This Six-Story Apartment Building Will Replace Early 20th Century Garage on Bushwick Avenue

Six stories of modern glassy apartments will replace this low-slung brick building that garaged and serviced cars at 600 Bushwick Avenue for 100 years. The existing building, a Building of the Day in 2013, has a pleasing symmetrical design with Neo-Classical columns and triangular pediments.

The new design, by Hustvedt Cutler Architects, adds four stories to the existing building, and replaces its triangular pediments with glassy, asymmetrical bays and balconies. At first we thought the renderings showed an entirely new building, but the contemporary adaptation retains the brick base and second-story windows of the original.

The large door openings on the first floor — some of which have been filled in over the years — will become plate glass windows for shops.

A row of factory-style windows on the third floor eases the transition between the new building and the old. We’re pleased the addition doesn’t appear to be swallowing the original — a recent Brooklyn design trend.

Developer Cayuga plans 64 rental apartments, according to NY YIMBY, which first published the renderings. There will also be medical offices, a lobby and bike storage as well as retail on the ground floor, according to the  building permits, which were approved in February.

The second floor will contain 32 parking spaces as well as five apartments — we’re guessing the building will keep its existing ramp. Built sometime between 1908 and 1916, the building had something to do with autos by at least 1916, according to old maps.

In the years since, it has served as a showroom for Nash cars, an auto parts store, and a used car dealership. More recently the second floor has been used as a music venue — Bjork showed up to DJ a fundraiser there in 2010.

Cayuga Capital has been busy in the neighborhood. It’s in the midst of a church conversion down the street at 626 Bushwick Avenue and has five more Bushwick buildings listed on its website.

Revealed: Garage to Residential Conversion, 600 Bushwick Avenue [NYY]
Building of the Day: 600 Bushwick Avenue [Brownstoner]
Cayuga Capital Coverage [Brownstoner]
Photo of existing building by Christopher Bride for Property Shark; tax photo via PropertyShark; renderings by Cayuga Capital via NYY