in couch form, his feet are very close to the wall.
"I just use it as an excuse not to buy an ottoman because... I can just prop my feet right up on the wall," Tyler said. He pays $800 a month, his refrigerator is tucked underneath his desk, and he shares a bathroom. At least he knows how to get creative, right?
Creativity shouldn't be the requisite to functionality, though, and with Oliver, it isn't.
[via Fair Companies]
3. This couple who creatively occupies their 242 square feet apartment in Hell's Kitchen
Yes, their 242 square feet apartment includes closets.
Their bed folds down, they leave their belongings in an extraneous storage unit, and they use a mini fridge. But unlike other small apartment owners, Tobin Ludwig and Jourdan Lawlor have an oven.
Ludwig bought the West 12th Street apartment four years ago for $270,000. In a burst of #OnlyInNYC irony, a townhouse is on sale for $12 million three doors down.
One of Ludwig and Lawlor's apartment's most appealing features is that it has a tiny attic above the bath.
"So we're renting that now on Craigslist for $275 a week if anyone is interested," Ludwig said. But ease up brokers. Don't start sharpening your knives yet; Ludwig was joking.
[via ABC 7]4. New York's micro-apartments
Many New Yorkers are sick of sharing shrunken spaces, yet the number of single New Yorkers is on the rise.
So My Micro NY swept in with the solution: modular construction.
The city's first micro-apartment complex is located at 335 East 27th Street, and its 55 units range from 260 to 360 square feet. They're available to rent, for prices between $914 to $1,873 a month.
[via Forbes] This development is the first ever city-supported construction of micro-dwellings.
You're probably wondering, "Isn't that illegal?"
And to that we respond: "It used to be!" But, alas, the city waived zoning and density rules that limited apartments to no less than 400 square feet to make this idea a reality.
The first 66 prefabricated models were craned into place on May 20th, and completed just over a month later. Each mini-apartment comes with kitchenettes, wheelchair-accessible bathrooms, ceilings over nine feet high, and big windows.
[
Rendering from Monadnock Development, nARCHITECTS, and MIR via The New York Times
Does this lack of space bum you out?
Don't worry! Each resident will have access to storage units and common spaces scattered throughout the building.
Or you could, you know, download Oliver and find a reasonably sized, reasonably priced apartment without suffering through the trials and cheap shots of a broker who probably doesn't care where or how you live.
,5. This 105-square-foot apartment in Greenwich Village
[via The Tiny Life] Geneivie Shuler is 31and is fulfilling her dream of living near Washington Square Park where her parents once lived. And she's doing it for $780 per month.
Her apartment is way below the average apartment price in Greenwich Village, which Zumper reported is $3,800.
But, Shuler's apartment has no closets, no real kitchen, and she does her dishes in the shower.
"When I first walked in, I thought, 'This is really incredibly tiny," Shuler told the New York Post. But that didn't stop her. "Once I knew my loft bed could fit, I took it," she said.
6. This 450-square-foot studio
Eric Schneider is a third grade teacher who purchased his 450-square-foot studio apartment for $235,000 in 2005. When Schneider bought his apartment, it was basically one big rectangle.
So he had architects Michael Chen and Kari Anderson design its interior.
"Pretty quickly it became clear that there wasn't really enough room to get like a real bedroom in here, and if you did then there wasn't really room to have a real living room area. And Eric is a pretty serious cook, so a tiny little kitchen wouldn't really work for him," Chen said.
So they used a cabinet system to subdivide the apartment with walls Schneider can tuck away throughout the day.
The ways Chen and Anderson have re-appropriated spaces in the apartment to serve different functions in different contexts is pretty fascinating. They even figured out how to build a guest room.
[via Fair Companies]7. This 55-square-foot apartment in Hell's Kitchen
When it comes to choosing an apartment, there are three core priorities: location, size, and price.
When Eddie Rabon was choosing his new apartment, he really focused on one priority.
"To me, it's all about location," Rabon said. "I'm in an amazing neighborhood, and the money I save on rent alone lets me really enjoy New York for what it is."
Now, you're probably wondering, "How does Rabon have room for any activities?!" But he's not. He doesn't care about activities.
"My apartment is a place to hang my hat and catch a few hours of sleep. That's it," Rabon said.
Rabon pays $800 per month for his 55 square foot apartment. Some of his tall friends can't close his bathroom door when they need to sit. So, hopefully they just pee at Starbucks.
Brokers try to convince you that any of these spaces are livable on their own, "With just the right amount of TLC," mind you. They're great at talking around things without exactly listening to you or what you need.
On the other hand, some of these people are highly adaptable, I-would-live-on-a-couch-if-it-meant-living-in-Washington-Square-Park kind of crazy.
Oliver strikes the balance between the two, and mainlines the communication between the only two people that ever mattered in the process of renting an apartment: you and your landlord.
[via New York Post]
Check out This City Now Thinks $1900 Studios in Flatbush, Brooklyn Count as "Affordable" Housing?
[Feature Image Courtesy: Inhabitat]