The Historic Rotunda Is Gone From Bed Stuy's Roosevelt Savings Bank Building
Since Aron Kapelyus of Kai Construction got approved to convert the old Roosevelt Savings Bank building at 1024 Gates Avenue into apartments in late July, construction has moved at a fast pace. We reported on the permits to convert the Helmle, Huberty & Hudswell-designed 1906 Beaux-Arts bank building near the Bed Stuy/Bushwick border back in August….
Since Aron Kapelyus of Kai Construction got approved to convert the old Roosevelt Savings Bank building at 1024 Gates Avenue into apartments in late July, construction has moved at a fast pace. We reported on the permits to convert the Helmle, Huberty & Hudswell-designed 1906 Beaux-Arts bank building near the Bed Stuy/Bushwick border back in August. At the time we wondered whether the developer would make an effort to save the historic rotunda that Montrose Morris wrote about when it was a Building of the Day.
Now the answer seems most likely to be no. The entire roof has been torn off the building. The developer has saved the facade and the side walls. The steel framing can be seen rising through the entire structure, topping out above the old roof line. Plans call for adding 20 feet to the top of the formerly one-story building, making it 70 feet tall and six stories high when completed. It will have 50 apartments and 25 parking spaces.
It’s possible the developer has saved the rotunda and plans to put it back on top of the new addition, but it’s not very likely.
There’s also some other big news for this site: This month a plan was approved to build a new, separate building of seven stories on the same lot (presumably in the parking lot in the rear). That new building will also be 70 feet high, and it will have 86 apartments. Click through to see more photos of the construction.
Bed Stuy’s Roosevelt Savings Bank on Way to Becoming Apartments [Brownstoner] GMAP
Building of the Day: 1024 Gates Avenue [Brownstoner]
If they accidentally damage the facade in construction and then are “forced” to tear it down because of structural instability thus enabling them to build something more cheaply, I will not be surprised.
Or, they just might make that ground level all parking, with garage entrances carved into the facade and some lovely pinkish bricks and fedders windows.
Ruining Brooklyn one building at a time… Many developers seem to be putting these strange ugly additions onto the tops of great buildings. The old school of pharmacy on Nostrand, the apartments MX and Bainbridge, the old garage on Hancock and Lewis ave all have a strange top that look like it blew in from uglyville.
We can X this one off the tour.