Triple Mint

About Us

Triple Mint is an online review dedicated to new urban residential development, design and living.

Why the name triple mint?  It's the somewhat breathless term real estate brokers use to describe a property that's in absolutely immaculate move-in condition.  We've always found it amusing, and we think it's catchy.

What do you mean by new development?  We mean that we intend to cover apartments and lofts coming to market--both new construction and conversion.

Is there more?  Yes. Not all the content on this site will appear on the main page so be sure to use the links on the left to navigate and explore.

Is this site for buyers and the public or is it for brokers and insiders?  Well both.  But we hope that by far the larger audience will be those home buyers looking to purchase apartments, kick the tires on a new development, or just browse the ever-changing cityscape.  We welcome everyone, including those who may simply be interested in architecture, urbanism, and design.

Do you have a philosophy or a mission statement?  Heavens no.  But we do care about the quality of design and construction.  Change is a part of the DNA of New York City and the cycle of development is inevitable.  Bad design and shoddy construction, however, are not.  We hope to promote the trend of hiring world-class architects for residential projects, and we favor a respect for the dynamic street life and pedestrian scale of city neighborhoods.

Are you just another hopelessly self-obsessed New York site?  Not at all! We are keenly aware that some of the most interesting new projects are being built in places as far-flung as Miami and Las Vegas, and we intend to cover them too.  Just give us a little time.

Email Us [triplemintmedia (at) gmail (dot) com]  We appreciate comments, tips, press releases, plans, renderings, and developer's publicity images.

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New Home Index

The New Home Index is a work in progress (beta). We are continually updating and expanding the information in this database, and new pages will open shortly.  Check back often for updates.  To view an index simply click one of the links below.

Manhattan South of 34th Street

Manhattan Midtown

Brooklyn

• Miami

• Return to Main Page

Market Resources

Corcoran

Douglas Elliman

Halstead

Stribling

Brown Harris Stevens

Sotheby's

Warburg

Dwelling Quest

ACRIS

Radcribs

Property Shark

See also our Design Resources

Use our guide to new condo Closing Costs

Use our Mortgage Glossary

Sites We Like

Curbed

Design Observer

Metropolis Mag

Architonic

Daily Dose of Architecture

moco loco

Design Sponge

Apartment Therapy

Archinect

The Boxtank

Land & Living

Panopticist

unbeige

Brownstoner

Daily Candy

Manhattan User's Guide

New York Headshots

Gizmodo

Engadget

...and the great James Wolcott

Bonus: Is Barack Obama a muslim?

Design Resources

A selective list of links to high-end manufacturers and retailers.

Knoll

B&B Italia

Herman Miller

Vitra

Fritz Hansen

Cappellini

Boffi

Poggenpohl

Miele

Bosch

Viking

Sub-Zero

KitchenAid

Williams-Sonoma

Bang & Olufsen

reGENERATION

r20thcentury

Moss

Troy

Jonathan Adler

See also our Market Resources and our guide to condo Closing Costs

Bookstore

Richard Meier Volume 4

Morris Lapidus

Space Age Espresso

Juan Valdez never dreamed of this.  Built-in coffee systems are everywhere just now.  We've seen them from developer's brochures to appliance dealer web sites and tech-geek gadget blogs.  This one is from Miele, and it requires no plumbing.  Water is contained in an 85 oz. reservoir while whole beans are ground fresh for each cup of coffee.  Hot water spigot and milk frothing wand included.  Available in black and stainless steel.  A competing model from Germany's Gaggenau promising quiet operation will be out later this year.

• Miele Coffee System
• Gaggenau

The Right Hardware

We would amend Joan Crawford's famous cry of "No wire hangers!" to "No hollow doors!"  Developers seem to have gotten the message and solid doors have become the norm in most higher-grade projects these days.  But solid doors deserve good hardware, and we prefer paddle handles over run-of-the-mill knobs any day of the week.

The hardware you're looking at here comes from manufacturer Fusital, whose not-too-shabby stable of designers includes Aldo Rossi, Jean Nouvel, Richard Meier, John Pawson, Sir Norman Foster, and Gae Aulenti among others. 

Make no mistake, this is the door handle as object of desire.  Satin chrome or stainless steel, it's a little bit of sculpture you clutch in your hand as you gently open the door to check on the sleeping baby.  Shhhhhh... 

You don't want to get this one wrong, and with Fusital you won't.

• Fusital (enjoy the cool music)

Upgrade to Boffi

Call us crazy, but we tend to like people who put more thought into the purchase and placement of a wash basin than that of a plasma TV.  And if it happens to be a stoneware basin, well, we may need a stronger word than like.

No place in your home is the form-follows-function aphorism more true than in the "wet" areas--kitchens and bathrooms.  When you look to upgrade try going beyond simply specifying finishes and appliance brand names.  Think of these rooms as stage sets.  The Italian manufacturer Boffi tends to be the pace-setter in this field.  Floating fixtures, intersecting planes, zen-like stoneware--these are the hallmarks of Boffi's kitchen and bath design systems. 

Minimalist, but also cooly dramatic, Boffi has solutions for large and small spaces, open-air islands, or hidden corners.  You can explore these total environments and also find dealer locations at their English-language web page.

Desert Living

Can a vibrant and viable live/work community ever be created along the Las Vegas Strip?  That's the hope of MGM Mirage and their hugely ambitious plan to populate Las Vegas's central core with new home owners.  According to a recent report in the New York Times, the $3 billion plan would transform 66 acres into a city center with homes, shops, movie theaters and restaurants all within walking distance.  The site is equal in size to Rockefeller Center, and will be, according to the Times, the largest privately financed development in the nation. 

The image above was released by MGM Mirage as part of the announcement of their project, and while it's only a concept, it does seem to mark a break with the typically historicist theme park Vegas structures.  The luminous quality of the buildings shown suggests glass, and the forms seem somewhat sleeker and more sculptural than what the Strip has known in the past.  James Murren, MGM's President and CFO, is even quoted by the Times anticipating a Whole Foods in what he hopes will be a cosmopolitan retail mix.  There is at least one reason for optimism: the MGM executive was an art history and urban planning major while an undergraduate at Trinity College.

In this space we plan to keep an eye on any interesting design that gets put on the drawing board in the City of Sin.  Here are two views of one other Las Vegas project called Loft 5, though like most of those going up now, it's not located directly on the Strip.

• Is There Life After Blackjack? Ask MGM (The New York Times)

Jasper - 114 East 32nd Street

Amid all the new condo construction in New York, we're still getting the classic conversions of outmoded office buildings into new residential loft spaces. The re-use of grand brick and limestone office buildings was a staple of development for years before the current boom made new construction economically viable. Here we take a brief look at Jasper, a condo conversion comprising 80 apartments at 114 East 32nd Street in Manhattan. The mid-block 1920's era building has the large pre-war scale we like to see, with 10 foot six inch ceiling heights and huge tilt-turn windows. The stepped setbacks on the upper floors should allow terraces and plenty of light and air.  After the jump, a look at the details and finishes.

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