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March 8, 2007

Orthodox Jewish Group Digging Gothic Architecture

770ep0307.jpg
Back in 1940, the Orthodox Lubavitchers in Crown Heights bought the building at 770 Eastern Parkway for the Rebbe at the time. As the group spread its word throughout the world, the design of 770 caught on to such an extent that there have been a dozen attempts to emulate it. The photographers Andrea Robbins and Max Becher decided to capture all 12 on film. Most don't even come close, in our opinion, but that's not really the point. Check them out on the jump.
770 Eastern Parkway [Robbins Becher via Kottke]




Posted by Brownstoner at 10:02 AM | Comments (20)
Categories: Architecture

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Comments

that is awesmely bizarre! i wish they would clone that house a few more times right here in brooklyn.

Posted by: Jimmy Legs at March 8, 2007 10:19 AM

Very cool! What a beautiful house.

Posted by: Ms. Brooklyn at March 8, 2007 10:19 AM

I think the house ruined the look of the street in Milan.

Posted by: North Sleeper at March 8, 2007 10:34 AM

Now I KNOW that browstoner can never be pleased! "don't even come close"?? What? I'd say most of them are very close, and a couple are wonderful derivations of the original.

Posted by: cmu at March 8, 2007 10:44 AM

The one on the campus of Rutgers University goes farthest away from the orginal. All of the rest of them pretty much keep the elements in scale - the steep pitched roofs, the center entrance with the bumped out bay above it, etc. The entrance to campus house, because they expanded the building in width, looks way too small, and the upper bay just looks like a tiny afterthought.

This is actually really interesting to see how a building, built in one city, at a certain time, for a certain purpose, can be replicated in very different places, for various purposes.

I think the Milan house works. The block is a mixture of styles, so it doesn't stand out. The best use of the original shape, in my opinion, is the LA house. I really like how they continued the basic design into the rest of the block, making a unified row of buildings.

Posted by: Crown Heights Proud at March 8, 2007 10:52 AM

Why no GMAP link?

Posted by: Anon at March 8, 2007 10:57 AM

The one on the campus of Rutgers University is actually the largest one, so perhaps some credit for that.

Posted by: Rutgers proud at March 8, 2007 11:05 AM

OK, what no one has mentioned--the superlative oddness here--is that the architectural style of the original building itself is probably irrelevant; the point of the far-flung facsimiles is socio-religious (to groove with the Rebbe). Presumably, had the original '770' been a Spanish Mediterranean stucco, or a Tudor, or a whatever, they would have replicated that, too. I have always found the Lubavitchers to be a rather endearing cult (how can I not be flattered when they mistake me for a nice Jewish girl every time I pass the "mitzvah-mobile"?), and this curious architectural passion--it reminds me of Disney's "Magic Castle" motif--reinforces that benign oddity.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at March 8, 2007 11:21 AM

I've found them to be one of the least endearing cults I've met in my admittedly limited experince with cults. As someone who lives on Eastern Parkway, I'm particuarly disturbed by the way the mitzvah mobiles run red lights, drive dangerously and flaunt the fact that their above the law, basically endangering all pedistrians and motorists between crown heights and times square.

I apologize, as this has nothing to do with architecture, but I to get it off chest when I saw the mitzvah mobile mention...

Posted by: Anonymous at March 8, 2007 11:54 AM

Fascinating!

Posted by: Park Sloper at March 8, 2007 1:02 PM

Well,keep in mind that 'endearing cult' is praising with faint damns. Running red lights for Moshiach is bad, but not quite in the same league with Xenu-auditing or Kool-Aid quaffing, plus you get to be a branch of a real bona-fide world religion.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at March 8, 2007 1:27 PM

Who designed this website for 770? You have to scroll to the right to see all the photos.
What's wrong with a scroll down the page, so you can see several at once and do a compare?
*shakes head in confusion*

Posted by: Anonymous at March 8, 2007 1:41 PM

"kool aid quaffing"

What a cheap shot by a cheap ass. And by the way I have your bonafide right here for you whenever you're ready.

Posted by: Anonymous at March 8, 2007 2:49 PM

Mitvah Mobile is nothing compared to Williamsburg Hasidic schoolbuses. Watch out!!! I wish the Somner (Satner?) group could be more like the Crown Heights Jews.
Talk about a cult.

Posted by: Anonymous at March 8, 2007 5:47 PM

What a great piece, Mr. B.! I love it. The cute Gothic structure became identified with the nurturing community; this building reproduced in all of its incongruous locations became a metaphor for a group which is small and quite distinct from its neighbors. I love the fact that the houses don't fit in and assert themselves in their quirky way. How about the one in Sao Paulo! I so dig it! I also like the fact that it is a little piece of Brooklyn spread far and wide.

Posted by: donatella at March 8, 2007 5:55 PM

All religions are cults, for my money (or perhaps more precisely they're political parties these days), but I say you gotta hand it to them for at least trying to build something cool-ish. They don't get all the proportions right, true, but they're not half bad. Indeed, I wish more buildings like this would go up in bklyn--in addition to some fab contemporaries.

Posted by: bob999 at March 8, 2007 9:17 PM

The Wmsburg branch of the Hasidim are called the Satmar, Anon@5:47; the ones in Borough Park are the Bobov and, I think, the Pupa. And yes, the schoolbuses are notorious. (My daughter's pediatrician, who is in the heart of Boro Park, despairs of the kids every getting any exercise--they get bussed around the corner to yeshiva.) Of all the sects, only the Lubavitchers in Crown Heights have a reputation for outreach and proseletyzing to non-Hasidic Jews; the other folks are extremely insular (or, as a Reformed Jewish friend observed tartly, "they think we're already damned.") The Boro Park folks are also responsible for a wave of pretty atrocious build-outs and tear-downs to accommodate their large families; they are committed to staying in close geographic proximity to their rebbes so there's no "moving to the 'burbs" unless, like Kiryas Joel in upstate NY, they all move in a group colony.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at March 8, 2007 10:05 PM

anon 11:54 - Name me one group in brooklyn that doesn't "run red lights, drive dangerously and flaunt the fact that their above the law"? Brooklyn is the only place i have been to where people HONK at you for NOT running a red light!!!! My point is its not the lubavitch its EVERYONE in brooklyn.

Posted by: Anonymous at March 9, 2007 10:43 AM

anon 10:43 fair response and you didnt insult an entire group of people like that pig from flatbush.

Posted by: Anonymous at March 9, 2007 12:03 PM

I am flabbergasted.

Posted by: Christopher Gray at April 5, 2007 7:57 PM

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