Open Thread Wednesday 1/2/08

By on January 2, 2008 10:05 am in Uncategorized

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Happy New Year!

We'd like to hear what you'd like to see more of (or less of) in BHB this year.  Comment below!

Photo by wileycount via Flickr

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  • Stilton

    You guys are great! Keep it up!!

  • yo

    sleepy

  • Stilton

    Wake UP!

  • http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com Claude Scales

    I think everyone should be required to take a sobriety test before posting or commenting.

  • housing question

    hey, locals, can you answer something? I’m trying to figure out what the 3 tall apartment buildings are on Henry St. that just totally don’t fit with the rest of the neighborhood. One is 75 Henry, the others are above Gristedes & down on Middagh/Henry. Are they cheap(er) apartments? Are they rentals? And, while we’re on it, what’s with those weird cell-like concrete walled-in apartments at Clark/Willow/Cadman Plaza area?
    thanks very much.
    Happy ’08 to you all.

  • No One Of Consequence

    They are/were fixed income housing units under Mitchell-Lama(sp?) built in the mid/alte-70s (as if the architecture doesn’t make that obvious). (Someone else can probably be more accurate).
    75 Henry, however, has gone private co-op.

    Clark/Willow/Cadman Plaza area? Are you talking about the duplex structures near the A train and around Monroe Place? Those are part of the same complexes as above.

  • http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com Claude Scales

    The Cadman Plaza apartment complex was built in the period 1967 to 1973, and exemplifies what I think of as the 1960s brutalist style of architecture. It’s interesting that one of the architects responsible for a large portion of the project was Morris Lapidus, famous for his now retro-chic Miami Beach hotels. The historical background can be found in Francis Morrone’s excellent Architectural Guidebook to Brooklyn.

  • Waiting for a Park

    There are two items in today’s online NY Observer dealing with the Brooklyn Bridge Park that readers of this blog may find interesting:
    http://www.observer.com/2008/planner-swap-brooklyn-bridge-park-ex-president-takes-successor-s-job-city
    http://www.observer.com/2008/city-wants-more-power-over-brooklyn-bridge-park-project-slides-red

  • nabeguy

    Thanks for that architectural history nugget Claude. I had no idea that Lapidus was the architect behind the1st of the Cadman Plaza buildings, although it probably explains why I like it better than the other two. Too bad he didn’t go all googly on it and make it look like a satellite. Funny that the jump article mentions his famous saircase to nowhere,since the original design of the building included a walkway overpass that went over Middagh Street and into what is now the parking lot on the south-east corner. It was eventually removed when it started crumbling, but the stiarcase to it was not immediatly taken down. Perhaps Morris designed it that way on purpose.

  • yo

    how about less coverage of the oven chain of restaurants….

  • statestreeter

    I peeked through the paper covering the windows in the “Meet me on Clark Street” space and it looks like it has been subdivided into a cubicle farm. Even more depressing than the prospect of another doctor’s office. Sometimes I wish the owner of that building was more Walentas – sure, he acts like God, but at least he as a vision for adding something of value to a neighborhood. These jokers are a piece of work, with their absurd asking prices (see: the vacant space at the corner of Pineapple/Henry that will endure for the rest of time, or at least until the landlord kicks the bucket), and their shady LPC/BHA dealings (“It’s going to be a boutique hotel! Err, we mean more rent-a-dorms.”).

  • No One Of Consequence

    The paper has been down from the meet-me space for a few days. Yes, it appears to be an office, but I can’t tell the nature of the business. Do you know what the asking rent was? Yes, the Pineapple/Henry space is going to stay vacant forever.
    And the business with the boutique hotel cum dorms was a real disappointment.

  • Heights97

    Yo, don’t worry, time is on your side (i.e., soon there will be nothing left to talk about).

  • JL

    I did notice that the Clark Street office space does have an inside connection to the dorm, so I would hazzard a guess that perhaps it has something to do with either the school(s) using the dorm space or with the company that runs the building. There are some changing colored lights in the office space, so that may further indicate student life.

  • statestreeter

    I wonder if NYU would offer to buy the St. George dorm if their deal with Polytechnic goes through. They don’t exactly endear themselves to neighbors, but they would be better than the current landlord. Plus they know how to rent out retail in the facilities. They’re about the only group that I can think of that would be able to meet the landlord’s unrealistic expectations – if they decide they need to be in the area, they’d have the $ to make it happen. No private developer would ever touch that place if they had any hope of turning a profit.