The two adjoining wood clapboard multi-level town-homes at 146 and 148 Hicks Street—whose exteriors were seriously damaged when the Mansion House tree fell during last August’s Hurricane Irene—have both been undergoing intensive renovations since, with all new planking installed and replacement windows, many of which were broken by the felled American elm. This weekend, the […]
Archive | Architecture RSS feed for this section
A Love Letter To Brooklyn Heights…
Despite moving to New York City in 1995, it wasn’t until I bought my first coop in Brooklyn Heights 12 years ago, that I first set foot in the borough of BK. In those first five years in NYC, I worked my way through three nabes—the Upper West Side, Chelsea and Tribeca—before a friend suggested […]
Times Gives Posthumous Recognition to 75 Livingston Architect Abraham Simberg
The recent designation of the Borough Hall Skyscraper Historic District brought attention to the thirty story building at 75 Livingston Street, completed in 1928 as the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce Building but since converted to co-operative apartments, whose residents opposed the landmarking because they feared it would increase the cost of maintaining the building and […]
Field for Pier 1 Hotel and Residential Structure Narrowed to Three
Three finalists have been selected from among the seven original proposals for a combined hotel and residential complex to be built on land lying between Pier 1 in Brooklyn Bridge Park and Furman Street, which will generate payments in lieu of taxes to help fund maintenance and operation of the Park. One of the finalists […]
Heights History: November 1903, The Day BAM Burned To The Ground
As stagehands at the Brooklyn Academy of Music began preparing the opera hall for a banquet honoring Sen. Patrick Henry McCarren the morning of November 30, 1903, no one could have been prepared for the horrifying event about to take place at 176-194 Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights. The week before, during Thanksgiving, BAM had […]
I Want Candy? 20 Henry Condos At Last Hit The Market
The condo project at 20 Henry Street is at last hitting the marketplace after years of delays. Final polishes are taking place at the former Peaks Mason Mints building, known as the Candy Factory, with asking prices between $450,000 and $2.56 million for studios up to 4 bedrooms. The building includes 24 lofts (six of […]
March On: CFAF Offers Heights “Family Walking Tour”
Until the next Homer Fink Hidden Brooklyn Heights tour, New York’s Center for Architecture Foundation (CFAF), in collaboration with the Brooklyn Historical Society, is offering a “Family Walking Tour of Historic Brooklyn Heights.” The excursion, which takes place Saturday, March 17 (rain date on the 18th) from 2-4 p.m., will “explore the architecture of this […]
Open Thread: Compare & Contrast 75 Clinton & 101 Clinton
In the BHB post a week ago about the new 80-unit building at 75 Clinton Street & Montague (on right) going rental, a healthy debate blossomed here between the architectural charms of its facade versus the new 40-unit residential building one block down at 101 Clinton Street & Joralemon (left). You guys took each building […]
City Council Approves Skyscraper Historic District
Today the City Council approved the Borough Hall Skyscraper Historic District by a vote of 46-1, with two abstentions. The Brooklyn Paper: Preservationists hailed the city for protecting a slew of Romanesque Revival and Beaux-Arts structures, including the tiered co-op 75 Livingston St., which housed some of the designation’s most vocal opponents. “We’re thrilled,” said […]
NY Daily News Weighs In On Downtown Landmarking: “No Good Reason”
The New York Daily News published a to-the-point Opinion piece titled “The Battle Of Brooklyn” condemning the proposed Brooklyn Downtown Skyscraper District, which is heading for a full City Council vote February 1. The five-paragraph story calls the bid to protect the 21 buildings “transparently nonsense.”
Nabe Chatter