Continuing the Building (North) Brooklyn awards ceremony, and following up on last week’s post for Lost Opportunity: Williamsburg, today we bring you 216 Broadway, winner of of the B(N)B for Lost Opportunity: South Williamsburg. Normally, we don’t venture past Broadway for architectural criticism – the barrel is very small, and its filled with a lot of big fish – but this site is so prominent, and the results so atrocious, that we just couldn’t resist.

The South Williamsburg Flatiron Building (216 Broadway)
Architect: Henry Radusky, Bricolage

Broadway has a long history as a main commercial thoroughfare. It is home to many wonderful buildings from Williamsburg’s heyday, including a number of individual landmarks and a host of buildings that ought to be landmarks. The Williamsburg Bridge Plaza has a less auspicious history – constantly fighting a battle between grandeur and functionalism (guess who usually wins). In the past few years, we have watched Broadway’s vacant lots get filled in with banality after banality, interspersed with more than the occasional monstrosity.

Continue…

Continuing our series on design awards for North Brooklyn architecture (following the woeful neglect of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce), today we present the award for the best new restoration trend: California stucco (a.k.a. EIFS, Dryvit, et al).

Berry and North 9th.

Yes, what better way to celebrate this historic workmanship of your rowhouse than by gluing a bunch of styrofoam to it and slathering a bunch of frosting over the whole thing? The possibilities for rich architectural detailing are virtually limitless here, as, apparently, is the palette of Mediterranean colors.
We appreciate that this new treatment continues a rich neighborhood history of faux facade finishes – from asbestos shingles and asphalt siding to tin and vinyl siding. But it makes one wonder if there is a fake siding out there that North Brooklynites won’t put on their buildings.

Tonight, the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce will present its Building Brooklyn design awards for architectural merit. We here at brooklyn11211 will not be attending, in protest of the fact that not a single North Brooklyn project has been honored this year (as far as we can tell, only one North Brooklyn project was even nominated).
This is very surprising, when you consider the fact that on a per capita basis, North Brooklyn probably has more construction going on than any other part of NYC. Its even more surprising when you consider the fact that so much of that construction is of such high quality. In fact, the Pritzker folks are probably spending most of their time in North Brooklyn these days.
So rather than waste $150 attending an awards show that snubs our fair district, we have decided instead to put together our own list of the great architecture of North Brooklyn, which we will unveil here over the coming days (and we will gladly accept nominations – please email us at 11211[at]brooklyn11211[dot]com). For the most part, these are all projects that have been completed over the past year or so. But since its our award, and we make up the rules, we reserve the right to highlight older projects that clearly stand head and shoulders above their peers.
So without further ado, our first award, in the category of Lost Opportunities, goes to the Toll Brothers development, North 8 Condos.

Photo: conbon33.

Yes, “Williamsburg is all grown up”, but the buildings are still ugly. And what better place to put an ugly, squat, black-brick building than on North 8th and Kent, where it will forever face out onto public parkland. Think of all the grand design gestures that could have graced this site – a modern-day Central Park West, perhaps? Or maybe this is more of a 21st-century Gramercy Park? NO – on what might be the most prominent upland waterfront site in all of rezoned Williamsburg and Greenpoint, Toll Brothers has opted for Marx-Engels-Platz.1 instead – a building so disappointing that even the developer won’t put a picture of it on their website (or if they do have a picture of it, its pretty well hidden).
So while residents of North 8 Condos revel in their park and river views, the rest of us are forced to wallow in banality. Yes, this dark, brooding presence on the Williamsburg waterfront is there for the long haul, so get used to the asymmetrical fenestration, and the nouveau-factory aesthetic (try this: see if your friends can pick out the luxury condominium from the surrounding factories). Amazingly, this building is more boring than most of the surrounding industrial buildings.
1. OK, that statement is really insulting to East German architecture – the Palace of the Republic had a lot more going for it than this building. I doubt there will be much discussion when this baby comes down.[back]

Its hard to imagine a waterfront hotel with no view, but the much-rumored Aloft hotel at Broadway and Kent just might qualify. To the west, there is nothing but a one-story building and then the East River. But when get right down to it, that might be all you get a view of.
The 200-room hotel (and 98 condo units) would be hard up by the Williamsburg Bridge, which in and of itself would be a view killer. But with 30 and 40 story towers coming to the Domino site just north of the bridge, the midtown views have be pretty fleeting even from the top floors of the hotel. At least there are views of the Financial District, right? Not so fast. What Schaeffer Landing doesn’t block already, the soon-to-be Kedem Winery development might just finish off.
If our highly scientific research is correct, most of what you’d see from this 20-story-or-so hotel/condo is the East River and Corlear’s Hook. That’s the part of Manhattan just south of the Williamsburg Bridge that is loaded with public and union housing projects (some of which are quite nice buildings in their own right).
Not exactly million dollar views, but at least Aloft would be convenient to transportation… its only seven blocks to the JMZ.

The Quadriad proposal continues to be a cliffhanger. As you may recall, in early June, the land use committee of CB1 voted narrowly (by a one vote margin) to “approve” the concept of the Quadriad plan. After much confusion over what exactly the Quadriad plan was, and therefore what it had approved (and even why it was approving a plan with no application), the full Community Board voted at its June meeting to table the committee’s resolution. Tonight, CB1 voted unanimously (14 to 0, with 5 abstentions) to reject the committee’s recommendation, thus killing any Community Board “approval” of the Quadriad plan.

But not so fast… Earlier in the day, the Community Board received a letter from Quadriad, withdrawing its proposal. The letter, which touted the committee approval, stated that Quadriad did not require further action from the Community Board, and that the developer was prepared to move forward with its as-of-right development and begin the formal process of applying for a rezoning to allow a 20-story tower on the corner of Berry and North 3rd and a tripling of density on the site, all in order to create 33% affordable housing on site without any public funding. (No word on their plans for the rest of the neighborhood, or the city as a whole, but Quadriad has said all along that it plans to file for citywide zoning changes.)

So as it stands now, Quadriad has withdrawn its proposal (but promised to return with a real application), and the Community Board has voted unanimously not to endorse the Quadriad plan (but hasn’t specifically voted against the plan). If we could explain this in a chart, we would.

Rest assured, though, like any good summer blockbuster, there will be a sequel.