Exclusive | Cottage in the sky crowns $7.5M NYC penthouse offering a rare rooftop house right in Manhattan

It looks as if a tornado picked up a Cape Cod cottage and dropped it on an East Village rooftop.Perched above 203 E.13th St., an unlikely cedar-clad house in the sky — complete with pitched rooflines, terraces and greenery — has hit the market as part of a $7.5 million penthouse.The three-bedroom, three-bath duplex spans roughly 2,000 square feet indoors, plus nearly 1,000 square feet of private outdoor space.

But its defining feature is upstairs: a cottage-like structure that appears strikingly out of place against the surrounding Manhattan skyline.And many may not even know it exists.“Generally speaking, when you’re adding a pop-up to a building, you have to have it set far enough back that you don’t see it,” listing broker, Serhant’s Corrin Thomas, told The Post.“Now, this was done at a time when it got approved, so you get the really unique charm of it.”“Seeing something that has this cottage aesthetic is very rare,” he added.

“I’ve seen maybe one or two in the entire city.”The unusual aerie wasn’t always so quaint.According to Thomas and fellow listing broker Violetta Weddepohl, an earlier, far plainer rooftop structure was transformed in the mid-1980s into the cottage that crowns the building today.The result is a home with something of a split architectural personality.The lower level has the bones of a classic downtown loft, with exposed brick, high ceilings and windows facing multiple directions.The lower level also features four working woodburning fireplaces, including a pair positioned on opposite sides of the main living and dining areas.

A fifth fireplace is currently being used to hold furniture but could potentially be made functional, according to Thomas.Climb the internal staircase, however, and the apartment takes on an altogether different character.The penthouse has two private outdoor areas surrounding the upper house structure, including planted and irrigated terraces.From there, the cottage’s improbable set...