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July 10, 2009

Development Watch: 2 Lefferts Place Gets Windows

2-Lefferts-Place-0709.jpg
It remains to be seen whether the finished product is successful, but the developer oof 2 Lefferts Place deserves some credit so far for trying to make some elements of the new building contextual with its brownstone neighbors. In particular, the biggest signs of that are the size and spacing of the windows and the fact that he's voluntarily putting lintels above the windows. Of course, those aspects could be rendered moot if the exterior finish is some nasty stucco or similarly out-of-place material. Time will tell.
Development Watch: 2 Lefferts Place [Brownstoner] GMAP P*Shark
Mini Flatiron Building Coming to Clinton Hill [Brownstoner] DOB




Posted by Brownstoner at 2:37 PM | Comments (12)
Categories: Clinton Hill, Development

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Comments


I hope you're not poo pooing all stucco... seeing most of the "brownstone" are probably stucco now.

Posted by: tybur6 at July 10, 2009 2:54 PM

tyburg is 100% correct. In Brooklyn, the quarried sandstone used to cover the fronts of thousands of houses was so poor in quality that it started to spall and fall off in chunks almost immediately. Therefore, a hundred plus years later, most of "brownstone Brooklyn" is more accurately "stucco Brooklyn".

Posted by: sam at July 10, 2009 3:05 PM

Just "nasty stucco"

Posted by: brownstoner at July 10, 2009 3:18 PM

a.k.a. Yucko stucco.

Posted by: Arkady at July 10, 2009 3:22 PM

Side windows too. Cool! Why the hell do some brownstone owners block them up?

***Bid half off peak comps***

Posted by: Brownstones Half Off at July 10, 2009 3:23 PM

I've seen a few corner brownstones featured on Bstoner without any side windows. Is it possible to add them? or would it affect the structural integrity of the building?

Posted by: dirty_hipster at July 10, 2009 3:35 PM

Those windows have been in for a couple months and look pretty good. I saw the beginning of the "skin" a few days ago - on the first floor - and it looked pretty good actually. They are using real bricks, same color and size as the neighboring rowhouse, dark gray mortor, gray stone lintels. All in all looked good. My only critique would be that the mortor should be done in a thinner "tuck point" style, but that is hard to come by these days.

Posted by: 1842 at July 10, 2009 3:40 PM

I've only heard of tuck pointing in the context of repairing old mortar joints.

what do you mean be tuck point style?

Posted by: young archi at July 10, 2009 4:01 PM

ahem...

correction to my previously misspelled question:

what do you mean BY tuck point style....

Posted by: young archi at July 10, 2009 4:05 PM

This is a new building? Place looks great. It's the right height, large windows, apparently tall ceilings. Compliments to the developer. I hope the buyers line up and the developer makes a nice profit for creating such a positive addition to the neighborhood.

Posted by: mopar at July 10, 2009 5:25 PM

tuck pointing refers to re-pointing, however struck joints refers to how the mortar is finished. Historically the mortar was struck at an angle with a strike tool after it was troweled in place thus minimizing the visual prominence of the mortar. modern practice is to smear the mortar right to the plane of the brick creating messy and fat mortar joints. the most elegant joints were the buttered joints used on very crisply molded brick, known as Philadelphia brick, these joints are very tiny. Not only is this a lost art but it is against modern codes that require a certain minimum joint size. No real reason for it. houses with buttered joints are still standing fine after 150 years. Mortars and their mixture and application is a very complicated and exacting trade. Unfortunately most of the work I see in Brooklyn is truly terrible. Only the preservation experts know how to specify the right mortar work.

Posted by: Minard Lafever at July 10, 2009 5:26 PM

i think that the developer is the same person who built out the restaurant Il Torchi (now avanti) on myrtle. If this is true then all indications would point towards a beautiful job- that place is really beautiful on the inside - great taste

Posted by: filmmer at July 11, 2009 10:22 PM

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