Renovation
May 9, 2008
Bird Blog: Week 2
Every week, Jennifer Mankins, owner of Park Slope- and Cobble Hill-based boutiques Bird, tells us about the new 2,500-square-foot store on Grand Street in Williamsburg that she's getting ready to open.
I'd like to thank everyone that read the first post and for all the supportive and encouraging comments. I would also like to clarify that the Williamsburg location will not replace the Park Slope and Cobble Hill stores. They will remain open. So…if you couldn’t tell from the first post last week, I was smitten with the space. I have seen lots of properties over the years, from dumps that I never even placed bids on to dream spaces where I could clearly envision the future of Bird. This was definitively the latter and I was trying hard not to get too excited. I decided I should call in the troops, to get second opinions. Not wanting to waste any time, I scheduled an appointment that weekend for my own “panel of experts” to visit the space with me a second time: my sister and my husband plus two good friends – an architect and a local commercial real estate broker/developer. The building was built right before the turn of the 20th century, between 1896 and 1898. After the jump, find out what the experts uncovered and how our rent negotiations went...
May 5, 2008
Developer to Air Out 345 Adams Street
There are portions of 345 Adams Street, a city-owned building mainly occupied by the Department of Finance, that sunlight has never touched. Other parts, as in the last eight feet of the building's magnificent 16-foot ceilings, were blocked after the hideous but energy-efficient drop ceiling trend hit the nation by storm. But that will change now that Muss Development owns "the disgustingly ugly, city-owned office's" first two floors, 35,000 square feet, which the adjacent Marriott and Morton’s Steakhouse landlord intends to make beautiful and rent as retail space. Greenstone Realty CEO Robert Greenstone said Muss would remove the mezzanine and carve windows into the first two floors extending from Morton's to Willoughby Street. A third floor of "knock out windows" would be added in case the city wants to use them and sidewalk lights would illuminate the building at night. "We were going to put sconces on the walls but it looked too ordinary," said Greenstone, who is marketing the space. He provided us with renderings of the $18 million renovation that he said would be split between two high-end retailers. Of course Apple was brought up, but this time it's totally serious. (Did anybody really think the ultra-sleek iGadget manufacturer would move into the landmarked One Hanson Place, which though magnificent inside, is as far from the Apple aesthetic as possible before teetering into the viking look?) "They love iconic corners," Greenstone said of Apple, which he's worked extensively with in the company's effort to find their first Brooklyn throne. He said "One Hanson Place looks iconic but it's not iconic," mainly referring to what's outside (this is where architecture becomes important ). But 345 Adams Street is across from Borough Hall, Cadman Plaza and Brooklyn Heights, making it a top contender for "that iconic corner," said Greenstone. For those of you unfamiliar with the area, see jump for pictures of what's outside those future windows, taken from 16 Court Street ...
May 2, 2008
Bird Blog: Week 1
We've documented home renovations and ground-up developments on Brownstoner so far, but never a store. That changes today with the first installment of the Bird Blog. Jennifer Mankins, owner of Park Slope- and Cobble Hill-based stores Bird, is just embarking on her most ambitious retail effort yet, a 2,500-square-foot space on Grand Street in Williamsburg. (She'll have lots of help from her project manager/sister Stephanie and architect Ole Sondresen.) The space is three times bigger than her two existing stores and, although it has some great bones, is going to need a lot of work. With that, we'll hand it over to Jen for the first installment of what will be a weekly Friday feature on the blog until, well, until opening day.
A self-confessed fashion and real estate junkie, I am always plotting and planning new branches and outposts of the store – baby bird, green bird, bird dog, birdhouse, birdbath. My current stores, both located in typical 20’x40’ townhouses, are approximately 800 square feet, and I carry over 100 women’s designers. You can do the math. There just isn’t any extra space for adding new products. So I started thinking bigger. Instead of opening five separate small stores, why not put everything under one roof – a one-stop shop for the urban Brooklyn family?
My planning showed I would need at least 2000 square feet, and I knew I would probably have the best chance of finding a space that size in an area with an industrial history like Dumbo, Williamsburg, or even Manhattan. I’d already spent a good deal of time trying to make something work in Dumbo, and gone round and round with every major developer there including Walentas, Guttman and Boymelgreen. Nothing ever worked out. So I followed a few leads in Manhattan, including a dream space on Orchard and Broome, a generic storefront on Grand and Mercer, even an old church in Chinatown. Earnest Sewn beat me to the punch for Broome Street, and the jaw-dropping prices of everything else I saw in Manhattan left me feeling a bit woozy. Try keeping a straight face when a broker tells you the asking rent is $360,000 per year!
This left Williamsburg. I saw a promising listing on Craig’s List for a 2,500-square-foot space on Grand Street, but in a typical bit of real estate cat-and-mouse, the broker wouldn’t disclose an exact location. We booked a meeting for the next afternoon and I found myself looking at a former spa with a striking iron façade. I loved the exterior, and wouldn’t need to install a new storefront, a big plus. The interior was another story. It was full of peach painted drywall, awful etched glass, fluorescent lighting and two, that’s right, two Styrofoam dropped ceilings. I didn’t even want to think about how much the demo would cost. On the other hand there were extremely high ceilings, beautiful clearstory windows, a 1,250-square-foot extension with three functioning industrial skylights, and a second, beautiful storefront on North 1st Street. Not to mention a perfect, never-been-used cedar sauna! It wasn’t hard to see the potential. Even the basement, flooded with natural light from glass sidewalk panels, with its decrepit doors, vaulted brick ceilings and exposed stone support walls was just dreamy. I couldn’t believe it. All this and seemingly very cool landlords? There must be a catch. I just kept reminding myself of one of my father’s favorite sayings, “It’s not the good deals you miss that hurt you, it’s the good deals you get.”
More photos on the jump...
April 17, 2008
Renovation Without the Debt
Brooklynites may be able to learn a thing or two from the discipline and staying power of one Ohioan renovator. Granted, the Akron couple featured in today's New York Times, David and Gina Giffels, picked up their 1913 Tudor for an envy-inducing $65,000 back in 1996. But their meticulous renovation in the intervening twelve years without taking on a penny of debt (they don't believe in credit cards) is impressive nonetheless. Of course, there were other costs, like vacation time spent with a caulk gun instead of the children. But it's clear that the couple's relationship with the house transcends finances anyway. “What I put into it was about eight ounces of my heart,” Mr. Giffels told the NY Times. “It’s like asking, ‘Well, what do you have in Gina, what have you spent on Gina over the years? Gina is not a commodity; neither is this. It’s not something that we really bought, it’s something that came into our lives.” We're sure there are more than a couple readers who have a similar tale.
Don’t Hate Me Because I’m Solvent [NY Times]
An Artful Restoration Slideshow [NY Times]
March 4, 2008
Renovation Focus: Vestibule #2
Today's vestibule renovation submission comes from a family that lived in the lower duplex for six years before embarking on a three-year renovation of the entire house.
We did a lot of work to our vestibule in the course of taking our four family down to a two family. The work on the vestibule was not cheap, but we saved on what we could, and we sourced everything directly, but asked our contractor to put it all together. When we bought the house the parlor vestibule was shared by all the tenants, with an inner door for the owner’s duplex (parlor and ground floors). The vestibule had a grimy stone floor which never came clean; shiny hardware and no molding around door to exterior; safety glass in window with chicken wire embedded; and a decorative shelf left by a previous owner. It wasn't all bad though: There were nice old exterior doors (interior doors were so-so but not in desperate need of replacing) and there was some original baseboard molding.
So what did we do? Stripped doors, repainted, installed new curved molding for exterior doors by a lovely carpenter in Massachusetts, put new glass in windows, added old encaustic tile (durable, nice old patina) as well as new hardware by Baldwin, new saddles, salvaged pine floors, purple/grey paint to match tiles. It was not all smooth sailing though: The exterior doors had no framing and were hanging from a few nails like a loose tooth. Every time the door slammed shut the wall wobbled. One theory is that originally the entrance was a rectangular door, and at some point an owner installed a non-matching arched pair salvaged from another house. They still do not line up, but it’s not that noticeable. Other bad news was that the tile installer, on his first pass, cut crude arcs in the tile, going around the casings instead of putting the tile under them. We were able to source a few more, thanks to a quick email to olde good things and their diligent searching of the Scranton warehouse.
Please email your submission to brownstoner@brownstoner.com.
Renovation Focus: The Vestibule [Brownstoner]
February 29, 2008
Renovation Focus: The Vestibule
We've been trying to think of the next area of the house we should focus on for reader-submitted renovations and finally received inspiration from yesterday's post on the Windsor Terrace Renovation Blog: the vestibule. We've also been talking with Mrs. B about simple, inexpensive ways to make our own entryway look a little less haggard, so the timing seems good. So bring on the photos and descriptions of what you've done in your vestibule and why. We'll start running submissions next week.
Gussying up the Vestibule [Windsor Terrace Reno]
February 14, 2008
The House that Harvey Built
The Times has a fun profile of one of the “elder statesmen” of North Brooklyn, William Harvey, who transformed an old mechanic’s garage on North 8th into what he calls a “Scando-Monican Brutalist artist studio and apartment.” Harvey, a sculptor and housewares designer, bought the garage in ’98 and built the rooftop addition/current living space (shown here under construction in 2005) over the next several years; the home is filled with things like a homemade black walnut kitchen island, and furniture and fixtures purchased at warehouse sales, flea markets, thrift shops and IKEA. Harvey and his wife were “early adopters” of Long Island City and Greenpoint in the ’80s before they moved into their Williamsburg house, which has been featured in a movie and television show. Harvey believes Williamsburg is still defined, in part, by a do-it-yourself attitude. “The thing about this neighborhood,” he says, “is that it was founded on D.I.Y. I think those values will dissipate, but right now it’s still going strong.”
Scavenger King of Williamsburg [NY Times]
Photo from Property Shark circa 2005.
February 5, 2008
Closing Bell: Grand Avenue Haunted House Losing Its Skin
This should make any of you going through a renovation right now feel better...The old woodframe house at 432 Grand Avenue is undergoing a Landmarks-compliant overhaul right now. Interior demolition began in December and by the end of last week the entire facade of the house (which is slated to be a two-family) had been ripped off. It's pretty interesting to get this kind of glimpse at how this kind of house is constructed. Let's hope it ends up looking as good as its twin next door.
Gutting Begins at the Grand Avenue Haunted House [Brownstoner] GMAP P*Shark
Inside the Grand Avenue Haunted House [Brownstoner]
February 1, 2008
Weekend Warrior: Fixing the Skylight
Remember our weekend warrior reader who created a wine cellar in his Clinton Hill brownstone last month? Well, he's been at it again, this time tackling a sagging skylight. In his own words...
The skylight is somewhat cheaply made, and not by Michaelangelo. The designs on the glass pieces appear to have been silk-screened. But I think it looks pretty nice, particularly with the oval plaster work, and it's original to the house (1870s, Clinton Hill). It's 30 inches wide and 55 inches long...We had a leak, as you can see in lower right. And I'm sure it wasn't the first leak over the past 140 years. And, upon a closer look, it became clear that the skylight was falling apart, sagging badly and in serious danger of raining down the stairs in tiny, irreparable shards. But how to get it down without breaking it?
When I crawled up into the cockloft, I discovered that the previous owner of the house thought he could improve upon actual sunlight with a flourescent fixture....I imagine the skylight also would look a little nicer with a little cleaning (you can't make them out, but there are at least six dead bees and a thick coating of grime, here) but I was actually really scared to touch the thing at all.
Initial plan was to slip a piece of quarter-inch plywood beneath frame, screw the frame to it, and then lower it through the hole. But the husband correctly pointed out that this A) would be a huge pain in the ass, and B) the glass had sagged so much that placing the skylight on a flat piece of wood would probably bust out pieces of it.
So I slipped an old, strong shower curtain under the glass, pulled it taut, and stapled it all around. Did the same thing on the top. And lowered it through the hole to husband, waiting on tall ladder, without any damage. Now to get it restored!
Two questions: (1) Does anybody know where these clearly mass-produced approximations of stained glass came from? (2) Can anybody recommend a place for stained-glass repair? Thanks.
January 22, 2008
Repainting the Front Parlor
When we originally moved into our house more than two years ago, our intention was to use the front parlor in the near-to-medium term as our own home office while renting out the rear to a non-profit. (It's a five-story house and we didn't want to make it a three-family.) The hope was that within five years or so we'd be able to afford to take over the entire parlor floor and move the kitchen to the rear of it with a deck and stairs down to the yard. Of course, instead of a useful home office, its proxomity to the front door made it a dumping ground for bicycles, strollers, boots, etc. Fed up, we purged the space over the holidays in anticipation of turning it into a clean, sparingly decorated dining room: One table with chairs, maybe a sideboard and that's it. The first step is to repaint, so we put up some swatches last week. From left to right, you're looking at Farrow & Ball's Pigeon, French Gray and Black Blue. We were tempted by the Pigeon but the prevailing opinion among family and friends was that it would be too dark, as the Black Blue would be. So we're going to be going with the French Gray (center). Anyone else used this color?