I recently met up with Inger Yancey, architect and founder of Brooklyn Green Roofs, a company that designs and installs green roofs atop city homes and offices. Green roofs not only bring a bit of nature back to the city, but create more energy-efficient buildings as well. More information after the jump! (more…)
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Brooklyn Heights Residents Tom van den Bout and Brenda Nelson Win Preservation Award
At the New York Landmarks Conservancy’s 20th Presentation of the Lucy G. Moses Preservation Awards to be held on April 21, Brooklyn Heights’s Tom van den Bout and his wife Brenda Nelson will be honored for their architecture firm NV/da’s work on 36 Grace Court in the Heights.
Of the projects to be recognized this year at the American Museum of Natural History, which include the Museum itself, the Empire State Building lobby, and The High Line, 36 Grace Court is the only private residence.
“It’s a little intimidating,” van den Bout said, laughing. NV/da will accept the award along with the home’s owners, the contractor, and all of the sub-contractors involved in the restoration, which took place from November 2008 until July of last year. (more…)
Get a free room from HGTV!
Have a room you want to fix up? Want some friendly competition with your neighbors? You could be on HGTV’s newest home renovation series, Battle on the Block. Get the details at Cobble Hill Blog.
Brooklyn Heights Brownstone Featured in New York Social Diary
NYSD photo
The Brooklyn Heights brownstone of designer Kathryn Scott and artist Wenda Gu is featured in New York Social Diary:
NYSD: They are both organized and thorough to a point that fascinated us. Kathryn physically learned how to do various skills such as carpentry when the house was being renovated (one floor also serves as an office space) and, a linguist, she made sure she knew enough Chinese to get Chinese craftsmen to perfect her designs for various projects in China, where they also own property.
More photos at New York Social Diary.
52 Sidney Place Reno: We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Architects
Contractor/developer Ben Weiner tells the Brooklyn Eagle that his reno of 52 Sidney Place will be a work of “art” for the owners and he’s doing it without an architect:
Brooklyn Eagle: “With all due respect to architects, you don’t always need one,” he said. “Everyone told me, ‘you can’t do it without an architect.’ But you can. The truth is, all you need is an engineer’s stamp.”
‘Build a better Brooklyn, block by block’
Borough President Marty Markowitz will host the eighth annual assembly of Federation of Brooklyn Block Associations, with the topic to “Build a better Brooklyn, block by block.”
Per Marty’s press release:
On Thursday, April 23, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz will host the eighth annual assembly of the Federation of Brooklyn Block Associations, an opportunity for all residents to meet City agency representatives and discuss issues and concerns facing their blocks and communities.
Presentations will be offered on street activity permits procedures and assistance for community building projects, as well as a Brooklyn Botanic Garden workshop on composting and a panel discussion about energy efficiency hosted by Con Ed, Neighborhood Housing Services of NYC, the Pratt Center for Community Development and the Department of Sanitation.
“Build a better Brooklyn, block by block”: Thursday, April 23 from 5:30-8:30 pm; Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon St. (between Court and Adams streets). Questions? Call Mark Zustovich, 718-802-3830.
Heights Couple’s Kitchen Reno: Thrifty and Green
If you’re like us the words “thrifty” and “green” may just throw you into a fit of hipster hating backlash. Or maybe it would make you a little misty for the bearded Al Gore. Whatever. Today’s NY Times has a story about Katherine Belsey Davis and her husband’s (a musician, not named…hmm) Brooklyn Heights kitchen reno: (more…)
Brooklyn Heights Green Thumb
At least now we know who to call to resurrect our window boxes:
The Street.com: Find Your Green Thumb…: New Yorker Erin Combs managed to get the latter without the former — and if you're an urbanite who wants to add some natural beauty to your concrete existence, you'd do well to follow her example.
Combs, 32, is the founder of Jardiniere, a three-year-old urban gardening company run from her Brooklyn Heights brownstone apartment.
Growing up in Farmington, Maine, or as she calls it, "the middle of nowhere," everything was potential garden space, and her parents started her digging in the dirt at an early age. "Mom and Dad were escaped Long Islanders," she says, "and I think they just ran out of gas in Farmington."
Stained Glass Floor
Brownstoner has a story today about a Brooklyn Heights couple who in the course of renovating have discovered a stained glass floor:
Brownstoner: Stained Glass in the Floor: I wanted to share an architectural find my husband and I uncovered during the demolition phase of a coop apartment we recently purchased. The apartment is in a stunning limestone building in Brooklyn Heights with the original mahogany trim, plasterwork and mosaic tiled hallway still intact. It's one of the main reasons we were drawn to the apartment—this house was really something in its day. The apartment is on the second floor and there was what appeared to be an unused shaft between a closet and the kitchen that we could use as additional space. There was no evidence of the shaft in the apartment above or below. We figured it was the remnants of a very large dumbwaiter. After making the proverbial inspection hole, however, we discovered the interior was finished plaster and wainscot trim. Clearly not something one would have seen inside a dumbwaiter. It was also very large (3' by 6') and a ton of construction debris that had been piled inside the shaft from the renovation of the apartment above many years before.
City Tech Seminar Examines “Anatomy of a Brownstone”
This drapery arrangement and chair design might have been found in a Brooklyn brownstone of the late nineteenth century, according to Debra Salomon of the New York City College of Technology ("City Tech"), a unit of CUNY. On Saturday, May 12, from 1 to 5 p.m., Ms. Salomon, along with a distinguished group of architects, interior designers, antique experts and a home inspector, will present "Anatomy of a Brownstone: Brownstoner's Marketplace", at the City Tech Auditorium, 300 Jay Street (corner of Tillary).
The seminar will focus on four different approaches to renovating a brownstone. The first of these is to replace original details (such as railings, gates, terra cotta and furniture) with identical material, the second to adapt the interior for a new use (such as an artist's studio), the third to make it "modern and green", and the fourth (continuing the "green" theme, but also considering economy) to make it energy-efficient. (more…)
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