St. Joseph's Gym Plan Meets Local Resistance

Not surprisingly, a major backlash to St. Joseph's College's proposal to plunk down a gymnasium on Clinton Avenue is building, reports The Brooklyn Paper. After all, the location—smack dab amidst several free-standing mansion built by the Pratt family in the late 19th century—is about as historic as they come anywhere in New York City. “That is the premier block of the entire community,” said Society for Clinton Hill member Sharon Barnes. “A stark box does not seem to be the best choice.” While the Catholic college says it needs the basketball facility to attract students, it so far has not been receptive to alternative ideas like moving the location to the large parking lot the school owns a block away on Vanderbilt Avenue. Mind-bogglingly, Community Board 2's land use committee gave its unanimous consent for the project back in January. It seems unlikely that the Landmarks Preservation Commission will be such an easy sell. At the very least, the school should release the plans for the public to see so that public discussion can occur in a transparent manner.
Neighbors say St. Joe’s B-Ball Arena Is Ugly [Brooklyn Paper]
St. Joseph's Planning Gymnasium for Clinton Avenue [Brownstoner]

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If Poly Prep can get away with its lower school addition and win a Landmark Conservancy 'oscar' for it's design, I don't see anything standing in the way of St. Joe's doing the same.

Posted by: Colonel Steve Austin at April 24, 2009 9:49 AM

A regulation court is 94x50. Add 25 ft to one of the sides for bleachers and add 10 ft to the other three of the sides. Final interior dimensions ~ 115 x 85.

The existing building is 20 ft. Once they knock down the existing building the will need to commandeer an additional 65-85 ft, depending on orientation of the gym.

Using the picture as a reference, the crocodile see saw could stay right where it is now. The sandbox and playground equipment(not in picture) can easily be relocated.

Posted by: Colonel Steve Austin at April 24, 2009 10:09 AM

Well sure, Col Steve, but it is all in the execution.

Posted by: Schultz at April 24, 2009 10:09 AM

There IS one thing standing in St. Joe's way Colonel--coming up with a design that gets LPC approval. If they do that the building would probably be fine. However, their unwillingness to release renderings doesn't inspire confidence. Are they trying to hide something, or is the design simply not finalized? In any case the LPC will have to hold a hearing, so the preservation community will certainly have their say.

Posted by: Bob Marvin at April 24, 2009 10:12 AM

They told the Dillon families that during construction nearly all of the whole yard will be unavailable, and when construction is done half the yard will be lost to the new structure.

Posted by: dreamking at April 24, 2009 10:41 AM

Yes, basketball and the Church...goes back to 400 A.D.

When we went to the Vatican museum a number of years ago, there was an archeological dig going on to uncover the medieval basketball court that had been filled in during the 1600's.

St. Joe's r-e-a-l-l-y needs this building to attract students...so it can be a feeder school to the Knicks. Hhhh...

Posted by: BrooklynGreene at April 24, 2009 10:58 AM

I think the attracting students argument is silly. How is a small basketball gymnasium going to sway any students to attend St. Joseph's College?

Thing is, they can have it all if they build on the parking lot site on Vanderbilt. They could put all of that parking underground and build a large gym on top. There' much more space and it would actually improve the streetscape of that block if done well.

Posted by: 1842 at April 24, 2009 11:17 AM

True 1842...but underground garages are very costly as is...and putting one in on Vanderbilt might cost a fortune because of the foundations around that site.

It's a good idea though!

I find that parking lot, though small, to be an eyesore.

Posted by: BrooklynGreene at April 24, 2009 11:23 AM

Fair point Brooklyn Greene. The parking lot, however is much larger than the proposed site on Clinton, so perhaps it is a compromise, even without underground parking.

Posted by: 1842 at April 24, 2009 11:27 AM

The parking lot is part of their Phase III expansion.

The parking lot used to be a 2 story, then one story garage. After years of neglect, they knocked the whole thing down and paved it over as it is now. That was Phase I. Temporary Fix.

Phase III is supposed to be the expansion of their actual academic facilities. Lecture halls, classrooms etc, with parking being incorporated into the design.

The only have 1000 students now, but they are looking forward to greatly increasing those numbers.

If you look at a Landmarks map, the entire parking lot falls out of the jurisdiction of LPC. This is where they will do whatever they want.

Posted by: Colonel Steve Austin at April 24, 2009 11:49 AM

This is just about the most misguided thing a small college could do. They are destroying the atmophere that pulls students to this campus. Take a look at The Rhode Island School of Design's campus to see how a great smaller college can integrate itself into a historic context.

A good quiet modern building that takes to the background on Clinton Avenue could be a sucsessful addition to the streetscape. This is however a very unlikely outcome because that would mean an expensive building, something St. Joseph I'm sure couldn't easily afford. The open air theater that was built in the 1950's is no prize and if that was demolished I not sure anyone would cry.

The new building MUST be well setback from the plane of the brownstone facades, it MUST be free standing along Clinton Avenue, it MUST be red brick, It MUST only have a small entrance on Clinton Ave and the landscaping must include many larger trees to hide the mass of the buiding.

On Vanderbuilt Ave the designers could have much more of a free hand and be able to create an iconic building that extends the St. Joseph campus in size and enhances its public presence.

I know I'll be fighting a bad design tooth and nail.

Posted by: FloatingWorld at April 24, 2009 11:59 AM

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April 24, 2009

St. Joseph's Gym Plan Meets Local Resistance

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