Brooklyn Residential Development [Archive] - Page 2

antinimby

January 29th, 2007, 11:40 PM

Gates in Place of Doormen

By JAKE MOONEY
Published: January 28, 2007 (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/nyregion/thecity/28stre.html)

The only thing stretching across the entrance to the Bay Front Estates at Mill Basin last week, over a mud-and-gravel road split by a trench for the new water and sewer pipes, was a string of multicolored flags, sagging from a pair of long two-by-fours driven into the raw ground.

But while the development, in southeastern Brooklyn, is still unfinished and the lavish single-family houses inside have only begun to sell, there is a sign that something unusual is afoot. On either side of the entrance, a few feet from each of the ersatz flagpoles, are little guard huts. Once the road is done, the people in the huts will control access to that rarest of New York development phenomena: a gated community.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/01/28/nyregion/thecity/190_stre.jpg

“Just about everyone in Florida lives in one now, and Las Vegas, but they are kind of rare in our area,” said the development’s exclusive broker, Tony vanderBeek of Coldwell Banker Mid Plaza Real Estate.

•

True, New York City has a small number of long-established gated communities, like Sea Gate in Brooklyn and Breezy Point in Queens. But the Bay Front Estates is new, and at least one more is on the way, in Brooklyn’s Bergen Beach. That fenced-off complex is called Mill Harbor Condominiums, and according to its Web site, it will offer its residents “suburban lifestyle close to Manhattan.”

Surprisingly enough, a suburban way of life is just what many people are after, said Dorothy Turano, district manager of Community Board 18, which includes Bergen Beach and Mill Basin.

On the Bay Front Estates site, the board pushed for low-density housing during a tortuous, decade-long rezoning process that saw the rise and fall of multiple development proposals for the land, a fallow stretch across the water from Kings Plaza Mall. In the end, Ms. Turano said, the board was thrilled with the plan by the Queens-based developer H & H Builders for a gated, strictly residential community.

“We don’t have mixed uses here, and we don’t want them,” she said. “We don’t think you should mix commercial and residential. It doesn’t work, not in Brooklyn. The boroughs, they’re more suburban and we want to keep it suburban.”

State Senator Carl Kruger, who represents the neighborhood, said he was impressed by Bay Front Estates, with its meandering road and decorative streetlights, and the flexibility it will give a future homeowners’ association to determine its own level of security.

“It’s exactly what we’d like to be able to replicate on undeveloped parcels throughout the community,” he said.

In the section of Mill Basin near the site, the houses are similar to, if smaller than, the ones inside where the gate will be. The neighboring houses are brick on the first floor, with white siding or shingles above. The homes at Bay Front Estates have stucco. The neighboring homes are detached from one another, with yards, driveways and even garages.

The streets were largely quiet on a recent afternoon, but comments by the few residents who were out suggested that the new estates were no big deal.

“I don’t think anything is really a big deal around here,” 23-year-old Daniel Bykhovsky, who was walking to the bus, said wryly.

So far, Mr. vanderBeek said, four of the new houses have been sold. Twenty others have been built, and 10 lots on the water are set aside for custom houses. The asking prices for the existing houses begin at $1.35 million.

The gate that will be installed at the entrance, he said, is less about safety than about creating a sense of distinctness for the homes within: five-bedroom houses with marble bathrooms. They are, Mr. vanderBeek said, “the nicest houses in the area.”

•

Construction at the Mill Harbor Condominiums is scheduled to continue until the end of the year, but new owners are to begin moving in next month.
Sean Lavin, one of the partners in Parkmore Development, which is building the complex, said the gate would distinguish the walkable, garden-style units from the detached one- and two-family homes nearby.

“It’s not so much that you’re preventing people from getting in there,” Mr. Lavin said. “I think people liked the idea of added security. They didn’t feel the necessity to have it, but it’s similar to being in a doorman building, where it adds a sense of exclusivity.”

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

antinimby

January 29th, 2007, 11:43 PM

“Just about everyone in Florida lives in one now, and Las Vegas, but they are kind of rare in our area,” said the development’s exclusive broker, Tony vanderBeek of Coldwell Banker Mid Plaza Real Estate.
True, New York City has a small number of long-established gated communities, like Sea Gate in Brooklyn and Breezy Point in Queens. But the Bay Front Estates is new, and at least one more is on the way, in Brooklyn’s Bergen Beach. That fenced-off complex is called Mill Harbor Condominiums, and according to its Web site, it will offer its residents “suburban lifestyle close to Manhattan.”
Surprisingly enough, a suburban way of life is just what many people are after, said Dorothy Turano, district manager of Community Board 18, which includes Bergen Beach and Mill Basin.
On the Bay Front Estates site, the board pushed for low-density housing during a tortuous, decade-long rezoning process that saw the rise and fall of multiple development proposals for the land, a fallow stretch across the water from Kings Plaza Mall. In the end, Ms. Turano said, the board was thrilled with the plan by the Queens-based developer H & H Builders for a gated, strictly residential community.
“We don’t have mixed uses here, and we don’t want them,” she said. “We don’t think you should mix commercial and residential. It doesn’t work, not in Brooklyn. The boroughs, they’re more suburban and we want to keep it suburban.”
State Senator Carl Kruger, who represents the neighborhood, said he was impressed by Bay Front Estates, with its meandering road and decorative streetlights, and the flexibility it will give a future homeowners’ association to determine its own level of security.
“It’s exactly what we’d like to be able to replicate on undeveloped parcels throughout the community,” he said.How misguided are these Brooklynites?

Why would you want to make the outer boroughs more suburban in character?

Is the suburban model the type of model that anyone should even try to follow anymore?

Much less neighborhoods within a large city?!!

Fools.

pianoman11686

January 30th, 2007, 12:48 AM

First it was Miami. Now, Naples comes to Brooklyn.

antinimby

January 31st, 2007, 12:48 AM

Ironic that Brooklyn is looking to emulate Miami when Miami is now trying to emulate New York (http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showpost.php?p=138674&postcount=292).

The grass is always greener on the other side fence...

Derek2k3

February 12th, 2007, 06:14 PM

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Forte'

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99 Gold

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Beacon Tower & J Condo

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Archit_K

February 14th, 2007, 10:41 AM

let me guess, location pratt, brooklyn... nice close up views of 7the world trade center, downtown manhattan... somebody upgraded their camera.

Derek2k3

February 26th, 2007, 12:14 AM

^ yup.
Thursday I had to walk to Manhattan since I couldn't afford the train. So we begin here in Ft. Greene.

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Myrtle Avenue

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The "back" of Forte'

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John Catsimatides' Development. Includes a 400' tower by SOM along with some other stuff.

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I'm assuming the tower will rise here along Flatbush Ext..

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What Ratner can do to an architect like Cesar Pelli.

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Oro Condos

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Brooklyn's tallest new skyscraper. Hopefully not for long....

Derek2k3

February 26th, 2007, 01:03 AM

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/164/402977945_0f681e957a.jpg
...since Piano will design a new tower for Brooklyn Tech here.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/141/402977948_d9f47c649f.jpg
Doesn't seem like much is happening at "Brooklyn's Flatiron Building" (85 Flatbush).

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/143/402978727_480f908c0f.jpg
Notice another development site.

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Looking back down Flatbush.

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Bridge View Tower

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Getting on the Bridge

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/158/402979306_5239b1b51d.jpg

Derek2k3

February 26th, 2007, 01:13 AM

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/173/402979313_8b650bd275.jpg
Usual rush hour congestion on the BQE

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Bridge View is illuminated nicely at night.

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DUMBO

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Adios Bk.

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Downtown looking dreamier than photos can show.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/144/402979822_e37e019487.jpg
..or maybe I was just getting tired.

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Derek2k3

February 26th, 2007, 01:15 AM

Last 3. Too dark to take photos after this. I eventually got to the sustainable skyscraper lecture at 7WTC and walked over the BK Bridge on the way back. These walks sure help me remember how beautiful the city is.

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Lance75

February 26th, 2007, 09:39 AM

Nice pics, Derek.

Do you know why this entrance to Metrotech is blocked by the police at all times by any chance?

IMO, this is a great shot that illustrates exactly what's wrong with Metrotech. It's completely cut off--by design--from the rest of the nabe.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/183/402977942_90c22f99cd.jpg
Brooklyn's tallest new skyscraper. Hopefully not for long....[/quote]

Derek2k3

February 27th, 2007, 11:51 AM

I think NYPD and the Fire Department has offices in those buildings. They always tell me to stop taking pictures.

Stern

March 1st, 2007, 03:16 AM

I'm sure we've already discussed this proposal, I just don't remember. From Ismael Leyva Architects, I counted 55 floors...

http://www.ilarch.com/images/photos/29_060526_new.jpg

Lance75

March 6th, 2007, 06:27 PM

By Leonard Greene, Brigitte Williams-James and Dan Kadison for the New York Post
March 6, 2007 --

It's a classic lesson in home economics: Brooklyn's residential real-estate market is soaring, thanks to a relatively low housing supply and the burgeoning demand to live there, a new report says. Median home prices jumped an impressive 16 percent in 2006, according to the study by the Real Estate Board of New York.

"Here's the straight answer: People can't pay [Manhattan prices] anymore. So they move here. It's cheaper, plus you have various ethnic groups, and that's very appealing," said Sal Dibartolo, a 43-year-old manager at Nina's Pizza in Williamsburg.

Olivia Weeden, a 19-year-old waitress and student at the Fashion Institute of Technology, said, "I moved because it was cheaper than Manhattan.
"I was living on the Upper East Side," she said. "There's a really nice sense of community here. There are a lot more really unique things every day."

The market has been great news for sellers, with some properties going for as much as their Manhattan neighbors would be asking.

Terry Naini, of Prudential Douglas Elliman, said he just brokered the $875,000 sale of an 1,100- square-foot condo in Carroll Gardens. He said it would have fetched $750,000 last year.

John Esposito, 44, a former renter, recently purchased a home in Carroll Gardens for a $2 million. The neighborhood, he said, "is close to the city and it's become very, very rich. I've been in and out of the neighborhood all my life and I don't plan on leaving. I love it."

The brownstone neighborhoods' proximity to Manhattan, where many buyers have been priced out, makes Brooklyn an increasingly attractive option. Last month, the Real Estate Board released a report on Manhattan sales that showed that the median price of an apartment there last year was $775,000.

The East Side led the Manhattan price jump in 2006, with median sale prices rising 17 percent, to $930,000. Median prices for East Side condos rose 32 percent, to $1.12 million, and prices for co-ops increased 9 percent, to $816,000.

The prices sent many buyers across the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges in search of better deals.

"Our market is driven by the Manhattan market," said Vinny DiMartino of Brownstone Real Estate. "As people are priced out of that market, they turn to the outer boroughs. Since we're so close to Manhattan, it's attractive to people. It's an easy commute, and this neighborhood is more of a community."

Victor Reyes, a 30-year-old restaurant manager in Williamsburg, agrees. "People are attracted to the village life [in Brooklyn]. It's a social thing," Reyes said. "People are more human and friendlier."

Still, while the market's numbers are good news for sellers, they're bad for buyer wannabes, who saw bids for homes in the borough skyrocket while relatively few houses and apartments changed hands.

Samantha Weiss, a 25-year-old office manager from Clinton Hill, said, "Just a month ago, my parents and I were curious, and we went out looking at property: One bedroom for half a million with views of Manhattan. "It's a cool neighborhood," she said of the area. "There are bars and stores. But it's just an obscene amount of money."

In Carroll Gardens, the prices are even higher. The trendy nabe's cooperative apartments boasted Brooklyn's highest average sale price in 2006, $681,000, a 12 percent increase over the previous year. But even Carroll Gardens' rise was small change compared to the average price of a condominium in the DUMBO-Fulton Ferry neighborhood last year. Condos there were going for just over $1 million.

Median condo and co-op sales rose in virtually every Brooklyn neighborhood. Only Sunset Park and Boerum Hill failed to show an increase. Median sale prices for one-, two- and three-family homes rose in every neighborhood included in the Brooklyn study.

Brooklyn Heights showed the highest jump in that category, with the median price of homes at more than $3 million, a 21 percent surge from the year before.

londonlawyer

March 6th, 2007, 06:39 PM

I'm sure we've already discussed this proposal, I just don't remember. From Ismael Leyva Architects, I counted 55 floors...

http://www.ilarch.com/images/photos/29_060526_new.jpg

That's nice. Were is it located?

lofter1

March 6th, 2007, 08:54 PM

Leyva's website (http://www.ilarch.com/projects/newproj121106.html) is really aggravating ...

It shows pics of projects like the one above and tells you nothing about location, etc.

Plus it tells you to click for more pics -- and often all you get are X X X X

:mad:

BrooklynRider

March 6th, 2007, 10:08 PM

That was posted a while back. No address is offered. Based on the rendering I thought (and think Derek agreed) that it looks like the site of the old Popeyes or whatever that chicken place was at the SE corner of Nevins & Flatbush.

londonlawyer

March 7th, 2007, 12:31 AM

antinimby

March 7th, 2007, 05:19 PM

Leyva's website (http://www.ilarch.com/projects/newproj121106.html) is really aggravating ...Looks like he is about to reveal another new development on his website. Second item from the top, on the right side.

The full image on the pop-up window hasn't been added yet but the thumbnail clearly shows something.

lofter1

March 7th, 2007, 07:07 PM

That's been like that ^^^ for weeks :mad:

BrooklynRider

March 7th, 2007, 07:20 PM

Am I wrong to think that is Broadway & Reade?

lofter1

March 7th, 2007, 07:46 PM

57 Reade (http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8855&highlight=reade) is being done by SLCE

BrooklynRider

March 7th, 2007, 08:08 PM

57 Reade (http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8855&highlight=reade) is being done by SLCE

So much for my eyes (and memory).:(

EugeneNYC

April 4th, 2007, 09:24 PM

Any news on this? Timing, pricing, floorplans?

Brighton Beach to Get Modern High-Rise
Named The Sochi After Russian Resort City Known as Summer Capital of Russia

http://www.pbase.com/image/68886210.jpg

By Linda Collins
published online 10-19-2006

BRIGHTON BEACH — Possibly giving developer Joshua Muss a run for his money, a 22-story modern high-rise will soon be built in Brighton Beach, just blocks from Muss’s massive Oceana Condominium and Beach Club.

The Bobker Group, a Brooklyn-based development company originally from Australia, reports it has closed on a waterfront residential development site at 271 Sea Breeze Avenue.

The company, in conjunction with several partners, plans to construct an 85-unit condominium tower on the property, which is currently a vacant lot, according to Ben Bobker, a principal.

“We will be breaking ground within a few months,” Bobker said, adding that completion is anticipated for 2008.

The Bobker Group’s partners include Perry M. Finkelman, CEO of American Development Group; and Mark Engel, CEO of Langsam Property Services Corp.

Architect Michael Even of EM Design Group, based in Manhattan, is designing the project.

And with its location in the predominantly-Russian area of Brooklyn, the development will be called The Sochi after the famous Russian resort city on the Black Sea, known as “the summer capital of Russia.” Brighton’s Sochi will offer unobstructed views of the Atlantic Ocean. That is because the New York Aquarium is across the street between the high-rise site and the beach.

The units will range from one-bedroom to three-bedrooms plus there will be several duplex penthouses. Amenities will include high-end imported finishes, floor-to-ceiling glass windows, secured parking, and a lifestyle-enhancing health club to include tennis courts, an indoor swimming pool and a fitness center.

The Bobker Group is currently developing over 500,000 square feet of residential condominium projects in the city, including the Morgan Lofts, an $80 million project at 36th and 5th in Manhattan; 127 Twin Tower condominiums in White Plains; and a 42- unit development in Gravesend, Brooklyn, adjacent to the prominent Syrian Jewish community, in conjunction with well-known Russian general contractor Joe Klaynberg from Wonderworks.

This new site is a large through-lot (to Brighton Avenue) that is 21,720 square feet and measures approximately 150 feet by 145 feet. It is zoned for residential use.

The June sale was reported at $13.8 million by propertyshark.com.

© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2006

http://www.pbase.com/image/68886209.jpg

antinimby

June 1st, 2007, 01:02 AM

Housing Plan Puts Idea of East New York’s Revival to the Test

By ANDY NEWMAN
Published: May 31, 2007 (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/31/nyregion/31housing.html)

As locations go, things do not get much more impressive than Block 4375, Lot 1 in East New York, Brooklyn.

To the east, the 19 daunting brick towers of the Boulevard public housing project. To the south and west, the equally massive Linden housing project, home to more than 3,000 people. To the north, a strip of the kinds of businesses usually found next to housing projects: C-town supermarket, bulletproofed Chinese restaurant, 99-cent store.

All in all, the city decided, a highly desirable spot for a complex of middle-income condominiums and town houses.

The heralded comeback of East New York, not long ago a name synonymous with murder and mayhem, is being put to the test under a program approved yesterday: the sale by the financially ailing New York City Housing Authority of some of its vacant land parcels around the city for development.

They include a 4 ½-acre parking lot in East New York near the corner of Schenck and Wortman Avenues that is currently home to a dozen stripped and smashed cars, several dozen intact vehicles and, on a sunny Wednesday afternoon, a cluster of men on folding chairs, drinking beer beneath spreading plane trees.

The city is looking for a developer to put up 165 two- and three-family town houses and condos, to be offered at prices affordable for a family of four earning a maximum of $92,170. (Fifteen additional units would be set aside for families making less than $56,700.)

When the men in the folding chairs heard about the concept of families with nearly six-figure incomes sinking their savings into the very spot where they were seated, they chuckled into their Heinekens.

“Anyone with common sense wouldn’t live out here,” said a goateed gentleman about 50 who identified himself only as Keeping It Real. “What makes you think people are going to want to wake up to Dodge City to the left and Vietnam to the right and the O.K. Corral in front?”

Santhony Mason, a U.P.S. employee spending a vacation day hanging out with childhood buddies, scoffed at the idea of a town house surrounded by projects.

“This is a bad place for kids to grow up in,” said Mr. Mason, 34, who did just that. “A couple of weeks ago a kid got shot in the head right in back of that building.”

But as the housing world knows, though there is still considerable crime in East New York, there is also a real estate boom and a price spike that not even an endless wave of new construction seems to slow.

And the fact that the city is insisting that the houses be kept affordable to a family making “only” $92,000 indicates that families at that income level — 130 percent of the median income in the region — may soon be in danger of being frozen out of once lowly East New York.

When Gerard Longo, the president of Madison Estates and Properties, a real estate brokerage company in nearby Marine Park, was told that the city was hoping to offer two-family homes in the new complex for $300,000, he did not miss a beat.

“There’s going to be a very strong demand,” Mr. Longo said. “Someone making $92,000 can certainly afford that.” Indeed, Mr. Longo said that a family of four earning $92,000 could afford to pay up to $450,000 for a house. He then reeled off some recent sale prices for two-family homes in East New York: $570,000; $533,000; $540,000.

Neill Coleman, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, which is in charge of the conversion, said the city had received seven proposals from prospective developers.

Mr. Longo said that placing the town houses directly across from the projects would depress prices somewhat, but not a lot.

Catercorner from Block 4375, Lot 1, is a mini-neighborhood of attached brick town houses that are also bordered by the projects. All the way down Schenck Avenue, across from the Linden projects, are neat two-story, one-family houses, built in the 1950s, with front yards, back yards, wrought-iron fences and well-tended roses. All along Wortman Avenue, across from the Boulevard projects, there are more of the same.

Plenty of these homeowners would not qualify for the middle-income town houses. One woman on Schenck Avenue, who would not give her name, said that she and her husband, both administrators in the public school system, made more than $150,000 together. She said a house on the block had recently sold for $400,000.

“People would move in there,” she said of the city’s proposed complex. “I’m sure they’ll be sold.”

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

antinimby

June 1st, 2007, 01:11 AM

Here's an aerial of the 4.5 acre vacant lot in East New York that the above article is referring to.

It is bordered by Stanley Ave to the north, Schenck Ave. to the east, Wortman Ave. to the south and Van Siclen Ave. to the west.

http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/8546/eastnygw0.jpg

Clarknt67

June 1st, 2007, 11:56 AM

Thought people here might be interested:

http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=5&id=13220

One Brooklyn Bridge Park Plans First Open House for Public Monday
by Linda Collins (), published online 06-01-2007

Working Their Way Through List of Over 3,000 Names, Brokers Report 70 Contracts in the Works
By Linda Collins
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — Real estate magnate Elizabeth Stribling of Stribling & Associates will be one of the first new residents at One Brooklyn Bridge Park, the former Watchtower shipping complex on the waterfront in Brooklyn Heights whose address used to be 360 Furman St.

First reported last week in the New York Times, and confirmed by the developer Robert Levine during a tour of the building yesterday, she has purchased two adjacent units with terraces on the 12th floor, which will be combined, plus a parking space in the garage. The Times reported the total purchase price as $6.6 million.

Levine did not confirm that price, however, and could not confirm a rumor that Trader Joe’s is taking a large core retail space.

“We have no commitments from them, and, frankly, retail is not the focus for us right now, not until everything is set with the park,” said Levine, referring to the status of negotiations involving the Brooklyn Bridge Park developers and his firm, RAL Companies & Affilates.

Stribling was quoted in the Times article saying “it was love at first sight” when she looked at the units on the upper floors.

At least 69 others obviously concur. Levine said there are 70 contracts out for signature, and the brokers are still working from the “infamous list” of over 3,000 names reported in the Brooklyn Eagle last year and are only showing the model units by appointment.

“We’re a little more than halfway through that list now,” he said.

The building will have its first open house for the general public from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Monday, June 4. Selected as model units in the 449-unit building are a studio apartment, a studio with home office, a one-bedroom apartment, a one-bedroom with home office, and a two-bedroom apartment.

All of the units have high ceilings and expansive windows that make them seem larger than the square footage would indicate.

Prices for a studio are starting in the $500,000 range, according to Levine, but an apartment with a home office viewed on yesterday’s tour .had an asking price of $795,000 for a little over 850 square feet.

All units additionally have a washer and dryer, eight-foot doors on every room, oversized walk-in closets and interesting ways of incorporating the industrial-size columns.

“A lot of detail went into including them in the apartments,” said Levine whose background is in design and architecture. “Some of them have been carved out and have recessed lighting.”

A lot of thought went into the corners of the building in the “H” where huge outside stairwells used to be. These stairwells have been removed, and rooms have been created on each floor with floor-to-ceiling windows.

“It was an unbelievable undertaking,” said Levine of the effort to remove the stairwells, “but in the end, it was really worth it.”

“The wall of windows just adds to the spectacular views, not just of Manhattan, the harbor and the East River, but the views all over Brooklyn,” he added as he pointed at the Downtown Brooklyn skyline and the hills to the south.

Levine estimates that the first closings will take place in October and November. He is proud that RAL uses only union labor, and much of the work is done in-house. Affiliate Creative Design Associates is providing architectural services, and Design Construction Consulting (in conjunction with Newmark Construction) is the contractor.

© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007

investordude

June 14th, 2007, 01:42 AM

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/14/arts/design/14wate.html?hp

Even if you buy that New York should somehow be banned from adapting a toxic poisonous ruin into a vibrant modern neighborhood, I think its even more bizarre that an obscure trail in the middle of New Mexico is something these idiots consider more important that a commercial space port. Somehow, I view mankind's commercial success in space as more historically important than a trail no one has ever heard of. If they don't see that, they should be called out as NIMBYs and required to forsake any credibility as people with perspective on history.

sfenn1117

August 20th, 2007, 01:13 AM

Some Brooklyn uglies I found today.

8109 Bay Parkway
8 floors/96 feet
11 units
Bricolage Designs
http://i18.tinypic.com/4q8amms.jpg

7620 Bay Parkway
6 floors/67 feet
19 units
Karl Fischer architect
http://i11.tinypic.com/4lnlkyp.jpg
^Doesn't look like his typical work, probably a cheap developer.

Development site for sale:
7512-7524 Bay Parkway
http://i18.tinypic.com/4q51dhi.jpg

34 Avenue P- New 4 story school for PS 237. Not a good picture, I was under a tree trying to stay dry haha.
http://i11.tinypic.com/4zohe2t.jpg

214 Avenue P
6 floors/70 feet
14 units
Moss and Sayad Architects
http://i14.tinypic.com/4uuctwj.jpg
^This wiped out 4 houses.

1569 West 7th st
5 floors/50 feet
19 units
Bricolage Designs
http://i15.tinypic.com/4q8bp1w.jpg
^Typical Brooklyn orange brick and fedders.

1534 West 7th st
3 floors/30 feet
6 units
Bricolage Designs (ugh)
http://i11.tinypic.com/630cevr.jpg

sfenn1117

August 20th, 2007, 01:25 AM

6422 Bay Parkway
6 floors/70 feet
8 units
Scarano Architect
http://i13.tinypic.com/62zulic.jpg

http://i15.tinypic.com/5zp865j.jpg
^It's no surprise a Scarano designed building was the best one I saw all day. Right next door on 65th (seen on the left of the first photo) an application exists for another Scarano building:

2173 65 st
5 floors/50 feet
8 units

6410 Bay Parkway
5 floors/50 feet
14 units
Bricolage Designs (yawn)
http://i17.tinypic.com/6gx1ld3.jpg

http://i15.tinypic.com/4trk51f.jpg

This one was on the corner of 21st Ave and 60th st (2084 60th st)
http://i12.tinypic.com/63ttd14.jpg

I love how the sign isn't in English, yet the foreigners have better taste than NY developers.
http://i11.tinypic.com/6gvah5h.jpg

Bonus shot from the 62nd street station (This is why I love elevated trains)
http://i18.tinypic.com/4pal1f6.jpg

http://i19.tinypic.com/6fjpv89.jpg

sfenn1117

August 20th, 2007, 01:28 AM

I was going to walk around more but the rain took me by surprise. Unfortunately it's generally the same type of buildings all over Brooklyn anyway. Brighton Beach seems to be getting decent buildings....some pretty large (8-10 stories). Also Ocean Ave and Ocean Parkway have seen a lot of mid-rise construction. Some buildings can be seen on this realty website:

http://bigapplehomesrealty.com/Buyers.htm

Click on a neighborhood and then condos.

antinimby

August 21st, 2007, 06:13 PM

Thanks for those pics of Bensonhurst. I used to live not too far from where you took those pics. I'll be back there next month so I'll probably take more pics myself of the area around there.

I agree that Scarano on the corner of 65 St. and Bay Parkway (a very big and bustling intersection) is a great design and there seems to be retail on the ground floor to boot. I remember there was just a tiny nondescript private house on that corner before with a lawn all around, so that's an improvement right there.

Meanwhile, that Bricolage piece of trash a couple of doors down is exactly that, garbage. I can't believe they don't even have retail on the first floor because that lot has a commercial overlay.

By the way, the one pic with a rendering up on the site, those aren't foreigners, they're Jews. :D

sfenn1117

August 21st, 2007, 08:59 PM

By the way, the one pic with a rendering up on the site, those aren't foreigners, they're Jews. :D

LOL. Well I don't know hebrew when I see it.

Bensonhurst was downzoned but Bay Parkway is still R6, while much of Ave P, Quentin Rd, and Kings Highway are R7A. These areas are still seeing a good amount of construction, most of it is pretty bad though.

Here's Bay Parkway and 65th from live local, before the construction. There's your house/lawn on the corner so the increased density is an improvement. Since the building next door is for sale that will probably be razed as well.
http://i17.tinypic.com/4kmszeq.jpg

Here's another Bay Parkway proposal, #6507 by a Brooklyn developer that actually has a soul. They use Karl Fischer for their buildings and they are pretty good. Plus, he's smart and puts commercial on the first floor where its allowed and encouraged rather than more apartments.
http://i16.tinypic.com/6b2mywl.jpg
http://bobkergroup.com/current.htm

We'll see what you can find when you're in the area.

infoshare

September 21st, 2007, 09:06 PM

New LOL LUX condo/hotel development (http://www.rivierarealestateagency.com/images/plastinumb2a.swf) in Williamsburg. The Platinum Empire Cove.

lofter1

September 21st, 2007, 11:34 PM

That one is about as obnixious as it gets http://wirednewyork.com/forum/images/icons/icon13.gif .

fioco

September 22nd, 2007, 01:17 PM

That condo website is a fake. It's an artist's creation by Matt Hairyman. Here's the "front" page to the website (http://www.rivierarealestateagency.com/index.html) installation called Riviera Real Estate.

lofter1

September 22nd, 2007, 05:42 PM

fooled me :o

infoshare

September 22nd, 2007, 11:26 PM

:DThat condo website is a fake. It's an artist's creation by Matt Hairyman. Here's the "front" page to the website (http://www.rivierarealestateagency.com/index.html) installation called Riviera Real Estate.

Well, I did give a hint that it was a fake/joke with the LOL Condo comment: but really - THE PLATINUM EMPIRE COVE - how could anyone not have not seen that one comming. :eek:

Then again: there are actually a few new condos with equally obnoxious names such as the SPLENDITO and the ABSOLUTE - so I guess the above fake/joke website could be easily mistaken for the real thing. When there is so much happening that is already absurd; it's hard to do satire.

BTW, that fake site is very clever - I must say.

antinimby

September 29th, 2007, 12:38 AM

101 Quentin Rd. (also 1671 W. 10 St.) in Gravesend.

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/2882/img0001ya5.th.jpg (http://img208.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img0001ya5.jpg)

Back over onto Bay Parkway, this is at the corner of W. 8 St.:
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/921/img0005wc0.th.jpg (http://img170.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img0005wc0.jpg)

On the next block to the south at the corner of W. 10 St. and Bay Parkway, they cleared what was the neighborhood's only movie theater.

The architecture of the theater was nothing special but the replacement as shown in the rendering that's up on the site looks so bland.

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/8413/img0003xt2.th.jpg (http://img171.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img0003xt2.jpg) http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/319/img0110sz9.th.jpg (http://img171.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img0110sz9.jpg)

I really like this development as it is replacing a plain one-story brick box. It's at the SW corner of E. 2 St. and Kings Highway also in Gravesend.
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/1916/img0098tv6.th.jpg (http://img216.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img0098tv6.jpg)

antinimby

September 29th, 2007, 12:48 AM

Here's a closer look at the rendering from that project's website (http://ethanplaza.com/).

http://ethanplaza.com/images/ethan_rend_fr.jpg

sfenn1117

September 29th, 2007, 01:57 AM

The Quentin Rd one isn't bad...it's a Karl Fischer building, but the rest are typical outer Brooklyn crap.

antinimby

September 29th, 2007, 04:04 PM

Yes I agree. That KF building is better than most of the schlock we normally get in the boroughs and since it replaced a one-story private garage, I am especially satisfied.

BrooklynRider

October 4th, 2007, 09:02 PM

Brooklyn Real Estate Continues To Defy National Downturn

Borough Now a ‘First-Choice Destination’
By Dennis Holt
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

BROOKLYN — It almost seems unreal to report on new Brooklyn real estate statistics — up and going up — when the national news is so grim. Just Tuesday, Morgan Stanley announced cutting 600 jobs after “a decline in mortgage-related revenue that led to lower third-quarter earnings than analysts expected.”

But the major real estate firms that serve Brooklyn are beginning to report some year-to-date and third quarter sales numbers, and in most respects, it’s about the same tune for the past few years.

There are a lot of reasons for these trends, many well-understood, but a new dynamic has begun to make an impact: some of the new high-rise buildings in Downtown Brooklyn are getting filled up, and this pattern will continue for several more months.

For example, in a new report, Halstead Property said, “Once a less expensive alternative to Manhattan, Brooklyn has now become the first-choice destination for many homebuyers.”

Halstead went on to report that in the first six months of 2007, the median price for houses in brownstone Brooklyn was $1.645 million, up 22 percent from a year ago. The apartment market, Halstead also reports, has remained strong with a median price of $618,000 — 16 percent higher than during the first half of 2006.

The Corcoran Group this week showed that the average sales price for Brooklyn in the third quarter of this year was 11 percent higher than in the third quarter of 2006 and that the number of deals increased from 377 to 484, a 28 percent rise.

Looking at some basic numbers, sales of townhouses, co-ops and condos in the third quarter of 2007 came to about $434 million, compared to $243 million in the same period of last year. The number of deals was also up, as was the price per square foot.

Halstead also takes note that in the brownstone communities, most of which are landmarked, there is little new construction, “so that when a home comes to market, there is a feeding frenzy,” usually meaning multiple bids.

In the Brooklyn section of one Halstead portfolio, the firm lists 17 properties that are available, 10 of which are condos. But the average asking price comes out to $1.1 million, showing an affluent market.

© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007

http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=27&id=15874

JCMAN320

October 4th, 2007, 11:04 PM

^^Same can be said about Jersey City and Hoboken.

investordude

October 10th, 2007, 11:36 AM

I think this kind of branding would definitely boost the Williamsburg waterfront, if its true.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/10102007/business/bklyn_gets_apple__barneys.htm

BrooklynRider

October 10th, 2007, 03:30 PM

I would guess that Apple would thrive and Barney's would languish.

investordude

October 10th, 2007, 10:09 PM

I think hipters don't wear Barneys even if they can afford it. Too mainstream in a bad way. Apple has the cool factor though, and the reality is a lot of creative people genuinely need and use Apple's products.

lofter1

October 11th, 2007, 12:08 AM

Are hipsters gong to be the buyers of those thousands of new $1M condos going up on and around the W-Burg waterfront?

:confused:

Clarknt67

October 24th, 2007, 06:18 PM

I'm not sure hipsters are the future of Williamsburg Brooklyn, more like Barney's wearers who are now house-poor and bargain shopping.

brianac

October 27th, 2007, 06:50 AM

About New York

A Hole in Brooklyn, and Scandal at City Hall

By JIM DWYER (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/d/jim_dwyer/index.html?inline=nyt-per)

Published: October 27, 2007
For the best part of two years, Dr. Budd Heyman and others politely hectored people in city government about the hole in the ground down the block from his house in Brooklyn. It was, he argued, a construction project that did not meet the law, an apartment building being wedged into a neighborhood of single-family homes.
A physician at Bellevue, Dr. Heyman is smart and had his facts straight. That did not help much. Every level of Michael R. Bloomberg (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/michael_r_bloomberg/index.html?inline=nyt-per)’s administration blew him off. But he was right. They were wrong.
This is not the saga of a hole in the ground, but of holes in how this city makes sure that buildings are safely constructed — and in how public officials treat citizens who seek honest answers.
“With others from our civic association, I went all over the city government,” Dr. Heyman said. “We asked for meetings. We didn’t get them. We got insulting answers to questions. You have to be extremely, extremely persistent just to have a shot at getting a fair shake from city government.”
The short version goes like this: In the Homecrest section of Sheepshead Bay, a developer bought a building site at the corner of Avenue S and East 16th Street. He wanted to put up a five-story building of condominiums. But right around that time, the city changed the zoning to protect the neighborhood from large-scale construction.
For the developer to have the benefit of the old zoning, he had to finish the foundation by Feb. 15, 2006. It was a race. “We were there until late the night before; the next day, the inspector came and saw it was finished in time to vest under the old zoning,” said Pericles A. Christodoulou, an engineer who worked for the developer, Samuel Kahan. The building inspector declared the foundation was complete. The five-story project could go ahead.
In fact, the foundation was nowhere near finished. It was missing three 90-foot concrete slabs, one of them 20 feet wide.
Yet no city inspector noticed that these enormous slabs were not there, even though 18 visits were made to the site, many in response to complaints from neighborhood residents. (Of these 18 visits, only the first inspection was specifically to look at the foundation, according to a spokeswoman for the city.)
Dr. Heyman said that with his City Council representative, Tony Avella, he asked to meet with the Brooklyn borough commissioner for the Department of Buildings, Magdi A. Mossad. Dr. Heyman heard from Mr. Mossad in a letter that said his office and the legal department had reviewed the job and determined that “the foundation was complete on 2/15/2006.”
After questions from The New York Times, the city abruptly withdrew the building permit for the site this month. Not only were the slabs missing, but so were other concrete footings. The Buildings Department announced it was starting an investigation into what went wrong.
How could a borough building commissioner say the foundation was complete if it was missing three 90-foot-long slabs? Mr. Mossad declined to answer questions yesterday.
Why did the city shut the door on the complaints by Dr. Heyman and others?
“We feel like it’s too early to tell,” said Kate Lindquist, a spokeswoman for the Buildings Department. “We don’t know what the outcome of the internal investigation will be.
“The bigger thing for New Yorkers to know is that this is an agency that has made a lot of progress — to infuse integrity back into the agency, to open the doors.”
It had better. In the coming years, New York somehow expects to safely fit one million more people onto its streets and inside its buildings. For decades, the city has depended heavily on engineers and architects hired by the builders to assure that construction meets the codes. The theory is that professionals would not put their licenses at risk to certify a project that did not deserve it.
This turns out to be a system that cannot be trusted. In an audit of 155 projects that had been certified by private engineers or architects as having met the city codes, 80 percent of the jobs turned out to have problems, the Buildings Department found.
What New York has, then, is a faith-based inspection system. In July, Patricia Lancaster, the city’s buildings commissioner, announced stiffer penalties for professionals who wrongly certify that a project has been finished, and a system of checking on them.
In retrospect, the city and the public got off easy with the Brooklyn project. It is a small scandal, rooted in an error that has yet to be explained. Luckily, no one had to die to expose it.

antinimby

November 10th, 2007, 03:22 AM

My oh my. Six whole stories tall! The world is coming to an end!!

Columbia Street rising — high

http://www.brooklynpaper.com/assets/photos/30/44/30_44_hicksstreetview_z.jpg
A developer wants to build a tall building on the west side of Hicks Street between Warren
and Baltic streets.

By Mike McLaughlin
The Brooklyn Paper
November 10, 2007 (http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/30/44/30_44columbiast.html)

Developers shared their plans to build 170 units of housing in the rapidly changing Columbia Street Waterfront district, but residents made it clear that they opposed the size of the buildings in the $80-million project.

The project is a joint venture between the city and L&M Equity, and includes the creation of several apartment buildings and townhouses on two blocks bounded by Congress, Baltic, Columbia and Hicks streets.

One building would be 80 feet tall and have 100 units, including all 40 of the project’s city-subsidized affordable apartments. The other two apartment buildings would be 60 feet tall. The developer expects to finish construction in 2010.

The scale of the proposed buildings provoked an outcry from several people who attended the Community Board 6 land-use committee meeting on Oct. 25.

“People want the buildings to be reflective of the property that’s already there,” summarized Anthony Pugliese, a member of the CB6 committee.

To fend off criticism, the developer said he’d place the biggest building on Hicks Street, facing the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway.

“The general idea is that along the side-streets, we’re trying to blend, and along the BQE, we’ll go with the height,” said David Gross, the project’s architect.

But that camouflage wasn’t working with some residents, who complained that project would still dwarf the three- and four-story existing buildings on these blocks.

Others were upset that 77 percent of the project’s total housing would be market-rate.

“You need more affordable housing,” said Celia Cacace, another board member. “I don’t feel like they’re giving this community anything. I only feel like they’re taking advantage of the [city affordable housing] subsidy.”

L&M would get tax breaks for building 40 affordable units on what is currently city-owned property. Cacace is upset that the other buildings — which would not be built on what is currently city-owned land — will not have any below–market-rate housing.

It will be luxury units because the city cannot require the developer to build affordable housing on private land. But a city official said this week that the project is good news because it will create much-needed housing, both affordable and luxury.

“One of the key components of the mayor’s [long-term plan] is to prepare for the addition of one million New Yorkers in the next 25 years,” said Seth Donlin, a spokesman for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, referring to Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC 2030. “Clearly we’re going to need housing for these New Yorkers.”

©2007 The Brooklyn Paper

antinimby

February 12th, 2008, 05:24 PM

Looks like Scarano's design has been replaced for the project on top of the Carroll Gardens subway station.

From curbed (http://curbed.com/archives/2008/02/12/scarano_booted_from_smith_street_heavy_metal_job.p hp#reader_comments):

Scarano Booted from Smith Street 'Heavy Metal' Job

Tuesday, February 12, 2008, by Robert

http://curbed.com/uploads/2008_02_360Smith.jpg

Architect Robert Scarano is off the job at the Heavy Metal Building at 360 Smith Street. The building had morphed to a more easy listening version by last fall after the original helped lead to the formation of a group pushing a downzoning and building moratorium in the neighborhood, but last night developer Billy Stein told a packed community meeting that Mr. Scarano had been replaced by Armand Quadrini of KSQ Architects. Mr. Quadrini has also replaced Mr. Scarano on another job in Park Slope, but more about that later on. The new building is still 70 feet tall, presenting what one resident called "a monster-sized facade on Smith Street." Local blogger Pardon Me For Asking writes that it "looks better, much better. But there is quite a lot of room for improvement." Brownstoner has more shots of the rendering. The design,which isn't final, preserves the plaza in front of the Carroll Street subway station and construction is supposed to start ASAP. The new 49-unit condo will be called Oliver House.

The previous Scarano design from curbed (http://curbed.com/archives/2007/05/24/heavy_metal_coming_to_smith_street.php):
http://www.curbed.com/2007_05_Smith-2ndPlace.jpg

The site of the Carroll St. station from The Gowanus Lounge (http://gowanuslounge.blogspot.com/2008/02/scarano-booted-from-heavy-metal-job-on.html):
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2189/2260569556_4cde88d8dc_o.jpg

Different angles of the new design from Brownstoner (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/02/carroll_gardens_5.php):
http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/360-smith2-02-2008.JPG

http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/360-smith4-02-2008.JPG

Pics from the meeting Monday night from Pardon Me For Asking (http://pardonmeforasking.blogspot.com/2008/02/new-360-smith-street-better-except-for.html):
http://bp3.blogger.com/_uFooa8uVVH4/R7EPtkTiclI/AAAAAAAADkc/U0OnFTkPl3k/s400/P1010024.JPG
Mr. Bill Stein and the new design for 360 Smith

http://bp1.blogger.com/_uFooa8uVVH4/R7EQFETicmI/AAAAAAAADkk/V8Bk2LHvI6M/s400/P1010007.JPG
Councilman Bill De Blasio

http://bp0.blogger.com/_uFooa8uVVH4/R7EQl0TicnI/AAAAAAAADks/FNU9RsqvUvw/s400/P1010002.JPG
Full House At Mary Star Of The Sea

sfenn1117

February 13th, 2008, 03:00 AM

^Not a bad replacement. I just don't want to see it scaled down.

BrooklynLove

February 13th, 2008, 07:51 AM

this is a tough one b/c the brownstone blocks run directly off of this stretch and the existing build here is more park slope 7th ave than park slope 4th ave. not surprising that this vetting process is taking a loooong time. personally, i'm not really sure how i feel about this one - ambivalent i guess.

sfenn1117

February 14th, 2008, 05:51 PM

6 story apartment buildings exist all over Brooklyn. They abut brownstones, single family houses, attached houses. This is not out of scale; it's good dense development on top of a subway station.

antinimby

February 14th, 2008, 06:13 PM

BrooklynLove

February 18th, 2008, 08:52 PM

not disagreeing, but these days any proposal of a new building, especially of large scale, seems to draw resistance of equal scale, and many times lacking a proportionate amount of logic.

Clarknt67

March 5th, 2008, 01:25 AM

If you ask me, it's not large enough. Sites like this near (or in this case, right on top of) subway stations should have much, much higher FARs.

For the very reason that the low-scale brownstones on the sidestreets need to be preserved, sites like this need to absorb the growing space needs of the neighborhood that the brownstones aren't able to.

Are you familiar with the area? It's not a big station by any means, just a small local stop. There aren't any big building in the area, it's all brownstones with maybe 5 story buidlings along smith & court. anything bigger than 6 stories really would be ugly and out of place in my opinion. Please know, I"m applauding the skyscrapers on Flatbush & elsewhere.

antinimby

March 5th, 2008, 02:14 AM

Small local stop or not, it is still subway access. We're not talking about a 30-story tower here with 400 units. It's a seven story with 49 units.

That's hardly that big in a city and on top of a subway station and a few stops away from Manhattan. They have bigger buildings with more units built years ago in places deeper into Brooklyn than this.

As for them being "ugly" and "out of place," that just all depends on each and everyone's opinion. I don't suscribe to the belief that everything has to be at the same height for it to look good. It all depends on the design. An ugly design that have the same height as the brownstones would make the place look worst than something that is handsome but taller.

You have been brainwashed into believing that whatever comes along in the future must follow what was there. If this was the case, many cities today, with the tall towers would never have came about. Manhattan would still be brownstones. Brooklyn would still be farmland. Those brownstones would have been out of place at the time they were built.

Forest > farmland > single story houses > multi-story buildings.

With that said, no one here is saying to destroy those brownstones. They are staying put and in order for them to stay put while the city grows, sites like this, even in a mostly lowrise area (like you seem to be suggesting you know more than me) will have to do more to accomodate that growth because the brownstone blocks cannot grow anymore.

Capice?

brianac

March 6th, 2008, 06:37 AM

Glass Tower To Overlook Prospect Park

By Staff Reporter of the Sun
March 6, 2008

Brooklyn (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Brooklyn) developer Henry Herbst has acquired building permits to erect a 20-story residential tower on Prospect Park (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Prospect+Park) in the Prospect-Lefferts Garden neighborhood. The glass building, to be situated at 27–35 Lincoln Road near Ocean Avenue, will be one of the tallest structures to overlook the park. It will include about 80 units, a 17,000-square-foot private rooftop park, and a large retail space on the ground level. The architect, Tom Gilman of Gilman Architects, said it would have a modern design where the two sections of the building are rotated on top of each other. "There is going to be a lot of glass, which means amazing views of the park," Mr. Gilman said.

Copyright 2008 The New York Sun.

Clarknt67

March 6th, 2008, 01:42 PM

You have been brainwashed into believing that whatever comes along in the future must follow what was there.

Capice?

yowsa. Could you dial down the condescension please? Don't tell me I'm brainwashed because I disagree with you. You never did answer my question if you've seen the area?

My contention was never that all buildings should be the same height everywhere, or that architectural styles should match one another. (In fact, I embrace the Richard Meier building at Grand Army Plaza, that has so many upset for those very reasons.)

My contention was that particular spot doesn't really lend itself well to the sort of urban monstrosities Two Trees and Ratner have been building along Court St and Atlantic St, and other parts of Downtown Brooklyn. I concede that those buildings, while not attractive, do not especially detract from the area.

A bigger than 6 or 7 story modern building would stand out like a 60s housing project, in what is otherwise a very charming brownstone neighborhood. And to what end? It's not needed. Between Downtown, Flatbush, and the Livingston/Schmerhorn corridors housing stock in Brooklyn should certainly be headed for glut.

BrooklynLove

March 6th, 2008, 01:44 PM

clark - how do you feel about the new plg building mentioned above?

Clarknt67

March 6th, 2008, 01:51 PM

which building? (searched for "plg" in the last 5 pages and got nothing)

BrooklynRider

March 6th, 2008, 02:46 PM

Post #319

PLG = Prospect Lefferts Garden

Clarknt67

March 6th, 2008, 05:32 PM

BrooklynLove

March 6th, 2008, 08:59 PM

I can't picture that intersection in my mind, is it near the Pavilion movie theater? There are a few high rises around the Park there. It neither bothers nor thrills me. I can certainly understand why someone would want to buy an apartment in that building. I can also understand why the neighbors wouldn't be thrilled with something towering over them at 20 stories.

nah man, you're way off. prospect park stop on the B/Q.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=27+Lincoln+Road,+brooklyn&sll=40.661776,-73.961592&sspn=0.007471,0.019956&ie=UTF8&ll=40.660884,-73.961785&spn=0.000934,0.002494&t=h&z=19

antinimby

March 6th, 2008, 09:50 PM

yowsa. Could you dial down the condescension please? Don't tell me I'm brainwashed because I disagree with you. You never did answer my question if you've seen the area?The condescension started with you acting like only someone who's actually been in that particular area would know. The fact of the matter is that, I've been in and seen plenty of brownstone blocks in Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn Heights, etc. to know exactly what they look and feel like without having been on that particular street. To suggest otherwise is like saying someone wouldn't know what a dog looks like because he/she has never owned one. It can be taken as an insult on someone's intelligence.

Anyway regardless of whether one has been there or not, your whole point seems to be that brownstone blocks cannot have a taller (by two stories), non-brownstone terminus at the end of the block or else the whole block gets ruined. Now, I know there are literally tons and tons of blocks that violate this rule but yet they are perfectly fine.

My contention was never that all buildings should be the same height everywhere, or that architectural styles should match one another. (In fact, I embrace the Richard Meier building at Grand Army Plaza, that has so many upset for those very reasons.)
My contention was that particular spot doesn't really lend itself well to the sort of urban monstrosities Two Trees and Ratner have been building along Court St and Atlantic St, and other parts of Downtown Brooklyn. I concede that those buildings, while not attractive, do not especially detract from the area.So let's see, you think they're "monstrosities" and yet you concede they don't do any damage, and may even add to the area, right?

Well, this particular building is not even a monstrosity and so it should do even better then.

A bigger than 6 or 7 story modern building would stand out like a 60s housing project, in what is otherwise a very charming brownstone neighborhood.You're alternating between different points of views. On one hand you are saying even larger monstrosities are fine but yet now you are saying 6 or 7 stories will stand out. Which is it?

Regardless, corner buildings can be and in many circumstances should be larger for several reasons:

1) they act as a barrier to the more hectic activities on the larger roads,
2) in doing so, they actually have a positive impact for the midblock brownstones by blocking out the noise, traffic, etc.
3) they are more ideally suited for the larger roads because they offer retail on the groundfloors that brownstones usually don't,
4) they provide a strong visual end to the block, kind of like an anchor.

Of course, you wouldn't expect NIMBYs to understand that because in their minds (and hearts) two more stories will bring that much more people into their backyards and will destroy their bucolic and idealic world.

And to what end? It's not needed. Between Downtown, Flatbush, and the Livingston/Schmerhorn corridors housing stock in Brooklyn should certainly be headed for glut.Why don't we let economics decide if it's needed or not instead of a bunch of people with a certain idea of what a corner in the largest borough in the largest city in the country should be?

Besides, I'm more concerned that once this plot that is ideally suited for a dense development is trimmed down will be a lost opportunity because once built, it will stay that way for a very long time.

antinimby

March 7th, 2008, 02:49 AM

Here is that 20-story PLG tower unveiled by the NY Sun (http://www.nysun.com/article/72437):

http://www.nysun.com/pics/72437_main_large.jpg

Derek2k3

March 7th, 2008, 12:03 PM

For a a firm I've never heard of, some of their work is pretty nice.

http://gilmanarchitects.com/images/2008_0306_Periscope.jpg

http://gilmanarchitects.com/images/2008_0306_Dancing.jpg

http://gilmanarchitects.com/images/2008_0306_Park.jpg

Gilman Architects
http://gilmanarchitects.com

Stern

March 7th, 2008, 01:59 PM

The Prospect Park tower is a little cliché. The Manhattan Tower is wild. Dancing Towers in Brooklyn looks great.

Stern

March 7th, 2008, 02:01 PM

This is just north of the Queensboro Bridge right?

http://gilmanarchitects.com/images/2008_0306_Office.jpg

Clarknt67

March 7th, 2008, 02:34 PM

Your whole point seems to be that brownstone blocks cannot have a taller (by two stories), non-brownstone terminus at the end of the block or else the whole block gets ruined. Now, I know there are literally tons and tons of blocks that violate this rule but yet they are perfectly fine.

No, that is NOT my point. I disagreed with you that THIS VERY SPECIFIC BUILDING should be bigger. I took a look at the sketch and thought, "That's not a building I need to see MORE of." You're free to disagree, respectfully if you can.

So let's see, you think they're "monstrosities" and yet you concede they don't do any damage, and may even add to the area, right?

Because the area the Court House apts are in is kind of monsterously ugly anyway, unlike the site we are discussing.

You're alternating between different points of views. On one hand you are saying even larger monstrosities are fine but yet now you are saying 6 or 7 stories will stand out. Which is it?

Again, I am not, you apparently didn't read my post carefully. I was pretty clear that that it was the SITES that made the difference. Smith Street with it's 2 lanes of traffic, is NOT the same as 6 lanes of Atlantic Ave. with it's House of Detention and 12 story movie theater.

antinimby

March 7th, 2008, 09:07 PM

It's only 7 stories, not 12 so while Smith St. might be a bit narrower than Atlantic Ave., so is the size of this proposal.

Only NIMBYs are obsessed with an extra story or two.

As for this design being "monstrously ugly," everyone can see those renderings a few pages back for themselves. Again when it comes to looks, it comes down to a matter of taste.

I and a few others that have commented here so far don't share your dislike for the design. In fact, I think it fits that corner very well. Not too wild and out there yet have enough details to be interesting.

We very easily could have gotten a three or two-story Fedders-style brick box with cheap-looking metallic balconies. THAT would have been ruined the corner and the block but of course, the NIMBYs wouldn't care because they're just happy it's not two stories taller.

As for my response to you not being respectfully enough, I have already told you that the tone was set by you, not me.

Now, if you have nothing new to add as far as this topic is concern, I think I will move on (and back to) the PLG tower...

23-story luxury condo tower coming to Prospect-Lefferts Garden

http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2008/03/07/amd_tower.jpg
Architect's view of 23-story glass tower
slated for Lincoln Road in Prospect-Lefferts
Garden area.

By JOTHAM SEDERSTROM
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Friday, March 7th 2008 (http://www.nydailynews.com/services/realestate/2008/03/07/2008-03-07_23story_luxury_condo_tower_coming_to_pro.html), 4:00 AM

The rush to develop in Brooklyn is moving south.

A glassy tower that in recent years would seem more likely in Williamsburg is coming to Prospect-Lefferts Garden, an area that has avoided the development bug.

Park Tower, a 23-story luxury condo tower that will overlook the eastern edge of Prospect Park when it's completed next year, will include ground-floor shopping, a rooftop terrace and views of the 526-acre park.

"It's always been a fantastic area and this part of the block is really at the center of the revitalization of the neighborhood," architect Tom Gilman said of the 88,000-square-foot glass tower slated for Lincoln Road and Ocean Ave.

Owned by Brooklyn developer Henry Herbst, the 80-unit tower isn't the first modern-looking condo project to find inspiration from Prospect Park's grassy views.

One Prospect Park, a condo building designed by architect Richard Meier and rumored to have drawn celebrity tenants, is being built at the northern tip of the park.

© Copyright 2007 NYDailyNews.com

Clarknt67

March 7th, 2008, 09:36 PM

Only NIMBYs are obsessed with an extra story or two.

Well you've exposed me, I'm a brainwashed NIMBY incapable of independent thought. Congratuations.

antinimby

March 7th, 2008, 10:00 PM

You said it, I didn't.

Clarknt67

March 7th, 2008, 11:35 PM

As for my response to you not being respectfully enough, I have already told you that the tone was set by you, not me.

Really because I asked you this simple question? "Are you familiar with the area? It's not a big station by any means, just a small local stop," in post 317.

And you described your desire for it to be "Sites like this near (or in this case, right on top of) subway stations should have much, much higher FARs."

And now much much higher is a mere floor or two?

BrooklynLove

March 8th, 2008, 12:27 AM

yo. i'm happier with a big ass building in the plg location than in the carroll gadens location. the CG location is more park slope seventh aveish than the plg location is park slope 5th aveish. you feel me? brooklynlove out.

alonzo-ny

March 8th, 2008, 07:25 PM

Gilmans work is pretty interesting, the periscope is quite nasty though interesting.

antinimby

March 10th, 2008, 02:59 AM

Really because I asked you this simple question? "Are you familiar with the area? It's not a big station by any means, just a small local stop," in post 317.Let's just cut all the pretending. Your initial post to me was not all that nicy nice either and can even be considered on the side of confrontational.

Don't now try to make as though you were all so friendly and I'm the mean, angry guy. The tone of my posts were not that inappropriate or disrespectful and your posts were not that cheery.

And you described your desire for it to be "Sites like this near (or in this case, right on top of) subway stations should have much, much higher FARs." And now much much higher is a mere floor or two?Not sure what exactly you're trying to say here but just to let you know, the site in question has a 2.43 FAR. If you are at all familiar with FAR's, then you know that this is actually a very low number.

You would only find that number in certain areas in the outer boroughs with little or no subway access like southern Brooklyn and eastern Queens.

And as example, there are many places in the heart of NIMBYland in Greenwhich Village that has higher FARs than that.

So what you consider inappropriately out of scale is already quite low.

brianac

March 21st, 2008, 07:51 AM

Park Slope Residents Head to Fourth Avenue

Prices Attract Buyers From the Other Side of the Slope

By BRADLEY HOPE (http://www.nysun.com/authors/Bradley+Hope)
Staff Reporter of the Sun
March 20, 2008

http://www.nysun.com/pics/73282_main_large.jpgKonrad Fiedler
Buying in Brooklyn Three new condominium buildings have opened near Fourth Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Above, the largest of the three, the Novo, at Fourth Avenue and 4th Street.

Fourth Avenue is on the verge of becoming one of the densest new residential areas in Brooklyn (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Brooklyn), experts say, with close to 1,000 apartments under construction on a 1.4-mile stretch of six-lane road known for its car repair shops, gas stations, and big box stores.

Half of the first buyers in the 20 new buildings come from just up the way in Park Slope (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Park+Slope), according to sales directors.

"When I first moved in Park Slope in 1996, I wouldn't even consider living on Fifth Avenue, much less Fourth Avenue, but things are changing," Renato Poliafito (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Renato+Poliafito), who recently bought a one-bedroom at the Argyle, a 94-unit project on Fourth Avenue and 7th Street, said.

"I missed out on a two-floor apartment in Park Slope for $110,000 in the 1990s," Mr. Poliafito, who runs a bakery in Red Hook (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Red+Hook), said. "I'm tired of missing opportunities."

Mr. Poliafito, 34, and his boyfriend acquired the sixth-floor one-bedroom for slightly more than $500,000.

The Argyle, which is now about 60% sold after six months on the market, is one of three buildings on the street that have begun selling units. The others are the Novo at Fourth Avenue and 4th Street and the Crest at Fourth Avenue and 2nd Street.

"If you love Park Slope and you live here now and rent, but have a home that is too small for your growing family, this is a great benefit," a senior sales director at Massey Knakal, Kenneth Freeman, said.

Still, the Novo, the largest development, is struggling, with 57 of 151 apartments, or 40%, sold after more than a year on the market and a round of price cuts. The Crest, on the other hand, has done well, selling 57 of 68 units, or 80%, after eight months on the market. It will be the first building ready for occupancy, with new residents planning to move in this weekend.

All three buildings have listings for between $700 and $800 a square foot, which is about the same as Park Slope and other higher-end neighborhoods in Brooklyn, according to 2007 sales reports.

"This neighborhood is starved for new condos and developments," the sales director of the Crest and the Novo, Steven Laurelli, said.
The other major developments planned for Fourth Avenue include a 12-story, 137-unit building at 12th Street and a 12-story, 94-unit building at Butler Street. A planned upzoning of major thoroughfares in nearby Sunset Park could render Fourth Avenue one of the densest new residential areas in Brooklyn, experts say. The softening real estate market, however, is expected to temper this growth somewhat.

"The pace has slowed because of the market, but you can't walk a block without running into a new building," the chairman of Community Board 7, Randolph Peers, said. "There is a possibility of this reaching even farther up Fourth Avenue."

Some members of the community have voiced concerns about the new developments, noting that not one of the buildings has taken advantage of a deal that allows developers to build taller buildings in exchange for including affordable apartments. And little or no space has been devoted to street-level retail, critics say.

"The grand plan of having Fourth Avenue become the 'Park Avenue of Brooklyn' is coming back to slap city officials in the face," a founder of Concerned Citizens of Greenwood Heights and a Community Board 7 member, Aaron Brashear, said. "The buildings are ugly and architecturally devoid. They are more of a dormitory style than high-end buildings."

A widely circulated article on the Web site Streetsblog.org describes the Novo as a "sidewalk disaster" and "looming fortress-like over a playground."

"Instead of transforming Fourth Avenue into Brooklyn's next great neighborhood, these new developments turn their back on the public realm, burdening the street wall with industrial vents, garage doors, and curb cuts," the article, headlined "New York Can Do Better than the 'New Fourth Avenue,'" said.

For now, the new residents will live in the Manhattan-style condos on Fourth Avenue while shopping and socializing blocks away, near the more retail-oriented Fifth and Seventh avenues.

"In a few years, Fourth Avenue will probably change, but the rest of Park Slope and Red Hook is just a bus ride away, or I can take my bike," Mr. Poliafito said. "Most of the buildings right now look sterile, but they are definitely more affordable than a brownstone."

Copyright 2008 The New York Sun.

Clarknt67

March 24th, 2008, 03:10 PM

I just posted an article on the sad state of 4th Avenue development. It's a little old, from Feb, from Streetsblog.

New developments on Brooklyn's Fourth Avenue like the Crest [BELOW] have turned their back on the public realm.

http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showpost.php?p=221820&postcount=17

BrooklynLove

March 24th, 2008, 10:21 PM

yeah - some of these new 4th ave buildings are very watchtower jahovahesque, but there will be many others in the future that liekly will not follow in the errant ways of their forefathers. this stretch of 4th ave is going to be a fantastic complement to the developed yards as the two stretches form a nexus at the arena, bam, wsb and atlantic terminal. it's going to be great.

posterboy

March 25th, 2008, 12:03 PM

so far the only thing 4th ave complements are the fetid waters of the gowanus canal. very disappointing, and frankly i can't see it getting much better.

BrooklynLove

March 25th, 2008, 10:54 PM

^how long have you lived around there?

posterboy

March 26th, 2008, 12:15 AM

i've lived in brooklyn for the last 9 1/2 years, though only a year in the gowanus area (and that was 3 years ago). and i'm not arguing that the area is not changing. i just throw up in my mouth a little bit every time a developer refers to 4th ave as the "park ave of brooklyn." is it better than parking lots? maybe. but nothing to get excited about, IMHO.

BrooklynLove

March 26th, 2008, 08:33 AM

i hear you, but don't give up on this stretch - transformative development rarely if ever goes from 0 to 10 in one step. you'll get much less frustrated if you think in terms of a 25 year window before passing any conclusionary judgment. 4th ave/gowanus is going to be fabulous on the whole at the end of all of this transformation.

NYC4Life

May 28th, 2008, 06:08 PM

Updated On 05/28/08 at 04:43PM
Soleil opens in S. Williamsburg

http://s3.amazonaws.com/trd_three/images/36486/Soleil_midsize.jpg (http://ny.therealdeal.com/assets/36486) Soleil

Soleil, a 10-story condominium at 275 South First Street, has opened in South Williamsburg near Havemeyer Street. The building's 20 apartments, which include two ground-floor duplexes, range from 620 to 830 square feet and from $489,000 to $615,000. The building, developed by Yidel Hirsch, features a common roof deck and five private roof cabanas that are selling separately. Ernest Keller designed the building and Funda Durukan designed the interior. The broker is aptsandlofts.com.

brianac

June 1st, 2008, 06:31 AM

Carroll Gardens

The Big Front Yards That Rob the Streets

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/06/01/nyregion/stre600.jpg Michael Nagle for The New York Times
One law allowed deep gardens; another counts them in determining street width.

By GREGORY BEYER
Published: June 1, 2008

IN 1846, the City of Brooklyn passed a law requiring that front yards along certain streets in Carroll Gardens be 33 feet 5 1/4 inches deep.
In time, the big yards were responsible for the name of the neighborhood, and for its reputation as a fine place to view Christmas lights during the holidays. But most recently, those trademark gardens have stirred up a bit of controversy.

Although the yards serve as leafy margins to the streets, creating ample open space between the rows of brownstones arrayed on either side, they also put those streets into the “wide” category for zoning purposes. This means developers can build structures on those streets that are taller than would otherwise be allowed.

In recent months, some local residents, with one eye on all the construction, have been objecting to this rule.

“You have developers who are doing things that are really opportunistic and speculative, and we have to live with it,” said Maria Pagano, president of the Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association. “We want to acknowledge that our streets are not capable of handling these buildings.”
The streets themselves are not wide, the residents add; it is the front yards that push the street width over the 75 feet that is the outer limit for the classification of a street as “narrow.” But why, they ask, should the front yards count?

The City Planning Commission (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/c/city_planning_commission/index.html?inline=nyt-org) will hold a public hearing on Wednesday to decide if the streets should be reclassified as narrow. On the several streets that would be affected, the maximum building height would be reduced to 55 feet from 70.

But not all of Carroll Gardens supports the idea. One skeptic is Buddy Scotto, 80, a lifelong resident and the owner of Scotto Funeral Home on First Place, one of the streets at issue.

“In the ’60s, I was ready to abandon the neighborhood like everybody else,” Mr. Scotto said the other day as he watered the trees and flowers that inhabit his 33 feet 5 1/4 inches. The desire back then was to attract developers, he said, but today the sentiment has been reversed, with most of his neighbors “panic-stricken” by anti-development mania.

Mr. Scotto owns several residential buildings in the neighborhood, as does his daughter Debra, a local developer who dismisses the proposal as a faulty “quick fix.” Both father and daughter insisted they had no financial stake in the outcome.

Craig Hammerman, district manager of Community Board 6, has endorsed the proposal to reclassify the streets, but he said that many people were worried that it would unduly restrict local development. Nevertheless, he said, something must be done. Although the Department of City Planning has promised to consider a broader rezoning of Carroll Gardens — a plan that many residents prefer as a more complete bulwark against development — no timetable has been set for it.

“There’s no hope or expectation,” Mr. Hammerman said, “that they will be getting to it during the Bloomberg administration.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/ny...ml?ref=thecity (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/nyregion/thecity/01stre.html?ref=thecity)

Copyright 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)
http://wirednewyork.com/forum/images/misc/progress.gif

brianac

August 31st, 2008, 07:57 AM

‘Moonstruck’ House Sells, Recalling Fight for Preservation

By J. COURTNEY SULLIVAN
Published: August 30, 2008

The locals know the four-story Federal-style brownstone at Cranberry and Willow Streets in Brooklyn Heights as the “Moonstruck” House because it was the setting for the 1987 movie starring Cher and Nicolas Cage (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/nicolas_cage/index.html?inline=nyt-per).

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/08/31/nyregion/31moonstruck.enlarge.jpgSuzanne DeChillo/The New York Times
The historic Brooklyn Heights home known as the “Moonstruck” House, because it was depicted in the film, still draws sightseers.

Neighborhood history buffs know the 1829 home for quite another reason:

It was owned for nearly 50 years by Edwards Rullman, who was instrumental in persuading the city to declare Brooklyn Heights the first historic district in New York more than four decades ago.

Mr. Rullman and his wife sold the house this month for nearly $4 million, according to Elliott Lokitz, an agent at the Corcoran Group who handled the sale. The reason was a familiar one: their children had long moved away and the house felt too big for just the two of them.

“We got 100 times what we paid for it back in 1961,” said Mr. Rullman, a retired architect whose wife, Francesca, is a former opera singer. The couple now live on Cape Cod.

When the Rullmans bought their Brooklyn Heights home, the neighborhood was a grittier version of the now-pristine and upscale enclave filled with impeccably preserved brownstones.

The area fell into disrepair in the 1940s and ’50s. The construction of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway eliminated architectural treasures, including the literary group house whose residents included W. H. Auden (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/a/wystan_hugh_auden/index.html?inline=nyt-per) and Carson McCullers (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/carson_mccullers/index.html?inline=nyt-per). Single-family homes were turned into boarding houses for sailors who worked in the nearby Brooklyn Navy Yard.

“By the close of the war, Brooklyn Heights didn’t have a very good reputation,” Mr. Rullman said. “A lot of us were told that it might not be a safe place to bring our children. But plenty of young families moved in anyway because there was a huge amount of beautiful housing to be had for not much money.”

As early as 1958, some families began meeting to discuss ways to preserve their neighborhood. Led by a lawyer named Otis Pratt Pearsall, they called themselves the Historic Preservation Committee of the Brooklyn Heights Association. “No organized preservation had ever been done in New York City before we came along,” Mr. Pearsall said.

The idea of giving preservation legal weight was evolving in the late 1950s. In 1956, the State Legislature passed the Bard Law, which allowed municipalities to designate landmarks and historic districts. But it was not until 1965 that Mayor Robert F. Wagner established the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission.

“The landscape of the city was quickly changing, and whole swaths of neighborhoods were being destroyed, due largely to plans put forth by public works commissioner Robert Moses (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/robert_moses/index.html?inline=nyt-per),” said Kate Fermoile, the vice president for exhibits and education at the Brooklyn Historical Society.

“One of these plans was the Cadman Plaza urban renewal project, a large-scale civic center that meant the destruction of houses in Brooklyn Heights. In response to the mounting threat, this amazing grass-roots effort began.”

The Historic Preservation Committee’s goal was to win legal preservation status for the neighborhood while trying to defend the area from redevelopment.

Mr. Rullman became chairman of the committee’s Design Advisory Council, which offered free advice to homeowners on proper preservation methods, ranging from historically accurate shades of house paint to the number of panes to put in a window to where to find authentic banisters.

“Restoration was not a big field of endeavor among contractors then the way it is today,” Mr. Rullman said. “Some of us were architects, some were city planners, and this was a way to keep our finger in the dike before preservation became law.”

In 1962, the committee drafted a preservation proposal that aimed to protect 1,284 buildings, including 1,078 houses built in the 19th century, with at least 684 of those constructed before the Civil War. The petition was signed by 2,376 Brooklyn Heights residents.

Clay Lancaster, a historian and writer who lived in the neighborhood, cataloged antebellum buildings in the Heights to make the case for legal protection as a landmark district. His report was eventually published as a book, “Old Brooklyn Heights: New York’s First Suburb.”

The committee failed to stave off the Cadman Plaza project, and in 1964 the demolitions proceeded. Historic brownstones were destroyed as well as the print shop where Walt Whitman (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/walt_whitman/index.html?inline=nyt-per) set the type for the first edition of “Leaves of Grass” in 1855. (This gave way to a residential housing complex in an area called Whitman’s Close.)

Before the demolition, however, eight committee members — including Mr. Pearsall; his wife, Nancy; Mr. Clay; and Mr. Rullman — were able to go through 60 of the buildings.

“We rescued mantels, mirrors, doorways, doorknobs — anything we could remove, we did,” Mr. Pearsall said. They even dug out a cast iron circular staircase from a 12-foot-wide house on Middagh Street. The pieces recovered were cataloged and sold for modest prices to anyone who promised to use them to restore buildings in Brooklyn Heights.

Many of the items remain in the neighborhood: A piece of Greek Revival ironwork ended up on a balcony on Columbia Heights; and a mantel from a house on Clark Street now stands a few doors down, in the parlor of a home Mr. Pearsall owns. As for the staircase, he said, “Half of it went to a man on Willow Street to be used in his garden, and the other half is still in my basement, awaiting inspiration.”

Finally, in November 1965, the Landmarks Preservation Commission granted the Brooklyn Heights Historic District protected status. Other neighborhoods like Greenwich Village followed.

That same year, Mr. Rullman quit his job at a Manhattan architectural firm to open a small shop devoted to restoration in Brooklyn Heights. All told, he restored more than 50 local buildings, including St. Ann’s School. “They couldn’t afford the entire project all at once, so I did two or three floors each year, as funds allowed,” he said of St. Ann’s.

“You can walk around Brooklyn Heights today and see it essentially as it was in 1965 and as it was for decades before that,” Mr. Pearsall said. “It’s a little village in the middle of the city.”

Mr. Rullman said that moving to Cape Cod made sense for him and his wife, except for one small problem. “After two weeks away,” he said, “I already miss Brooklyn Heights.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/ny...on&oref=slogin (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/nyregion/31moonstruck.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin)

Copyright 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

NYC4Life

September 3rd, 2008, 04:07 PM

Brownstoner

September 2, 2008

Development Watch: 339 Greene Avenue (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/09/development_wat_260.php)

http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/339-Greene-Avenue-0808.jpg

Since we last looked at 339 Greene Avenue in Bedford Stuyvesant, the new residential development has risen from four stories to its final height of 12 stories. The slow-moving project will ultimately contain 57 units. (Anyone know how many will be "affordable"?) The developer is also working on another development (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/04/136_clifton_pla.php) down the block at 315 Greene Avenue which has also had its share of delays.

NYC4Life

October 2nd, 2008, 06:52 PM

Brooklyn Paper

City may wash hands of Slope bath

By Sarah Portlock
The Brooklyn Paper

http://www.brooklynpaper.com/assets/photos/31/38/31_38_psmikvah01_z.jpg

A Park Slope building designed to house a Jewish ritual bath — a mikvah — faces revocation of its construction permit after the Buildings Department challenged the sponsor’s plans to have hotel units and a conference center on site.

The news comes after some neighbors of the building, on 15th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues, told the city they feared it would generate traffic and parking congestion.

“This is a residential street and we already have a lot of problems with parking, and we have constant buses and delivery trucks,” said Kathryn Roake, a 20-year-resident of 15th Street, who organized a community meeting last Wednesday night.

The three-story structure, to be built by Chabad of Brownstone Brooklyn, is slated to have separate mikvah facilities for men and women on the first floor and in the basement — plus a conference room and two apartments that would be rented for short periods to observant Jews visiting the neighborhood.

The developer has said that the apartments were designed for overnight stays by people visiting relatives at nearby New York Methodist Hospital.
Although the plans approved earlier included the conference room and apartments, those facilities are now under review, said Buildings spokeswoman Carly Sullivan.

The department says the design violates the zoning and must be addressed within 15 days, or the permit would be revoked.

“We’ve raised objections to the use of the second and third floor,” she said. “The use … was not considered a ‘not-for-profit institution with sleeping accommodations,’ ” which would normally be permitted in a residential zone for religious institutions.

Sullivan declined to provide further details of the city’s objections.
Rabbi Shimon Hecht, who is both the head of Chabad of Brownstone Brooklyn and spiritual leader of Congregation B’nai Jacob on Ninth Street, declined to comment.

Observant Jews view the ritual monthly bathing by women as one of the most important tenets of Judaism, above even going to synagogue services or owning a Torah scroll. Some Orthodox men use the mikvah more frequently, in some cases daily.

Mikvahs in other neighborhoods are not as controversial. In Brooklyn Heights, neighbors rarely — if ever — complain about traffic, said Community Board 2 District Manager Rob Parris.

©2008 The Brooklyn Paper

brianac

October 15th, 2008, 04:57 PM

CurbedWire: Someone Still Has Faith in the Bushwick Market

Monday, October 13, 2008, by Robert

http://curbed.com/uploads/2008_10_Knickerbocker%20Avenue.jpg
BUSHWICK—Take this as a sign that hope is alive, in a real estate market that shows all the signs of getting a little soft around the edges.

Yet, this is 320 Knickerbocker Avenue, aka the Knickerbocker Condominiums (http://www.hudsoninc.com/new_projects/knickerbocker.html), which is a 49-unit condo that's described as being "in the up-and-coming Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn. The development will transform some of the neighborhood’s finest historic housing stock into modern, loft-like apartments while adding a new top floor containing dramatic penthouse units." Almost half the units will h ave outdoor space and there will be "high quality finishes as well as great amenities including a gym, a virtual doorman, public roof terraces, storage lockers, a cold storage room, and a bike room, at prices generally unavailable in Brooklyn." Also, they'll be "well designed and tastefully finished apartments with modern features in an envelope with historical appeal and sensitivity to the environment." No prob. They'll be LEED certified and near Maria Hernandez Park and if they actually happen, the Treasure Dept. could indirectly have a stake in them. [CurbedWire Inbox]

http://curbed.com/archives/2008/10/1...ick_market.php (http://curbed.com/archives/2008/10/13/curbedwire_someone_still_has_faith_in_the_bushwick _market.php)

Copyright © 2008 Curbed
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NYC4Life

October 29th, 2008, 09:14 PM

Brooklyn Daily News

Small Development Offers Affordable Home Ownership Opportunities

by Linda Collins (linda@brooklyneagle.net (linda@brooklyneagle.net)), published online 10-28-2008 (livecall:10-28-2008)

Two Buildings, 16 Units at Vernon Avenue Condominiums Under Construction in Bedford-Stuyvesant

http://s3.amazonaws.com/trd_three/images/54822/vernon_midsize.jpg
Vernon Avenue Condominiums rendering

Compiled by Linda Collins
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT — Offering new affordable home ownership opportunities in Bedford-Stuyvesant is a goal of the Northeast Brooklyn Housing Development Corp. (NEBHDCO), which focuses on Central Brooklyn and Bushwick.

The agency reports it is redeveloping four vacant lots in the Tompkins Park North neighborhood for that purpose.

The lots, at 119-125 Vernon Ave., between Tompkins and Marcy avenues, were city-owned and the development is in collaboration with the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), according to Alma Cox, a spokesperson for NEBHDCO.

To be called the Vernon Avenue Condominiums, the new construction calls for two four-story buildings, totaling approximately 7,583 square feet each, with entrances facing Vernon Avenue. Each building will have eight units. The total of 16 will include 14 two-bedrooms with sizes ranging from 781 to 801 square feet and two one-bedrooms with an average of 601 square feet.

Designed by Arthur Yellin of the Office for Architecture and Planning, based in Great Neck, amenities will include an on-site laundry room, individual storage areas for each homeowner and approximately 2,059 square feet of common outdoor space with landscaping.

“NEBHDCO’s future goals are to promote a greener Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood,” said Cox, who added that a decorative gate and passive landscaping will also be installed along the frontage of the property as a buffer.

Prices will range from a low of $96,000 for a one-bedroom to a high of $374,000 for a two-bedroom. Both buildings are being developed under the quality-housing program. They will be built will come from private unsubsidized financing utilizing a cross-subsidy approach to maintain affordability and a real estate tax abatement on the land as a result it will reduce the buyers/owners overall real estate tax.

The project site falls primarily in an area of low density, low-rise residential uses with local retail and service businesses scattered at various locations along most of the adjacent north/south avenues as well as Myrtle Avenue, which is one block north of the site.

According to Cox, residents of the community of Tompkins Park North view the project as “a positive addition toward increasing homeownership and addressing the housing needs of middle-income households in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood.”
NEBHDCO and the HPD estimate the project’s completion date in spring 2010.

© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2008

NYC4Life

October 31st, 2008, 03:39 PM

NY Daily News

In Carroll Gardens, 'hell' tower freezes over as eyesore still unfinished

BY JOTHAM SEDERSTROM
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Thursday, October 30th 2008, 7:20 PM

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2008/10/31/amd_construction.jpg
Noonan for News

Work on the luxury condo tower dubbed the 'Hell Building' in Carroll Gardens stopped months ago, and its owners have been unable to come up with a completion date.
[/URL]
Here's a [URL="http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Brooklyn"]Brooklyn (http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2008/10/31/amd_construction.jpg) Halloween story.

A construction nightmare in Carroll Gardens (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Carroll+Gardens) nicknamed the "Hell Building" by critics could remain an eyesore for the foreseeable future - if it's ever built.

Nearly three years after a Buildings Department (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/March+after+Buildings+Department) permit was granted to convert the Regency Service Carts building on Carroll St. into a five-story luxury condo tower, construction has ground to a halt.

The result is a messy construction site with no major work going on for more than a year and a half - and neighbors fear it will remain an eyesore for months to come.

"It's like a tumor," said resident Joseph Mariano (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Joseph+Mariano), 70, of the unfinished steel-girder skeleton that has towered over the neighborhood's low-rise townhouses and brownstones since 2006.

"It's just an ugly thing," said Mariano, who added the addition was "out of character and the dimensions are out of character."

Residents fumed that the addition on top of the former three-story factory was a blight in a neighborhood already targeted by a slew of developers interested in building big and tall.

"It's the first thing I see when I look out the window every morning," said Marlene Donnelly (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Marlene+Donnelly), who has lived in the neighborhood for 17 years and worried that because of the failing economy it would remain a stranded construction site for a long time.

Work on the interior of the 19th century building stopped for the third time in March after Buildings Department inspectors determined plans to build two additional extra floors and an eight-unit penthouse would have been too dense.

An employee who works for building owner Isaac Fischman (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Isaac+Fischman) said a completion date for the controversial luxury condominium conversion has not been determined.

"I don't know [when it will be completed]," said the worker, who did not reveal her name.

A source who has discussed the long-delayed project with Fischman, however, said the developer is now considering selling the site - out of frustration with the steady string of delays.

There are no height restrictions in that part of the neighborhood, but there is a cap on how dense the building can become.

The most recent Buildings Department stop-work order was issued after controversial architect Robert Scarano (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Robert+Scarano) had inaccurately claimed the building was zoned to allow for the additional stories.

Scarano, who was ousted from the project in January, did not return a call for comment yesterday.

City Councilman Bill de Blasio (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Bill+De+Blasio) said the project showed how vulnerable the neighborhood is to hungry developers. "We have shown developers time and again that they must play by the city's rules and not their own," said de Blasio, who added in a statement that new zoning regulations limiting the size of new projects was being investigated.

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