Battery Park City is an upscale urban community overlooking the Hudson River at the southern tip of Manhattan. This serene, family- and pet-friendly neighborhood of contemporary high-rise developments, premier retail outlets, public gardens, walking paths, and bike trails, is a place for quiet reflection and recreation away from the hustle and bustle of Midtown. New York Harbor’s famous landmarks, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, are illuminated at night for an exclusive perspective of the city. Along with its luxurious, eco-friendly residential offerings and waterfront setting, Battery Park City’s major draw is its proximity to Wall Street and One World Trade Center, which make this neighborhood a haven for the those who desire a quiet, understated, and elegant home on the doorstep of a global financial capital.

Peter Stuyvestant, the colonial Dutch governor of New Amsterdam, lies buried in the heart of his old farm, or bouwrij. That farmland went the way of New Amsterdam, buried by the seismic transformations that created New York City. From Stuyvesant’s Bowery came the Lower East Side of tenements and ferment; then came the artists, writers, beatniks, hipsters, poets and punks, the urban avant-gardistes who came for the street life and cheap rents. They thought they had invented the place; it had invented them. Today it’s the still the East Village—but there are upscale galleries in old factories, million-dollar two-bedrooms, bleeding-edge music clubs, and Michelin-starred restaurants behind sketchy storefronts. What lingers is a vital, increasingly prosperous neighborhood that lovingly embraces its checkered past.

A dynamic urban environment in the heart of Manhattan, this bustling commercial district in Midtown Manhattan is named after the triangular landmark at its heart since 1902. The Flatiron District has had a series of monikers over the years: the Toy district, the Photo District, and most recently, “Silicon Alley” because of the many tech-start-ups that moved in at the start of Flatiron's second century.

Greenwich Village is a downtown neighborhood that’s a quirky blend of historic townhouses, unique shops and cafés, and narrow streets whose former residents—artists, poets, writers, musicians—ranged from Mark Twain to Andy Warhol. This iconic downtown neighborhood has long been at the vanguard of social, artistic, cultural, and political movements. The birthplace of 1960s counterculture and the LGBT civil rights movement, it is synonymous with Bob Dylan, the Beat Generation, and literary figures, such as Henry James, Louisa May Alcott, Edith Wharton, and Eugene O’Neill. Its legends have since passed, but this vibrant New York neighborhood, which is home to an eclectic mix of New Yorkers, remains an epicenter for the arts.

SoHo, an acronym for South of Houston (Street), is a hip downtown neighborhood that is favored by actors, artists, and supermodels. In the late 1960s to mid ‘70s, SoHo underwent a major urban renewal, transforming it from a gritty industrial area into one of the world’s art centers. Today, New York City’s most fashionable neighborhood is best known for its contemporary art galleries, chic shops and restaurants, and luxurious penthouses, housed in the iconic cast-iron buildings that line its quaint cobblestone streets.

Tribeca is transformation. Once a gritty industrial wasteland of disused factories, warehouses, and mercantile spaces, the arrowhead-shaped “Triangle Below Canal” has become one of Manhattan’s most desirable neighborhoods, and its most expensive Zip Code. Those ancient lofts, with their high ceilings and enormous windows, became luxury apartments; those historic cast-iron building fronts woke to find their cobblestones bustling with the hottest upscale bistros and bars, Michelin-starred restaurants, leading-edge art galleries, and ultra-chic boutiques. How did it happen?

Some of New York City’s most luxurious and innovatively designed properties grace the glimmering skyline of West Chelsea, a neighborhood transformed from an industrial hub on the Hudson River to the contemporary art capital of the world. The High Line—New York City’s “park in the sky”—is the focal point of this deftly reimagined corner of Manhattan. Here, the world’s most influential art galleries converge with cutting-edge contemporary buildings designed by Pritzker Prize winners, such as Frank Gehry, Sir Norman Foster, and Zaha Hadid. West Chelsea’s beau monde—artists, actors, fashion designers, and tech moguls—are drawn to a neighborhood newly revitalized with a contemporary, energetic makeover that has retained its artistic edge.