• Brooklyn Brewery WAREHOUSE Sold

    Regarding the earlier confusion (mine and others) as to exactly which part of the Brooklyn Brewery recently sold, I received the following from the Brewery’s PR:

    BROOKLYN (29 Nov 2011)—Recent reports have misleadingly indicated that The Brooklyn Brewery building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn has been sold. The Brooklyn Brewery operations are housed in two locations: one at 79 North 11th Street in which the brewery, tasting room and corporate office are situated; and another across the street at 118 North 11th Street, the ground floor of which is occupied by our warehouse. It is only the building holding our warehouse that has been sold – our lease at this location does not expire until 2025. The notion that The Brooklyn Brewery is in danger of losing its home is erroneous.

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  • Haircut for Not an Alternative

    Late last summer, the Change You Want See Gallery/Not An Alternative lost its lease on its space at 84 Havemeyer Street. The 240% rent increase was too much for the gallery/co-working space/activist hub. In a sign of the times, Brownstoner now tells us who will be affording that rent – a high-end barbershop (from Carroll Gardens, no less).

    All’s well that ends well, though – Not An Alternative has landed new space on the Greenpoint waterfront.

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  • Signal Problems

    Signal problems

    How was your commute today? According to the MTA, the software problems (caused by the weekend work that shut down the line all day Saturday and Sunday??) that ruined your morning ride to work are still going on this evening. In fact, it’s so bad that @NYC_L_trains hasn’t even bothered tweeting its daily “L train service has resumed with residual delays” message.

    Remember, it’s this switching software that is supposed to improve headway on the L train, making it possible to run even more trains per hour during peak times. It’ll be great. So long as there no sick passengers. And no stuck doors. And no inclement weather. And no more software glitches.

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  • Mille Bornes, Curated

    Mb guide lg

    Rules of the road.
    via Codex 99

    Codex 99 on the classic French card game Mille Bornes.

    The graphics on the original (mass-produced) sets from the 60s and 70s are wonderful, but I’d never seen the original (hand-lettered!) sets from the 50s nor the very abstract “edition spécial” of 1960 that Codex 99 found. In a sure sign of the decline of Western civilization, the graphics of the latest US edition are so incredibly shitty that I literally threw the set out and went on eBay to get a proper set.


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  • Brooklyn Trolley Cars From the BRT to the B&QT

    The Brooklyn Eagle profiles a new book by James Greller on the history of Brooklyn’s (once) iconic trolley system.

    [Via Brownstoner]

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  • Brooklyn Brewery’s Home Fetches $16M

    A five-building complex on North 11th Street, which include the current home of Brooklyn Brewery, has sold for $16 million. The new owner plans to convert the buildings to residential use. Fear not, though – the brewery has a lease through 2025.

    (Crain’s says that these buildings were originally built to house a Dr. Brown’s soda factory, but the buildings that house the brewery (and the Brooklyn Bowl) were built between 1886 and 1907 as part of the Hecla Irons Works. The other portion of the development site was once part of the N.Y. Quinine and Chemical Works.)

    Oops – wrong side of the street. The properties that sold are not where Brooklyn has its brewery and tours, but the warehouse on Berry. The site is the eastern half of the block fronting Berry, between North 10th and North 11th Streets. Four of the buildings were built by Hecla Iron Works (including the building that housed its offices and showrooms on North 11th (1896-97, Niels Pouslon, architect), which is a city landmark); the fifth building, 56-60 Berry, is a three-story reinforced-concrete bottling plant built by the Carl H. Schultz Corp., a manufacturer of mineral water (1928-29, Francisco & Jacobus, architects). Schultz had acquired the entire property in 1928 for use as manufacturing and bottling. In 1929, Schultz merged with Schoneberger & Noble (manufacturer of Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray soda) and the Brownie Corporation (manufacturer of a chocolate soda) to form the American Beverage Co. So the site did manufacture Dr. Brown’s soda, but it wasn’t built as such. (The origins of Dr. Brown’s turn out to be very murky – I have a research team on it.)

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  • Western Carpet Warehouse Sells for $27.5 Million

    Brownstoner recently (OK, a week and a half ago) reported that the Western Carpet warehouse on Wythe between North 4th and North 5th has sold for a hefty $27.5 million. This is one of the last really big development sites in the prime Northside area that was rezoned in 2005 (the other being the warehouse across the street on North 5th, which apparently is owned by the same family.

    Chris Havens, in the comments says that the new owner is merging two zoning lots to put all of the development rights on the Wythe Avenue site. But the property appears to be a single zoning lot already, and in a height-capped contextual zone, using additional air rights is a tricky proposition.

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  • Bank of America Features Malcolm Gladwell

    As if you needed a reason to stop taking Malcolm Gladwell seriously.

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  • McRibonomics

    I’ve never eaten a McRib sandwich, and suspect I never will. But even if you are like me (I guess particularly if you are like me), you want to read this very in-depth study of the economics of McRib availability.

    [Edit: As the governor of Texas would say, oops. Updated with the actual link to the article (I meant to post this is as a linked list item, with the link in the title – but I hit the wrong button). Thanks, “isa”.]

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  • NY’s Most Loathed Architect

    The Post sure didn’t pull any punches in its profile of prolific architect Karl Fischer. Fischer is responsible for some pretty questionable buildings (I still can’t figure out where the entrance to 20 Bayard is), but he is far from the worst practitioner of architecture in Brooklyn.

    On the other hand, I think it is telling that his “least favorite” buildings in NY are the Herman Jessor-designed co-operative village buildings in Corelears Hook (Seward Park Houses and Corlears Hook Houses) – some of the most successful working-class housing developments in the city, and the culmination of four decades of progressive housing in the neighborhood. The designs might be simple, but the planning and execution are wonderful. And they’re still standing (and in demand) 50 years later.

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