NYC May Fit More ‘Micro’ Apartments Into Housing Picture

In this Dec. 22, 2015 photo, Stage 3 Properties co-founder Christopher Bledsoe demonstrates a retractable bed that turns into a sofa when stored inside one of the apartment units at the Carmel Place building in New York. As the city-sponsored “micro-apartment” project nears completion, it’s setting an example for tiny dwellings that the nation’s biggest city sees as an aid to easing its affordable housing crunch. AP Photo/Julie Jacobson

NEW YORK—The apartments in a new Manhattan building boast little balconies, tall ceilings, dishwashers, and storage space. All in 360 square feet or less.

It’s micro-living in the nation’s biggest city, and New Yorkers could be seeing more of it. Planning officials are proposing to end a limit on how small apartments can be, opening the door for more “micro-apartments” that advocates see as affordable adaptations to a growing population of single people. Critics fear a turn back toward the city’s tenement past and question whether less space will really mean less expensive.

It was really important to demonstrate how small space could be an enhancement to quality of life

— Christopher Bledsoe, Stage 3 Properties