Archive | History RSS feed for this section

Is the Preservationist Movement Dead?

Crain’s NY writes about the debate over the Borough Hall Skyscraper Historic District this week. Add in recent comments here about what type of building should end up in the empty lot at 27 Cranberry Street and one could totally jump to the conclusion that the preservationist movement is on the ropes. Okay, that’s total […]

Read full story · Comments { 10 }

Love Lane Mews: Gordon Gekko Meets Mary Poppins

The Wall Street Journal recently caught up with Love Lane Mews architect Stephen B. Jacobs. The takeaway — the new condos there will be “supercalafragalisticexpialadoshus” meets “greed is good”:

Read full story · Comments { 2 }

BHA Invites You to Spend an Evening at Thomas Wolfe’s

Thomas Wolfe, the great North Carolinian novelist, captured (Heather Quinlan take note) the Brooklyn dialect of its time in his short story “Only the Dead Know Brooklyn”, which he wrote while living on Verandah Place in Cobble Hill. He later moved to Brooklyn Heights, where he wrote the novel Of Time and the River, published […]

Read full story · Comments { 5 }

“What Is It Then Between Us?”

The other day, I came across on Gothamist, some illustrations of Brooklyn at the time Walt Whitman walked his city of “ample hills”. I thought it would be neat to go and take some pictures of the same places today. Above is Henry Street, between Cranberry and Orange in 1852 — , from all the […]

Read full story · Comments { 5 }

Tobacco Warehouse Meeting Marked by Controversy

Yesterday evening’s community meeting at Borough Hall concerning the proposals for adaptive use of the Tobacco Warehouse in DUMBO exposed a rift between arts organizations, which favor allowing such use, and community activists, who mostly want to keep the structure as is. It began with a presentation by Regina Myer, President of the Brooklyn Bridge […]

Read full story · Comments { 5 }

The 27 Cranberry Street Lot Exposed

We caught a glimpse of the full lot at 27 Cranberry Street, soon to be home to a brand spankin’ new piece of “modern” architecture. And boy, does it look roomy!

Read full story · Comments { 6 }

Community Meeting on Tobacco Warehouse This Afternoon

Reader Montragrue sends us this: Community Meeting to review Tobacco Warehouse RFP Responses; Monday, November 15 at 4:00 pm; Brooklyn Borough Hall, Courtroom. Please RSVP to Elizabeth Ernish at eernish@brooklynbp.nyc.gov or (718) 802-3893. This meeting is open to the public. The Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation has requested proposals for use or development of the Tobacco […]

Read full story · Comments { 8 }

Where Luca Brasi Met the Fishes?

One of the reasons I moved to Brooklyn Heights is because I’m a big fan of Moonstruck, and it seemed like a neighborhood with all sorts of romantic possibilities. (Little did I know.) Yet the Heights also has its dark side—which may or may not have been projected on the big screen in The Godfather. […]

Read full story · Comments { 5 }

Out of Context, Fugly or Brilliant? Some of Brooklyn Heights’ Most Controversial Buildings

With preservationist tongues wagging in anticipation of the proposed “modern” structure at 27 Cranberry Street, we thought it would be interesting to open up the discussion regarding some of the neighborhood’s other “controversial” structures. To get the discussion started, here’s a list of some  so-called “out of context”  buildings in Brooklyn Heights:

Read full story · Comments { 17 }

27 Cranberry: McMansion for Moderns

The lot at 27 Cranberry Street will be home to a “modern” structure if new owner developer Louis Greco and “architect of the year” Martin Santini get their way. CB2’s Land Use Committee has approved the design which reports say is a four story single family home with a glass facade not to mention an […]

Read full story · Comments { 17 }