Levine Developers and the City held a ribbon cutting for the affordable housing component at the Edge – the new waterfront condo development on Kent Avenue between North 5th and North 7th Streets. The Edge is the largest inclusionary housing development constructed to date in the City, and it represents a significant step forward on some of the City’s promises from the 2005 zoning.

Amanda Burden, the Chair of the City Planning Commission, had this to say about the project:

This important development epitomizes many of the goals of the Greenpoint/Williamsburg rezoning plan: a significant number of badly needed permanently affordable housing units, magnificent new public waterfront access and outstanding architecture.

I don’t know if the public waterfront access is actually open yet, but assuming it is, Burden is right on two out of three. But unless you really (really) like blue-glass balconies and a never-ending materials palette (seriously, did they reject any material sample?), “outstanding architecture” is a serious stretch. I’m sticking with my earlier assessment that the Edge is Goofus to Northside Piers’ Gallant.