27 Cranberry Preliminary Design Released – Now with Clear Photos

By on April 4, 2011 11:34 am in Architecture, Landmark Preservation, Real Estate

Earlier today, Brownstoner “leaked” the designs that architects created for developer Louis Greco, who purchased the vacant lot at 27 Cranberry Street.

BHB has obtained clear copies of the renderings of the preliminary design submitted to the Landmarks Preservation Commission from architect Tom van den Bout. This design is in accordance with what he told BHB last month; that the building would be a “new brownstone” rather than, as Brownstoner puts it, “a mini-On Prospect Park.” (Drawing of how the new building will fit into the block just added, after the jump.)

This drawing shows the new building towering over 25 Cranberry, the small wooden house to its left, and slightly higher than 29 Cranberry to its right. The model does not show a fifth story, visible in the drawing, the front of which is recessed behind the cornice and evidently will not be visible from the street.

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

    DoM: You are absolved: http://tinyurl.com/3ny6oy8

  • David on Middagh

    Thank’s, Claude.

  • Cranberry Beret

    Whosehouse, the design is subject to multiple public hearings, so I think this blog is the least of the owner’s concerns.

  • my2cents

    Lori, there is no existing building. The lot is a tabula rasa, currently occupied by a wooden fence and a driveway.

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

    DoM: Seltzer flies from my nostrils.

  • Cranberry Beret

    Many moons ago, there was a small wood frame house on this lot, like the one next door.

  • http://Building Jeffrey J Smith

    There are SO MANY great designs simply in open display all over
    this city and in arch textbooks. I’m temped to advocate they just copy the design of well, the Brook club….(won’t the darlings in there love that…)

    Funny, once I was in there and we decided to distribute AFP’s
    we put one in each coat and in places around the club. Then
    some of the kent school alums noticed our “literature” and
    launched a mad search for every copy AND who had put it around. Me and my friend just watched and thought-THIS is
    whats running the country?……

  • nabeguy

    CB, I’ve talked to people that have been around this neighborhood longer than my 55 years, and none of us can remember a building on this site. In the 50’s and 60’s, 29 was owned by the Marcolini family and they always maintained that lot as a garden. I’m not saying that you’re wrong, but “many moons ago” is not really a fixed date.

  • David on Middagh

    Claude: That sounds like a real Brooklyn neti pot!

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

    DoM: Not being a sinus sufferer (touch wood) I had to look up neti pot. I see what you mean.

  • peer

    several ramblings

    it appears it is being built by a developer. is this spec or custom construction? if spec i have no problem commenting. well i really don’t have a problem commenting either way.

    i don’t see the need to “modernize” the look of the building with those ugly curves but the color should have a lot to do with it. it is one thing to stylistically meld new and old but this is just neither nor.o offense but in ten years it will look like that building at the end of willow with the half open garage. among others.

    this neighborhood is not about standing out but more about remembering tradition. it should not be so tacky.

    most of the new i repeat new, concrete buildings especially the modernized one families are hideous.

    on a separate note, on hicks and other streets their are numerous ugly fifth floor add-ons just look up.

  • Cranberry Beret

    Yes I agree with you about ugly 5th floor add-ons. I’m not sure what the developer plans here. If he’s allowed to build that high, then just design a facade that addresses all of the floors in harmony. If the idea of the set-back is that he’s trying to get around some height limitation or landmarks issue, then I think this is a tacky solution (and as I pointed out in my first post, probably doesn’t work anyway because I think you can see it from the street west of the house).

    Nabeguy, the house came down around the time of the depression.

  • http://? Alice

    In the fall of 1975 my husband & I put a deposit on 31 Cranberry St & 29 Cranberry St which was the lot that is now called 27 Cranberry. We bought the house & lot in April 1976. The lot was a wreck when we bought it. In the spring of 1977, our friend, Mrs Alice Ireys who lived around the corner on Willow Street landscaped the lot, and we had grass in the middle, shrubs & plants along the sides of the grass, a back terrace & new small pebbles for the parking area next to the existing fence which we then had built & installed & painted gray. We moved to Asia in 1980 & for the next 8 years had one family as our tenant. We then moved to Atlanta & sold the house & lot in the fall of ’88. I wonder why they changed the number to 27. Perhaps to differentiate it from the owners of 31 Cranberry.

  • http://? Alice

    I forgot to add in my email above that in April 1976 I recall Marcolini was at the closing for 31 Cranberry St & the lot known then as 29 Cranberry. I think the man whom we bought the house from, may have had a loan with him. Also before the closing, the seller told us we did not have to buy the lot, we could just buy the house. We told him we wanted the lot, which we felt would be an added plus for us. How many people in Brooklyn Heights are able to park their car next to the house? My mother (who actually bought the lot for us) parked her car in the parking area which was just inside the fence. My husband & I grew up on the Heights. My mother is no longer living. I remember the homeowner of 31 Cranberry telling us the house was originally owned by the Marcolinis & there were at least 3 tenants in the house when he bought it from the Marcolinis whom I think wanted to build an apartment building on that whole half block of Cranberry Street.

  • peer

    thanks alice very interesting

  • Historian

    All in all, much better than the descriptions we’ve been reading. It fits the neighborhood. A more historically accurate door would be better – as somebody pointed out.

  • William Spier

    I’m astonished by these images. Speechless

  • http://? Alice

    I think the building should be built a little further back, not flush with 31 Cranberry and not with a stoop. Maybe it should be a frame house like 25 Cranberry Street. And I think it should have room for a small garden in the front. And have space between it and 31 Cranberry St. And maybe, put a garage on one side and the rest of the house next to it and above it.

    Interesting that there was a house on it that was torn down around the time of the depression. When my husband & I bought it and 31 Cranberry St in 1976, the man we bought it from said there had been a small shed on it. I guess that was on the lot when he bought it some years before we bought it from him.

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