As the discussion about the supportive housing development the Fifth Avenue Committee wants to build on Fifth Avenue at 16th Street continues, the South Slope Blog IMBY posts a rendering of the project and some details about the building itself. IMBY, which has been out front chronicling some of the damage done by development in the South Slope, is supportive of this project, writing that he “supports affordable housing at this location and hopes that their application is approved.” As for the $7.75 million building itself, IMBY includes a great deal of detail, a tiny portion of which is as follows:
The building’s design calls for 5 stories on the Fifth Avenue commercial side, a 5 story “tower” at the corner, and then moving on down in height to a contextual 4 stories on its 16th street side. Access to the residential portion of the building will be through a gated “mews” entrance at 16th St. The mews connects to a fully landscaped back yard outdoor public garden visible from 16th street. The resident entrance will be manned by a 24 hour security checkpoint.
The “green” aspects of the building will include: High efficiency centralized, gas powered HVAC system that will limit the impact on the areas electric grid while eliminating unsightly air conditioner sleeves…
The Borough President will have a hearing on the project tonight.
February 20th, 2007 · Comments Off on Annual Brooklyn Public Library Photo Contest
The Brooklyn Public Library is holding its Sixth Annual Photo and Essay Contest. About Brooklyn notes the contest, which is open to photographers of all ages. The contest is detailed at the the Library’s website:
The 2007 My Brooklyn Photo + Essay Contest is about what makes this borough unique to you. From the faces and places to the events, food and attitude, show and tell us about your Brooklyn and you could win a $500, $ 300 or $ 100 U.S. Savings Bond and have your work exhibited at Brooklyn Public Library. From DeGraw Street to DiFara’s, from Carroll Gardens to the Cyclone, from Greenpoint to Greenwood, Brooklyn is everywhere – show us where it takes you.
My Brooklyn, a photo and essay contest sponsored by Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) and Con Edison, encourages everyone everywhere to share what Brooklyn means to you through pictures and words. You don’t have to live here to have a thought, feeling, memory or favorite person, place or thing in the borough to enter. In fact, anyone may enter, except BPL and Con Edison employees and their families. Entries will be judged in three categories:
* Child – 12 and under * Young Adult – 13 through 19 * Adult – 20 and older
We could advise that photographers avoid hagiographic images, but will say, instead, that you can see last year’s winners here and 2005’s winners here. They include some really, really good photos like this one.
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In wandering around Williamsburg shooting photos this weekend, we noticed that the Mill Building, which has been undergoing a conversion to luxury condo lofts, has lost the scaffolding that seems to have surrounded it forever. We also noticed, sadly, that some of the art around the building has been splashed. (We’re saying that we noticed it, not that it’s brand new splashing.) It’s odd splashing, in that it’s yellow, whereas many of the other splashings around Williamsburg are a turquoise or aqua color. In any case, we don’t know if the Mill Building crew intends the art to be part of the building’s vibe (doubtful) or if they’re going to paint everything over when they get around to finishing the exterior, now that the scaffolding is down.
A second mass mailing from Coney Island developer Thor Equities is in the mail. The DIY produced-in-the-1970s-by-pasting-things-up looking mailers (front page, above) were sent out by the entity that calls itself The Future of Coney Island, which also has a website, thefutureofconeyisland.com. The website is registered to The Marino Organization, which is Thor Equities’ PR firm. The mailer was posted at magicalthemeparks.com and noted at coneyisland.com. It is on blue paper and dated February, 2006 (yes, it says, 2006) like a newsletter. (Click here to see the first one.) It plays up rides that would be built, but makes no mention of luxury highrises that are proving contentious. Once again, there is a response card that allows one to choose whether the community needs jobs, “more amenities,” “more amusements” or a longer season. (Kinetic Carnival has also posted the mailer. For their take on it click here.)
What fascinates us about this isn’t so much the failure to mention 40-story condo towers as the attempt to make the “newsletter” look like it is coming from a low-budget, grassroots organization marketing an community food coop in 1983. Do they teach retro community development marketing in PR school? And, is the “February 2006” date on the document another clever tactic to make it look homemade or is it an actual, you know, mistake?
February 19th, 2007 · Comments Off on Dirty Brooklyn Snow, Williamsburg Edition
You can literally take thousands of photos like this right now all over New York City of cars and other vehicles encrusted in or parked next to or atop the gray-black icy crud into which last week’s snowfall turned within 18 hours. A couple of samples from Williamsburg are below.
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February 19th, 2007 · Comments Off on GL Brooklyn TV for a Holiday Monday: Riding the Cyclone
Here’s a little playlist from the YouTube of some videos of rides on the Cyclone in Coney Island. Scroll through and watch. Or click here to get to it on YouTube.
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Photographer and photo blogger Sam Horine, aka f. trainer, adds the magnificent collection of Brooklyn photos he is putting together with some spectacular photos from the destroyed Greenpoint Terminal Market. This pic above, posted on his photoblog The Food of the Future is from the roof of one of the buildings. You can see other photos here and here or check out his entire flickr photoset, the result of three different photo shoots at the site.
(Actually, it looks like a number of photogs made it over to the ruined GTM. E-Liz has posted an excellent set over at flickr as well, and we’ll add links to any others as they come to our attention.)
BONUS: Check out f. trainer’s photo of the work done by Swoon to repair a work defaced by the reviled Splasher. We stupidly looked at the photo last week and, then, promptly let it slip through the cracks until Tien Mao posted it on Gothamist yesterday.
February 18th, 2007 · Comments Off on Ikea Says It Did Nothing Wrong Destroying Shipyard Records
Remember our item on Tuesday about Ikea destroying all the historic records of the old Todd Shipyard that occupied the land where it is building its big box in Red Hook? The Park Slope Courier reports that the Swedish retailer “insists it did nothing wrong.” Gary Buiso, who refers to GL’s original reporting of the story, writes:
Irreplaceable records charting the rise of a Brooklyn shipyard to a position of national dominance have been lost forever, vanquished to the trash heap by Swedish home furnishings giant IKEA.
Even as the skeleton of IKEA’s superstore is beginning to take shape along Red Hook’s waterfront, preservationists still worry about the cost of its construction…The documents detailed the workings of Todd, which occupied the site from 1915 until the 1980s. A shipyard had been on the site, which was at one time home to the U.S. Navy, since 1867.
IKEA insists it did nothing wrong.
“IKEA has been in full compliance with the terms of an agreement signed with the New York State Department of Environmental Conversation and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation detailing exactly what types of historic preservation and recordation activities were required during construction of our store in Red Hook,” spokesperson Joseph Roth said.
“It is important to note that there were no conditions related to any materials that may have been left in the buildings by the previous owners after the sale of the property,” Roth said.
“We have met and will continue to meet all of our required obligations under this agreement as we move forward,” he added.
We have noted before that Ikea’s public attitude about community concerns and issues raised by preservationists has been nothing short of disdain and matter-of-fact dismissal. How else can one explain resorting to “required obligations” as an explanation for destroying historical records that could have easily been saved from the dumpster? (IE: It wasn’t in the contract, so we didn’t have a legal obligation to save it. Sue us.) It would be more diplomatic to blame careless demolition people or to say that the place was such a mess that it was an unfortunate oversight.
Meanwhile, Ikea is filling in the Graving Dock on the property, bringing in fill by barge so that it can use the area occupied by the dock for part of its parking lot.
February 18th, 2007 · Comments Off on GL on the BPL in the NYT
Paul Berger turns his attention in today’s New York Times to the “Footprints” show at the Brooklyn Public Library from which several works have been excluded, and GL is happy to be mentioned in the story. (Our item, from a week ago, was entitled “Art the Brooklyn Public Library Doesn’t Want You to See.“) Mr. Berger writes of the missing works (which include a portrait by Sarah Sagarin, which appears here, of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn‘s Daniel Goldstein and a drawing of Atlantic Yards as a toilet bowl):
Those works are absent because the library judged them too partisan or too abstract for its purposes. The decision has led to a debate over censorship that is as spirited as the battle over the project itself.
After the decision to remove the works was reported on Feb. 8 in The New York Observer real estate Web log, there were complaints. One Web log, the Gowanus Lounge, called the omissions “self-interest and stupidity of the highest order,” and the Web site of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn said the library had “censored the vision of the show’s original organizers and curators.”
In response, library spokesmen say that the show, which will run through April 21, is intended solely to portray the people, places and buildings that lie within the 22 acres of the controversial Atlantic Yards project.
Jay Kaplan, director of the library’s programs and exhibitions, said the institution’s role is to document what is taking place in Brooklyn, not to provide a platform for advocacy. He called the rejected painting of Mr. Goldstein “hagiographic” and the arena-as-toilet-bowl a “political cartoon.”
Norman Oder takes issue with the latter statement in today’s Atlantic Yards Report and No Land Grab also does some deconstruction of the explanation, digging deep into the meaning of “hagiography.” Hagiography is “biography of saints or venerated persons.” Develop Don’t Destroy, whose Daniel Goldstein, is involved in the eminent domain suit against the Atlantic Yards project and is the subject of one of the omitted works, the portrait by Ms. Sagarin, weighs in with its own item as well.
February 18th, 2007 · Comments Off on Disconnected in Brooklyn on Craigslist: I’d Love a Naked Roommate with a Snake
On Sundays, we always turn to the world of ships passing in the night that is Brooklyn Missed Connections on Craigslist. This week, one from Red Hook caught our eye, particuarly the part about the boa and walking around naked.
I am looking for someone that called themselves Miss T. We met on the craigslist room for rent page the other day and you sounded like a great candidate for the room I have. You told me that you have a pet boa and like to walk around naked. I waited for you to come over that night and alas you never came and I don’t have any contact information with which to contact you. Where art thou “Miss T”…I have cupcakes waiting for you.
So if you’re looking to rent in Red Hook, it sounds like the room is still available.
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February 18th, 2007 · Comments Off on Gowanus All Day, Every Day
From the sharp eye of chicapoquita comes this bit of subway grafitti on a subject near and dear to our hearts. In case you don’t want to find it in the pic, it says “Gowanus All Day Every Day.”
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February 17th, 2007 · Comments Off on Boerum Hill Con Ed Project From Hell
What is the mysterious Con Ed project on Hoyt Street in Boerum Hill? We don’t know. What we do know is that a friend emailed us about work crews showing up at all hours of the night, parking beneath her window, making noise and descending into manholes. For several months. She writes of this Hoyt Street Hell:
I have been suffering at the hands of Con Ed for months now, they have been parked outside my bedroom window and working in the manhole on the street. The problem is simple–they show up at all hours and they work through the night, they run their vans and make an excessive amount of noise. Last night they arrived at 1:52am! I have become conditioned to fear any loud car noises outside my window. Two weeks ago Fed Ex parked there and I went into panic mode…
If you are wondering why I haven’t complained to a higher authority, I have. I have called 311, Con Ed, my City Councilman, my State Senator, my Community Board. Fuggetabouit…
The mysterious Con Ed Project From Hell has been ongoing for several months and we’ve personally witnessed the trucks out there at different times of the night. Good to know that city government and elected officials are responsive when Con Ed crews work under your window nightly at 4AM for several months.
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February 17th, 2007 · Comments Off on Behold the Site of the New Greenpoint Starbucks
In case you haven’t heard, Greenpoint is getting its first Starbucks. This has many implications, first and foremost that Greenpoint is blazing the trail for Grande Chai Soy Lattes before Williamsburg. Once upon a time, the building was movie theater called The American and, before that, the Chopin. Most recently, it housed a Burger King. Also, Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory is opening up a Greenpoint branch as recently reported on New York Shitty, which opined:
This does not strike me as the most appropriate business venture to pursue this time of year, but then again at least it isn’t (yet) another bank or Thai restaurant. This ‘hood needs more pad Thai as much as it needs more dog shit: both are already in overabundance in my not-so-humble opinion.
Change is coming to what blogger 423 Smith recently dubbed “The Notary District,” that little stretch of Smith Street defined by the colorful Russo Realty buildings. The property at the corner of Smith and Ninth Street (478 Smith Street) was sold in December to 478 Smith Street LLC for $425,000. The interesting part is that the permit applicant for the new building are Henry Radusky and the ubiquitous Bricolage Designs. It looks like a four-story, 50-foot high building with three units will be going on the property. For a long time, there was a boat parked in the empty lot.
Mr. Radusky is one of the more controversial people working in Brooklyn development. The Village Voice described him as “one of the borough’s most prodigious architects, whose nickname could be ‘Too Tall.’ Radusky’s big buildings already clot the Brooklyn landscape. Mr. Radusky has been a trailblazer in creating “faculty housing” that allows projects twice as big as standard zoning. Mr. Radusky’s work in the South Slope has been a lightening rod for community critics. An example of his work was on Brownstoner yesterday, but Bricolage buildings are especially known for a lot of brick, blank walls and a semi-institutional look.
February 16th, 2007 · Comments Off on Demolition Porn: Greenpoint Snow Scene
A special Greenpoint correspondent snapped this little destructoporn shot on Green Street yesterday. We think the snow atop the rubble lends it a certain special something. The site is 110 Green which is destined to be a very glassy, 6-story, 130-unit condo that just got $53.4 million in financing. The photographer found a site that was open and was able to waltz right in an snap away. “As I was walking, I noticed that both the entrances to this huge-ass site were open. WIDE OPEN,” our photog writes. “For the life of me I couldn’t find anyone around.” Demo crew must have taken a snow day.
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As the discussion about the supportive housing development the Fifth Avenue Committee wants to build on Fifth Avenue at 16th Street continues, the South Slope Blog IMBY posts a rendering of the project and some details about the building itself. IMBY, which has been out front chronicling some of the damage done by development in the South Slope, is supportive of this project, writing that he “supports affordable housing at this location and hopes that their application is approved.” As for the $7.75 million building itself, IMBY includes a great deal of detail, a tiny portion of which is as follows:
