• Ignoring the Waterfront That We Have

    Tom Stoelker in The Architects Newspaper:

    Now that Michael Marrella, who guided the massive waterfront plan, Vision 2020, into being last spring, has been bumped up to Director of Waterfront and Open Space Planning Division, he has miles and miles of shoreline to divvy up between two very different users—the public and industry. Charged with both implementing public access to the water for quality of life uses while also supporting a working waterfront, Marella made his position clear: “We’re not looking to relocate or displace industrial uses.”

    The article notes that Con Ed is close to a deal with Brooklyn Bridge Park that will allow the Park to acquire a 5-acre site adjacent to the Con Ed plant in Dumbo. No mention is made of the two Con Ed-owned locations in Williamsburg – the transformer station to the south of 184 Kent and the former BRT power plan site just south of Division. Also not mentioned is why the City doesn’t development the parkland it has already created at Bushwick Inlet and along the Greenpoint waterfront, or why they City doesn’t develop land it already owns (and does not use for industrial purposes) like that at “Williamsburg Bridge Park”.

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  • Quadraid Fills In

    Quadriad North 3rd

    Quadriad’s North 3rd Street infill

    Another data point for the continued growth of construction in Williamsburg – Quadriad has (rather quickly) moved forward on the infill portion of its North 3rd Street development. The Bedford Avenue piece finished some time ago, and the Berry section is about to come online. Now the in-between bit is pushing forward.

    As I’ve noted before, the death of development in Williamsburg has always been over exaggerated – even in the depths of the recession, new projects continued to start up – but lately, it seems that there are fewer and fewer stalled sites, and a definite upsurge in construction.

    (The retail portion of this project gets a lot of press – does anyone know people who actually live there?)

    Halden

  • New Condos

    Louver House

    The Louver House


    268 Wythe Avenue (aka 91 – 93 Metropolitan Avenue) has relaunched as the Louver House (it had been called the Louver Condominium). The new name is an intentional (I assume) play on the name of one of the iconic works of 20th-Century architecture. The project has languished on the market – either for financial reasons or otherwise.

    I still think this is one of the nicer-looking developments in the Northside, though the wood slats and other details don’t look as though they will wear well. And if the Times is correct about the dearth of good condominium product on the market, it may sell this time around. (Certainly from an anecdotal point of view there are a) fewer and fewer stalled sites and b) more and more condos turning rental in the core Williamsburg area.)

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  • In a Bronx Complex, Doing Good Mixes With Looking Good

    Michael Kimmelman’s first architectural review in the Times:

    The rebirth of the South Bronx isn’t news. But Via Verde is. And it makes as good an argument as any new building in the city for the cultural and civic value of architecture. The profession, or in any case much talk about it, has been fixated for too long on brand-name luxury objects and buildings as sculptures instead of attending to the richer, broader, more urgent vein of public policy and community engagement, in which aesthetics play a part.

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  • A Skate Shop Where Visitors Can Defy Gravity

    The paper of record visits KCDC:

    If KCDC’s name is cryptic ([the owner] wouldn’t say what it means), its philosophy is simple: Nurture the skateboarding community, and it will nurture you, a symbiotic relationship that has flourished since the store opened in 2001, when Williamsburg was not as hip, or as safe.

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  • Concert Attendees Claim There Was No “Widespread Panic” In Williamsburg Last Saturday

    One attendee who admittedly doesn’t really like the band, but was there sober and with her husband, told us: “Drug nightmare? I didn’t see any of that at the concert (only the green stuff — and I wouldn’t call it a nightmare). On the contrary, I’ve never been to such a large gathering [with so much alcohol] without there being fights or mayhem. The crowd wasn’t too big, and everybody was just grooving and having a good time. I love those damn WP hippies.”

    Pretty much my experience too. What happened on North 7th Street sucked. The question is, was it the norm or the exception?

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  • Drug Orgies on the Northside

    It would be hard to do, but in case you missed it, a resident of North 7th Street has posted videos of people huffing nitrous on North 7th Street after last Saturday’s Widespread Panic concert. I’d heard about these videos last night, but hadn’t seen them until just now. While I wouldn’t call this a drug orgy or any of the other hyperbole being thrown around, it is an inexcusable mess.

    So – a few thoughts on this:

    One, it sucks that this happened. Sucks for the resident(s), sucks for OSA, sucks for the NYPD and sucks for the concerts.

    Two, this was exactly the opposite of my experience only one block to the north. I was at the concert that night – the first time I’d been to an OSA waterfront concert – and was generally impressed by the efficiency and professionalism of the security inside, the number of cops outside and the comportment of the crowd. I happened to leave via North 8th Street, where it was relatively quiet and there was a large police presence. The crowd was orderly and by no means out of hand (I left about half an hour after the show, so the throngs had moved on by that point), and the cops kept people moving out of the area. There were a lot of concertgoers in the bar I went to after, and all were well behaved. More or less more or less, the crowd behavior that evening was what I would expect from a post-Dead, post-hippie jam band’s followers (of which I am not one).

    Three, I remember this coming up earlier in the year – residents complaining about people selling hits of nitrous out of the trunk of their cars after last year’s concerts – and thinking “Who the hell does that?”. Unfortunately, now I know.

    And in case you did miss it, there is a lot more on this at various sites already (with plenty of comments):

    From The New York Shitty Inbox: Saturday Night [NYShitty was there first]
    These Widespread Panic Fans Aren’t Sucking On Balloons Because They’re Feeling Festive [Voice]
    Video: People Casually Doing Nitrous On the Street in Williamsburg After Jam Band Show [Voice]
    Video: Nitrous Oxide-Fueled Fans Terrorize Williamsburg Locals [Gothamist]
    “POST-CONCERT DRUG ORGY MOB NIGHTMARE” AT WILLIAMSBURG WATERFRONT [Free Williamsburg]
    Jam Band Show Turned Williamsburg Into Druggy Whippet Wonderland [NY Mag]
    Post-concert open-air drug market in Williamsburg! [Brooklyn Paper]
    Widespread Panic Concert Causes ‘Mayhem’ In Williamsburg (VIDEO) [yes, even HuffPo has reaggregated it]

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  • Church of the Annunciation

    A post script to the last linked item – F. J. Berlenbach (Jr. or Sr.) was not the architect of the Church of the Annunciation. It was this guy.

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  • Nü Williamsburg

    Erik Stinson in The Atlantic:

    Nü Williamsburg dates back to a 2005 change to zoning laws allowing for the construction of new residential units in the areas of North, South, and East Williamsburg, semi-defined divisions of the sprawling Brooklyn neighborhood. In 2008, the housing boom busted, but, slowly, many of the then-new projects are being completed and filled.

    But why does Nü Williamsburg need an umlaut?

    Halden

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  • St. Anselm Gets a Star

    Sam Sifton:

    Like the real-life St. Anselm, the restaurant makes an ontological argument. If we can conceive of an affordable steakhouse on the same block as the Metro Line cab stand and the Brooklyn home of the Knitting Factory, then surely such a thing must exist. And here it is now: St. Anselm is Keens for the millennial set, a Bar Americain for the riders of fixed-gear bikes.

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