How Will Developers Treat Historic Buildings in Bushwick and Ridgewood?

Nice to see that someone is thinking about historic buildings in Ridgewood and Bushwick.

There is a lot there, and although some of it is designated (mainly in Ridgewood) there is a lot that isn’t. As Wyckoff Heights notes, a lot of the neighborhood on the Brooklyn side is zoned R6, and lacks the contextual height limits of the R6B zone on the Queens side. The density differences between R6 and R6B are usually marginal, but the potential impact on a neighborhood of relatively uniform lower-height buildings can be huge. This issue was called out in a 2011 preservation plan that my students did for Bushwick Avenue. The studio focused on the westernmost end of Bushwick (primarily the avenue itself), but identified the disparity of existing building heights vs. allowed zoning as a looming problem [pdf]. To the west, Bed-Stuy has largely been “contextually” rezoned, as has Ridgewood. But the heart of Bushwick is ripe for pop-ups and finger buildings galore.