Williamsburg Walks, 11 July 2009

(left to right) Steve Hindy, chair, Open Space Alliance for North Brooklyn (OSA); Council Member
David Yassky; Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe; Mayor Michael Bloomberg; BP Markowitz; Assembly
Member Joseph Lentol
Photo: Mayor’s Office

As promised, the City started work on the soccer field portion of Bushwick Inlet Park in June. Presumably that involved some breaking of ground, though the official groundbreaking was today. The groundbreaking was attended by a bevy of pols (Mike, Joe, David), commissioners (Adrian, Amanda) and some of the neighborhood organizations that had a hand in making Bushwick Inlet Park (Community Board 1, Friends of Bushwick Inlet Park, GWAPP, NAG and OSA to name a few).

One soccer field is a long way off from the 28-acre park that the City has promised Greenpoint & Williamsburg, but the groundbreaking is a start (figuratively this month, literally last). So, yes, a reason to celebrate.

Walked by Rosenwach this morning, and am happy to report that the damage is surprisingly limited. A lot of charred wood, but a lot that didn’t burn. I suspect this was because a lot of the wood was bundled in pallets and (thanks to FDNY) water got onto the fire pretty quickly. This is the same theory behind heavy timber mill construction – thick sections of wood take a surprisingly long time to burn. Greenpoint Terminal Market was mill construction, and there was still a lot of good left when that fire was put out.

At Rosenwach, the small brick building at the center of the lot is still standing and looks unharmed. The sheds at the south corner are standing but heavily damaged, and all of the cladding on the street side is gone. Workers there are busy cleaning up and sorting good wood from bad. Hopefully they will be back in business soon.

photo: everyplace on flickr

Regarding the fire last night at Rosenwach, I have heard via a third party that a resident of the loft building across the street said that the fire was started by fireworks – white kids in their 20s shooting Roman candles off near Rosenwach, and that some of those fireworks landed in the yard. Since the yard was a big huge pile of wood, predictable things happened.

On flickr, everyplace has a photo set of fire pictures from last night (including video). As I said last night, the fire was intense – and I assume pretty damn scary for the residents nearby. You can see in everyplace’s photos that the flames rose up to at least the height of the loft building across North 9th Street. According to another eyewitness, fireman were still working to contain the fire at 11:40 (two and a half hours after the first trucks reposonded). (Thanks to mikkipedia for the flickr link.)

Prologue tomorrow morning, 9:30 local time. Great course this year – four countries plus the prologue in Monaco, stopover in Barcelona, and a finish at Mont Ventoux the night before the ride into Paris. And, it seems as though there is less of flat stages up front (only four days of flats before the Pyrenees).

Three towers
Sunday, 28 June 2009

Northside Piers II is now almost 100% glassed in, while the Edge is about 85% closed up. Northside Piers continues to prove the adage “less is more” – it is the Gallant to the Edge’s Goofus.

First song that came to my mind.

Grand Street, 26 June 2009
Photo: brooklyn11211

349 Metropolitan: Ugly and Foreclosed
Photo: Curbed

The Real Deal looks at the Williamsburg condo pipeline and doesn’t like what it sees. 5,000 new units are expected to come on line this year and next, adding to what is already a pretty saturated market in the midst of an awful real estate slump.

This really shouldn’t be a surprise – even in a market that’s moving up, the potential inventory in Williamsburg and the rest of north Brooklyn is huge. Developers (and recent buyers) are on the wrong side of what always looked like to be pretty scary supply/demand curve. The only difference is that that curve is now marked with black diamonds.

Let’s also acknowledge that there is a lot of crap on the market – and 349 Metropolitan (in the photo, above) is among the crappiest. Big ugly building, poorly constructed (judging from the stone panels that are already falling off the building) and in a pretty crappy location, even for the Northside. And the sales figures bear that out – as TRD reports, there has only been one recorded sale in the 40-unit project. (Back in February, Gowanus Lounge reported 21 units in contract, but that was before the whole project went belly up.)

Still, for quality construction in bona fide good locations, the hurt should be much less.

Block Building, Greenpoint
Photo: Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce

Finally, some love for North Brooklyn. Two local projects are being awarded Building Brooklyn Awards by the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce this year. They include the Block Building in Greenpoint (above), which won the award for new industrial building, and 221 McKibbin Street (below), which won for historic preservation.

I’ll admit to not knowing much about the Block Building (beginning with where it is in Greenpopint), but it’s a nice looking building. The McKibbin Street project is one which I am familiar with (I worked on it) – it is the latest addition to the Greenpoint Manufacturing & Design Center’s stable of affordable industrial properties, housed in a former ropeworks, portions of which date to the 1840s or so. I could go on (and on).

221 McKibbin Street
(formerly H. Lawrence & Sons Ropeworks and Columbia Products Corp.)