Greenbelt, 361 Manhattan Avenue.
Photo: Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.

I screwed up – in yesterday’s post on the Building Brooklyn awards, I completely missed Greenbelt in the list of award winners. So there was a north Brooklyn project worthy of being the best of Brooklyn architecture. Greenbelt is a fantastic mixed-use project on Manhattan Avenue between Jackson and Withers. It is billed as Brooklyn’s first LEED-rated residential project, and includes arts and cultural space on the ground floor with residences above. The building incorporates much of the single-story building that was formerly on the site (not preservation, but not throwing the entire building into the dumpster certainly has a positive environmental impact). As the project’s website says, “Greenbelt aims for sustainability in relation to multiple ‘environments’ – natural, cultural and visual – by building green, providing space for the arts and community, and launching bold architectural ideas scaled to the surrounding neighborhood.”

All in all, a very interesting and worthy project. Which only goes to reinforce the point I was trying to make in yesterday’s post – given the huge wave of building we are seeing Greenpoint and Williamsburg, why are there so few projects that can be singled out as enriching our neighborhoods? Yes, there are some projects such as Greenbelt that are worthy of accolades, but they are few and far between. Take a look at the list of projects that won awards last night – I think you’d be hard pressed to find too many local projects that rise to the level of these projects.

Miss Heather wonders what’s up at the former Greenpoint Hospital site on Kingsland and Maspeth. A lot, actually, and a lot of nothing.

The big building at the north end of the site (the one Heather was asking about) is a homeless shelter; I believe the smaller buildings north of there contain affordable housing units. The building at the corner of Kinglsand and Maspeth is being renovated by St. Nick’s (the purpose escapes me). That’s a lot.

The lot of nothing is what’s happening east of the St. Nick’s site. The building fronting Debevoise at Maspeth is the former Nurse’s Residence. Community activists have been trying for decades to place a nursing home here, but that seems all but dead. Instead, this is one of the city-owned sites slated to become affordable housing in order to meet the city’s promise of “30%” affordable in the Greenpoint-Williamsburg Rezoning (private sites are supposed to account for 20%; public sites the balance). HPD issued an RFP for the Nurse’s Residence and adjacent parking lot in April, 2007. To date, HPD is still reviewing applications. Hence, a lot of nothing.

NYC elections are still more than a year off (even the primaries), but the races are definitely underway. Tuesday was the deadline for candidates to file disclosure statements with the Campaign Finance Board, and the new numbers are already posted.

The 33rd Council District (David Yassky’s district, which covers Greenpoint to Cobble Hill) is one of the most hotly contested in the city. Isaac Abraham, who only just announced his candidacy, has raised less than $3,000, and Kenneth Baer about $12,000. The other four candidates (Ken Diamondstone, Steve Levin, Jo Ann Simon and Evan Thies) are all over $30,000. Simon leads the way with $55,037, followed by Thies at $38,620, Levin at $31,298 and Diamondstone at $30,238.

The 34th Council District (Diana Reyna’s, covering Williamsburg, Bushwick and Ridgewood) is one of the least contested open seats in the city. Gerry Esposito, the District Manager of Community Board #1, has raised close to $65,000 to date. Esteban Duran, a CB1 member and Department of Ed employee, has raised $3,560. (Duran has not even had a formal campaign announcement, other than a quick reference in the Greenpoint Star.)

Its all very early, though – too early to read too much into the numbers. (If you want to see who’s behind those numbers,

Speaking of bad architecture, Gowanus Lounge has a post up on Soleil, the Southside Finger on South 1st between Havemeyer and Marcy. GL has a photo of the base of the building, but it really needs to be seen to be believed. The entrance is below grade, with a series of Escher-like ramps leading down. A huge glass canopy sits atop the main entry, but because the entry itself is below grade, the canopy juts out into the sidewalk just above eye level (you’d be forgiven for ducking as you pass under this “monumental” canopy.)

The overall effect is only slightly less confusing than 20 Bayard, but equally atrocious.

Pretty amazing – U.S. housing starts were up 9.1% last month, and the increase was fueled almost entirely by multi-family construction in NYC. Single-family housing starts dropped 5.3% nationwide, and excluding multi-family housing starts in the northeast, overall new housing starts dropped 4%.

FT attributes the NYC increase to the enactment of the new building code on 1 July, which they say prompted builders to rush to file plans under the old code. I bet the changes in the 421-a program also had a big impact on these numbers. Either way, it will be very interesting to see how many of these “starts” stay building, and how many wind up as grandfathered foundations.

Its that time of year again. Time once again for the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce to honor the best architecture of the borough with its Building Brooklyn Awards. And once again, north Brooklyn gets the short end of the stick. Yes, once again, not a single project in Greenpoint or Williamsburg was deemed worthy of merit.

Pretty amazing, when you think about it – Williamsburg and Greenpoint are home to the biggest building boom in the borough. There is more “architecture” happening here than anywhere else in Brooklyn. And yet, by the standards of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, all of that architecture sucks.

They obviously have good standards.

UPDATE: Oops, there was a north Brooklyn project honored. More here.

It appears that that whole moment-of-truth thing might have been a tad premature. I just learned that the owner’s attorney’s have requested a one-week adjournment. No word yet on BSA’s response to the request.

Developing, as they say.

The view from 80 Metropolitan (for now).

On Curbed today, an owner at the Mill laments the loss of his sliver view of the Williamsburg Bridge – blocked in part by the construction of 80 Metropolitan. Which brings to mind the old NYC adage that if you want views that can’t be blocked, buy on the park. (I think the adage refers to Central Park, but I suppose it applies to McCarren too.)

80 Metropolitan’s website proves the point. That million dollar view in the first Flash screen is probably not long for this world – Domino’s development of 20 to 40 story towers (shaded red above) will easily block the bridge views in this image, leaving the Woolworth building and Knickerbocker Village. The view west is already crap (the last bit of industrial waterfront in Williamsburg, which is owned by Con Ed and probably not going anywhere), and the view to the north is quickly being eaten up by 184 Kent, Northside Piers and the Edge.

Even Northside Piers is about to block its own views – the new towers that are part of phase 2 will block much of the western views from phase 1.

Just goes to show.

For those unaware, Bedford Ave between Metropolitan Avenue and North 9th street will be open as a pedestrian mall from noon to 7pm for the next four Saturdays (July 19th, 26th, August 2nd & 9th) as an experiment in re-imagining the use of public space in the neighborhood.

Neighbors Allied for Good Growth (NAG) is one of the organizers of the event, and they are looking for volunteers for Williamsburg Walks to help with either with event logistics or with non-partisan voter registration, especially for this upcoming Saturday (July 19th). If you are interested, contact NAG at (718) 384-2248 or email mfs at mikebot dot com.

More information about the event is available at http://www.billburg.com/walks/about/