This is a remarkably nice building. And in terms of urban design, there is just no comparison to everything that the 2005 rezoning wrought on the waterfront – taller, and thinner, is definitely better. Walking around this building is just a completely different experience than the super-block developments everywhere else.
Domino Sugar Development’s First Commercial Space Hits the Market
Juliet Balconies: The Worst Architectural Design In History
Or, as I like to call them, bike racks.
Street Sign Snafu Designates Drab Greenpoint Warehouse a Landmark
In addition to being ugly, the new mixed-case street signs are wrong.
(Ironically, the “drab warehouse” at the southwest corner of Greenpoint & West is part of the Greenpoint Terminal Market site, which, prior to the fire that destroyed many of the historic structures on the site in 2006, some people wanted to have designated as a landmark. I don’t think this particular warehouse would have made anyone’s “To Save” list, though.)
A New Generation of Street Signs
Floating Berry
Photo: NYT
David Dunlap goes deep on the new mixed-case street signs that you see going up all over the city:
“Clearview’s [the typeface on the new sign] primary mission is to improve on the legibility of the standard alphabet used for traffic signs, known officially as the FHWA series but colloquially as Highway Gothic. …In discussing its policy, the highway agency said there were demonstrable gains in legibility when mixed-case Clearview letters appeared on a reflective surface called microprismatic sheeting.”
Safety, schmafety, I still say the mixed-case signs are ugly.
Wythe Hotel
80 Wythe
Theobald Englehardt (1900)
Morris Adjmi Architects (2012)
Photo: brooklyn11211
This was, is and will be the greatest thing Williamsburg has ever seen. It is the pinnacle, the acme, the end. The story of gentrification, at least in this oft-buzzed about corner of Brooklyn, is over — checked at the curved-glass-and-carefully-rusted-steel door outside the Wythe. If Francis Fukuyama needed a hotel room in Brooklyn, this would be it. Thank you, and good night.
Matt & I disagree somewhat here. Not on the fact that the Wythe Hotel is great – it is. And not on the fact that the building itself “is the nicest thing ever built in Williamsburg” – if it isn’t that, it’s damn close. Morris Adjmi’s design of the new, the old and the integration of the two is almost perfect (Theobald would have been proud).
But the pinnacle? The acme? The end? Let’s hope not – we need more nice things like this.
Building Brooklyn Awards 2012
Atrium House
19 Powers Street
Mesh Achitectures
Photo: BB2012
Not much love for north Brooklyn in this year’s Building Brooklyn (™) awards, but I’m sure that’s probably as it should be. The only project in Williamsburg and Greenpoint to get a nod was “Atrium House” at 19 Powers Street (Mesh Architectures). Nearby, Building 92 at the Navy Yard was also honored (and is very much worth a visit, if you haven’t been).
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.
2011 Building Brooklyn Awards – North Brooklyn Represents
Wyckoff Exchange
22-28 Wyckoff Avenue
Andre Kikoski Architect
Photo: Dezeen
The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce announced its Building Brooklyn awards (Brownstoner has the details; they’re not up on the BB site yet). For a change, North Brooklyn has some really good projects in the mix, including the Newtown Creek sewage plant (Ennead Architects), the Austin Nichols & Company Warehouse (aka 184 Kent Avenue; SLCE Architects with Walter B. Melvin Architects preservation architect), the Mason Fisk Building (72 Berry; Meshberg Group), the Brooklyn Brewery (Fradkin & McAlpin Architects) and the Wyckoff Exchange (Andre Kikoski Architect).