Peek Inside Alloy Development’s Finned Concrete Townhouses in Dumbo

Rendering: Alloy Development

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When Alloy Development acquired the lot at 55-57 Pearl Street in Dumbo, it could have chosen to build a 12-story condo tower. Instead, the Brooklyn-based real estate development firm decided to forsake over 10,000 square feet of potential luxury apartments in favor of five minimalist, single-family town homes.

“We were trying to be sensitive to the built product around us,”Alloy Executive Vice President A.J. Pires said of the choice to build luxury townhouses instead of a predictable tower. “We didn’t want a little finger building.”

The decision paid off — within four months of the start of construction of the townhouses, all five had sold for over $4,000,000 each.

Alloy gave Brownstoner a tour of one of the houses, now occupied by an owner who preferred to be anonymous. (Building records list only an LLC.) It is not a model unit or owned by Alloy, according to the company.

55 Pearl Street Alloy

The owner of the home hired interior designer Rebecca Robertson of her eponymous firm. A former editor of Martha Stewart Living she styled the home with a warm chic.

The inside has been furnished in a contemporary, minimalist manner consistent with the sleek exterior design. Its wood floors are “toasted” to prevent scratches from showing — the material is brown all the way through.

A basket, brass, hand-blown glass light fixtures and fur provide contrast with hard tile and stone surfaces and warm up the interior.

55 Pearl Street Alloy

Each of the five town houses has four bedrooms, a private garage, full guest suite on the parking floor, roof deck and second story terrace for a total of 665 square feet of outdoor space (695 feet in the corner unit). A mezzanine level floats above the kitchen and dining rooms, flooded by light from the lower windows.

“The contemporary nature of the design was born out of a number of factors,” Alloy president Jared Della Valle told Brownstoner. “It was a real puzzle.”

Della Valle is referring to the buildings’ location in Dumbo, where the prime waterfront location affords the homes both incredible views and sun as well as deafening levels of noise from the elevated tracks, heavy traffic, and constant construction.

Yet, from the interior of the corner townhouse, the noise is almost inaudible due to extensive acoustic restraints which turn a deafening cacophony into a dull hum.

55 Pearl Street Alloy

Another design determination was privacy, quite the commodity in such a busy neighborhood. The ground floor windows are completely opaque to outside viewers, but are mostly translucent from the outside looking in. Upper windows are in no way obstructed and the second story is fully visible from the street level, but this is countered by the quaint view insiders get from their couches of daily life passing by outside.

Exterior wood cladding and a ductal concrete facade provide privacy and help deaden sound. They also give the homes a residential vibe, and conceal the fact that five, and not a single, building stands on the lot.

55 Pearl Street Alloy

The five homes are singular in the industrial neighborhood, far from the borough’s brownstone belt, with only a swath of historic townhouses in Vinegar Hill for comparison in the development of the area’s single family dwellings.

From the roof of 55 Pearl Street, nearly all of Alloy’s current developments are visible. One John Street, 185 Plymouth Street, 192 Water Street and the company’s office at 20 Jay Street.

Even with so many projects going on, Della Valle is still thinking forwards. “I could imagine doing this on a much larger scale,” he says of the futuristic homes.

55 Pearl Street Townhouses rendering

Rendering: Alloy Development

Dumbo Townhouses

55 Pearl Street Alloy

55 Pearl Street Alloy

55 Pearl Street Alloy

55 Pearl Street Alloy

55 Pearl Street Alloy

55 Pearl Street Alloy

55 Pearl Street Alloy

55 Pearl Street

55 Pearl Street under construction in July, 2014 | Photo: Brownstoner

Water Street Mural CAM

A mural on the garage replaced by the townhouses. May 2009.| Photo: Josh Derr

[Photos: Hannah Frishberg]

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