Brooklyn 11211

Its about time that someone in Albany stepped forward to end the TransGas charade.

Could someone please explain to me how the AIA’s proposed zoning text changes would increase building density? I’ve looked through the AIA’s presentation, and don’t see anything about added density – in fact, they even say (in really big red letters) that the proposals do not add FAR. But opponents are all over this as a way of increasing density as well as height.

On the question of height, I think the proposal to allow buildings to rise to the height of their nearest neighbor makes sense in general (and all told, a building could only go up 25% higher than allowed – which amounts to one additional story of streetwall in an R6B zone). It might make more sense if you were allowed to go up to the shorter of the two buildings adjacent, but I think the 25% cap will be pretty limiting.

Basically, zoning is a macro tool – it cannot accommodate every nuance in the existing built fabric. So the idea here is that while contextual zoning (height limits) is a good idea for a given neighborhood/block/street, it might not be a good idea for every development site neighborhood/block/street. Height is generally not the enemy – density is – and a four-story building in a block of five-story tenements can be less contextual that a building that completes the streetwall. (Of course a corollary to the macro not micro argument is that zoning shouldn’t need to make everyone whole – some sites can’t be maxed out under the allowable zoning, and that’s just the way things are.)

So until someone can explain to me how this or any of the other AIA proposals increases density, I have to think this might not be a bad proposal.

As one of the benefits of rezoning, the City agreed to remove the Greenpoint sludge tank by 2010. Now it looks like that won’t happen – at least not for another year or two. This little surprise was dropped on us only in the last week or two – as recently as last August, the City was saying that everything was on schedule.

An aside – many of the “newcomers” to the neighborhood look at this thing as an interesting structure – a cool opportunity for adaptive use, perhaps. All of the old timers hate it and want to see it gone. They look on it as a stark, ugly monument to decades of being shat upon (quite literally) by the city. While I do think its an interesting structure, on the whole I have to side with the old timers on this one.

This seems like an excellent idea – getting waste transfer trucks off Metropolitan and on to less residential/commercial streets like Vandervoort and Meeker.

Regina Meyer, who as head of City Planning’s Brooklyn office oversaw the Greenpoint/Williamsburg rezoning, is going to be the next head of Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Apparently, the Mayor could reduce congestion on the Williamsburg bridge by doing something about the quality of Williamsburg schools.

The best part of the Real Deal’s interview with Karl Fischer is that the RealDeal itself locates Warehouse 11 at “Williamsburg’s former Roebling Oil Field”. Obviously, Gowanus Lounge‘s work here is done.

And from Fischer himself, Roebling Square is “just a bunch of townhouses” (it isn’t – it isn’t even anything close to a bunch of townhouses). 50 Bayard is one of his favorite buildings (and, if we had to pick a favorite Fischer building, ours too). And “generally”, he doesn’t like boxes – “I like the buildings to have a little bit more flair — maybe some curved lines, maybe angled lines. I like to make sure every building is a little bit different” (unfortunately, with the exception of 20 Bayard Street, just about every Fischer project is a box devoid of curved lines, angled lines, and, dare we say it, flair; which is probably for the better, as 20 Bayard is the worst of the opus).

Fischer on Sevenberry: “…it’s probably like 150 feet long, but I broke it down to 25-foot modules to try and get the feeling of 25-foot houses”. Somehow, I don’t get that feeling.

I know there are plenty of people out there who would claim most of the Northside as Greenpoint, but North 14th Street is in Williamsburg, not Greenpoint. Greenpoint starts north of the (erstwhile) Bushwick Creek/Inlet; the numbered streets (up to North 15th) were laid out as part of Williamsburg.

HPD is releasing its list of the city’s 200 worst buildings – those with the most chronic housing code violations and the most violations on a per unit basis over the past two years. Those landlords will have 4 months to make all heat and hot water repairs and at least 80% of other repairs or risk having the city step in and do it for them. Once the city makes the repairs, the owners would be on the hook for the costs.

The Times has an excellent interactive web map up on its site, flagging each building by address and showing the number of violations and dollar amount of unpaid repairs. Eyeballing the map, it looks as though as BushwickBK has more bragging rights for their little dust up with neighboring Bed-Stuy.

Via Brownstoner, a rendering of the future of 175 Kent (aka the former cement plant on Kent between North 3rd and North 4th). We are not impressed.