Month: September 2011

Suicide in Park Enforces Need for Local Shelter

The Greenpoint Gazette’s Jeff Mann nails it:

The tragedy strengthened the calls of many Greenpointers to establish a shelter in the neighborhood to deal with its unique homeless population… Greenpoint’s indigenous homeless population consists, for the most part, of Polish speaking, chronic alcoholics. Unfortunately, the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) does not offer a solution for people who need permanent housing, alcohol counseling and a Polish speaking staff. In fact, their alcoholism often disqualifies them from housing, raising fears that the neighborhood could see more fatalities as winter approaches.

The recent suicide in McGolrick Park cruelly emphasizes the crux of the issue over the proposed homeless shelter at 400 McGuinness Boulevard – Greenpoint has a homeless population that needs help, but the help they need would not be available at the homeless shelter that the City wants to put in the neighborhood.

Economic Downturn Breeds Stalled Construction Sites

After commenting earlier today that the number of stalled sites seemed to be dropping quickly, this article appeared in Google alerts:

Williamsburg and Greenpoint saw a pre-recession development boom. Since 2009, approximately half of the city’s stalled sites have been located in these neighborhoods. Currently, 92 sites are inactive in the area, compared to 129 in all of Manhattan.

I’ve always been skeptical of the City’s official count of stalled sites, both in terms of undercounting and overcounting (which means the gross number might be roughly accurate, but the actual site list probably isn’t). It would be interesting to map actual vs. perceived stalled sites and see where the discrepancies lie. Certainly there are still some big ones, like the Domsey site illustrated in the Epoch Times article, the North 4th and Bedford hulk, and the South 4th sites on and near Bedford, but often they have very atypical back stories (epic bankruptcies, construction accidents, lawsuits and the like). But a number of prominent stalled sites are back in construction or nearly so, including 111 Kent, the North 6th and Wythe site (steel is going up) and North 1st and Kent steel skeleton.

Ignoring the Waterfront That We Have

Tom Stoelker in The Architects Newspaper:

Now that Michael Marrella, who guided the massive waterfront plan, Vision 2020, into being last spring, has been bumped up to Director of Waterfront and Open Space Planning Division, he has miles and miles of shoreline to divvy up between two very different users—the public and industry. Charged with both implementing public access to the water for quality of life uses while also supporting a working waterfront, Marella made his position clear: “We’re not looking to relocate or displace industrial uses.”

The article notes that Con Ed is close to a deal with Brooklyn Bridge Park that will allow the Park to acquire a 5-acre site adjacent to the Con Ed plant in Dumbo. No mention is made of the two Con Ed-owned locations in Williamsburg – the transformer station to the south of 184 Kent and the former BRT power plan site just south of Division. Also not mentioned is why the City doesn’t development the parkland it has already created at Bushwick Inlet and along the Greenpoint waterfront, or why they City doesn’t develop land it already owns (and does not use for industrial purposes) like that at “Williamsburg Bridge Park”.

Quadraid Fills In

09/26/2011 | 2 Comments

Quadriad North 3rd

Quadriad’s North 3rd Street infill

Another data point for the continued growth of construction in Williamsburg – Quadriad has (rather quickly) moved forward on the infill portion of its North 3rd Street development. The Bedford Avenue piece finished some time ago, and the Berry section is about to come online. Now the in-between bit is pushing forward.

As I’ve noted before, the death of development in Williamsburg has always been over exaggerated – even in the depths of the recession, new projects continued to start up – but lately, it seems that there are fewer and fewer stalled sites, and a definite upsurge in construction.

(The retail portion of this project gets a lot of press – does anyone know people who actually live there?)

New Condos

09/26/2011 | Comment

Louver House

The Louver House


268 Wythe Avenue (aka 91 – 93 Metropolitan Avenue) has relaunched as the Louver House (it had been called the Louver Condominium). The new name is an intentional (I assume) play on the name of one of the iconic works of 20th-Century architecture. The project has languished on the market – either for financial reasons or otherwise.

I still think this is one of the nicer-looking developments in the Northside, though the wood slats and other details don’t look as though they will wear well. And if the Times is correct about the dearth of good condominium product on the market, it may sell this time around. (Certainly from an anecdotal point of view there are a) fewer and fewer stalled sites and b) more and more condos turning rental in the core Williamsburg area.)

In a Bronx Complex, Doing Good Mixes With Looking Good

Michael Kimmelman’s first architectural review in the Times:

The rebirth of the South Bronx isn’t news. But Via Verde is. And it makes as good an argument as any new building in the city for the cultural and civic value of architecture. The profession, or in any case much talk about it, has been fixated for too long on brand-name luxury objects and buildings as sculptures instead of attending to the richer, broader, more urgent vein of public policy and community engagement, in which aesthetics play a part.

A Skate Shop Where Visitors Can Defy Gravity

The paper of record visits KCDC:

If KCDC’s name is cryptic ([the owner] wouldn’t say what it means), its philosophy is simple: Nurture the skateboarding community, and it will nurture you, a symbiotic relationship that has flourished since the store opened in 2001, when Williamsburg was not as hip, or as safe.

Concert Attendees Claim There Was No “Widespread Panic” In Williamsburg Last Saturday

One attendee who admittedly doesn’t really like the band, but was there sober and with her husband, told us: “Drug nightmare? I didn’t see any of that at the concert (only the green stuff — and I wouldn’t call it a nightmare). On the contrary, I’ve never been to such a large gathering [with so much alcohol] without there being fights or mayhem. The crowd wasn’t too big, and everybody was just grooving and having a good time. I love those damn WP hippies.”

Pretty much my experience too. What happened on North 7th Street sucked. The question is, was it the norm or the exception?