LPC To Calendar Cluster of Greenpoint Buildings
Giving some much needed attention to Northern Brooklyn, the Landmarks Preservation Commission will hold a hearing on Tuesday to calendar a cluster of old factories in Greenpoint. The five buildings, on Kent Street and Greenpoint Avenue between West and Frankling Streets, are being referred to collectively as the Eberhard Faber Historic District. There’s an increased…
Giving some much needed attention to Northern Brooklyn, the Landmarks Preservation Commission will hold a hearing on Tuesday to calendar a cluster of old factories in Greenpoint. The five buildings, on Kent Street and Greenpoint Avenue between West and Frankling Streets, are being referred to collectively as the Eberhard Faber Historic District. There’s an increased urgency to protect these structures, as Isaac Katan, who’s received attention for his sloppy construction practices, non-contextual buildings, and anti-preservation positions, demolished two neighboring buildings in the past month. The more we know about this guy, the less we like. Check out a couple of the buildings to be calendared on the jump.
Eberhard Faber on LPC Calendar [WPA]
The Eberhard Faber Factory at 61 Greenpoint Avenue.
58 Greenpoint Avenue.
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hey 10:43: If you think the windows are so tiny, there are plenty of glass houses with floor to ceiling windows and shoddy construction going up all over the city. Have fun in your strerile, bland city. Some of us prefer these buildings. They’re solidly built and have plenty of character. I think they’re beautiful.
Actually, you can see that windows at 58 used to be taller – there is brick infill between the sill of the window and the original stone sill. (You can also see that there used to windows at the second story,but they have been blocked up too.)
Still, these windows are not “tiny”; not for that matter are the windows at Austin, Nichols or Domino.
And as someone else noted, with the exception of 59 Kent (and the Katan buildings), most of this complex is zoned for manufacturing, not residential.
hey, anon @ 10:43, i think 58 greenpoint is BEAUTIFUL. BTW, why do you think the windows are “tiny”? they’re not.
37 & 61 Greenpoint Avenue and 104 West Street are still zoned M1, not MX. There are still a lot of businesses (woodshops, artists studios, design companies, etc.) working in these buildings, and when the rest of Williamsburg/Greenpoint was rezoned this block was kept M1 for a reason. They are already being used as “something cool, adaptive re-use-wise”. Variances to convert to residential are pretty unlikely.
Anon 10:43, I think these are very cool factory buildings, all of them. I love the decorative star motif up top, and the strength and moderate-to-medium scale is ideal for residential apartment buildings. The mere fact that they *made* the iconic Eberhard Faber pencils here is history enough for me. And the nabe is coming along nicely. Who wouldn’t rather see these converted into something cool, adaptive re-use-wise, rather than having them torn down and replaced with some hideous, cheapo piece of crap the way most developers (including this Katan loser) inevitably do? Not to mention, wouldn’t it be nice (and green) to utilize these strong, existing structures rather than landfill them? Maybe you think they’re “nothing special”, but I guarantee you they’re a lot more special than what most builders would replace them with.
Funny, I just happened past this block for 1st time on Saturday (on a babka-buying expedition to G’point)–#37 is full of artists, real early-Soho/early-Wmsburg vibe; and #104 West Street blew us away, real haunting old brick beauty. Incredible area poised on cusp of gentrifexplosion; around the corner on Kent is a factory making gelato out of merlot. A block north, there’s a humungous factory–it dwarfs E-Faber–just rotting, like Chernyobyl or something. Franklin Ave., moribund until recently, actually has hipsters buzzing around looking for cafes with no signs up yet. There’s even a hipster-highlight postcard map showing all the foofoo new stuff, from yoga studios to lounges. Amazing and poignant moment in the nabe’s history. How long, I wonder, til the babka bakery is replaced by an artisanal dog-biscuit boutique?)
So what’s so special about these buildings, did thy invent the #2 pencil there? while the large building at 61 Greenpoint Ave would make great loft apartments as is, the smaller red brick one is nothing special. Does Brownstoner love tiny windows when they’re on an old building? maybe this is just sour grapes for the Domino Sugar factory?