Building of the Day: 2820-2900 Snyder Avenue

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: NYPD 67th Precinct, FDNY Engine 248-Battalion 41
Address: 2820-2900 Snyder Avenue
Cross Streets: Nostrand and Rogers avenues
Neighborhood: Flatbush
Year Built: 1971
Architectural Style: Brutalist
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: No

The story: In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, both Brooklyn and New York City accorded their fire and police departments fine buildings. The philosophy was that these vital services reflected on the cities themselves, and should be architectural structures that did those cities proud. When visitors came here, any citizen, whether great or humble, could point to a police station or fire house and say, “This is what our city built for my safety and well-being. Aren’t they beautiful and impressive?”

When Brooklyn became part of Greater NYC, that tradition continued. Some of our finest architects vied for the privilege of designing stations that are today beloved and protected landmarks. These stations were so valued that despite changes in policing or firefighting, many of them were remodeled and are still in use.

Of course, as populations grew, and as the world changed, so did the philosophy of building civic buildings. Many other things changed as well, including the bureaucracy of the city’s own architectural services, budget priorities, and the nature of the police and fire departments.

The social upheavals of the 1960s and 70s corresponded with the decline of the city due to decreased revenues and a massive flight to the suburbs from urban areas. The President of the United States told the city to “drop dead,” the government was not going to bail the city out. Crime escalated in many neighborhoods, entire boroughs seemed like they were on fire all the time, and no one anywhere felt safe. There was even a serial killer on the loose. Drug use and trafficking was at an all-time high, and some police precincts were under siege, giving rise to names like “Fort Apache” in the Bronx.

Almost all of the precinct and fire houses built during this time were in what has been called “Brutalist Architecture.” Brutalist actually comes from the French words for raw concrete, used by Le Corbusier, but has been used to describe buildings, mostly civic and government, that are stark, massively concrete, functional, and frankly, quite ugly. Most Brutalist buildings make no pretense of fitting in, or being beautiful. They are quite a tangible reflection of the times they were built in – when we were in an endless war in Vietnam, faced with social unrest, and unprecedented changes in the American psyche. We were in an ugly national mood.

19th century police stations looked like fortresses protecting the land around them. These Brutalist modern stations look like fortresses protecting those within its walls, not those outside. They are defensive fortresses, essentially telling the surrounding communities that the police considered the residents to be the enemy from which they needed to be protected, behind heavy concrete walls and small, easily defended windows.

This combined police station and fire house is home to the 67th Precinct and Battalion 41-Engine 248. It’s rare to have both police and fire in the same building. Considering their friendly rivalry, it must be interesting. As Brutalist architecture goes, and as 1970s era NYC police and fire houses go, this one is not as bad as some. It is highly functional, and combining the two services probably makes logistics easier in emergencies.

Of course, it is plopped down rather unceremoniously on the street, and does have that forbidding fortress appearance, with very small windows high up, as if to repel invaders. The parapet wall and prison-like roof, that looks to be quite a defensible barricade against invasion don’t help either. As architecture, I’m not impressed, and even on some levels, insulted. However, that is not the fault of the police and fire departments who serve there. This is a busy location, in a community that has had its share of troubles.

Architecture plays a great role in the history of our fire department and police department. But one’s precinct and fire house’s architecture becomes unimportant when lives are in danger. Today, on the 13th anniversary of 9-11, let’s pause to pay our respects to all of the victims of the terror attacks on that day. Evil men targeted the architectural symbols of our nation’s wealth and security. They destroyed buildings and killed thousands, even as more responders rushed in to save people. Our architecture may have been destroyed or damaged, and so many people were lost, but we as a people remain strong, and we rebuild. No matter how much time passes from those events, it still remains important to take a day to remember.

GMAP

(Photo: Nicholas Strini for PropertyShark)