Trend: New-Old Buildings, in Brooklyn and Beyond

After nearly a century of worship of the austere and glassy, architects are returning to more traditional approaches, reported the Times’ architectural critic Christopher Gray. His premier example? A public building in our neighborhood, far east Bed Stuy, aka Ocean Hill, the Saratoga Community Center at 940 Hancock Street, pictured above. We’re surprised and pleased to see one of the numerous examples of elegant contemporary architecture in this area and further into East New York get some recognition. The Saratoga Community Center has elements reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie Style, notes Gray — considered terribly modern in its time, of course. (For a clearer picture of the building, click through to the Times’ piece.)

The United States is in the middle of a great revival of traditional architecture — Georgian, neo-Classical, Arts and Crafts and so forth …So, what isn’t contemporary about traditional design? “Modern” didn’t used to be such a big deal — it was just what was lying around at the moment…But in the 1930s, the definition of “modern” became hardened into antihistory: glass boxes with flat roofs, or at least nothing observably traditional. Modern was morally correct; anything else was trivial, or worse. By the 1950s, modernism as practiced in New York City had pushed traditional styling into a pretty small corner — one often occupied by unabashedly conservative patrons.

Gray goes on to cite other examples of neo-traditional architecture, all in Manhattan, but we can think of plenty more in Brooklyn, such as 27 Cranberry Street and the townhouses going up on Strong Place. And of course, over in the U.K., there is neo-traditionalist architect Ben Pentreath and others. What do you think of this development?
Buildings That Lie About Their Age [NY Times]
Photo by Google Maps