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333 Carroll Addition Loses Steel Skeleton
As shown above, 333 Carroll Street’s controversial rooftop addition has been reduced to its towering brick phallus. Its developer started tearing down the addition last month.
What Goes Up Must Come Down [Brownstoner] GMAP
05/05/2011 10:00 AM
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What Goes Up Must Come Down
This was how the demolition of 333 Carroll Street’s rooftop addition was looking yesterday afternoon. Pardon Me for Asking showed the beginning of the demo on Monday. Developer Isaac Fischman told the Carroll Gardens neighborhood association that he would tear down the hulking addition in January and then proceed with the conversion of the original building. GMAP
04/07/2011 9:30 AM
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AY Demolition Continues to Spread
Well, that was quick. The remains of Ward Bakery, at Pacific and Vanderbilt, were getting chipped away at last week, and now there’s nothing left to see. Looking through the construction fence it’s pretty stunning to see how different the site between Pacific and Dean has come to look in the past few months. The demolition continues to move up Vanderbilt; construction workers are now dismantling the gas station on the corner of Atlantic. No great architectural loss there, but after it falls that stretch of Vanderbilt will be totally empty.
Ward Bakery Remnants Coming Down [Brownstoner]
Fare Thee Well, Hot Bird Signage [Brownstoner]
HoodRich Building Demo’d [Brownstoner]
03/11/2011 11:30 AM
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H&M Site Ready for Construction
In January we caught the first stages of demolition on the Fulton Mall parcel that will house H&M. Now the entire corner at Bridge and Fulton is a blank slate. However, construction on the store hasn’t started yet and no recent building permits have come through. The rendering for the new glass building is here.
H&M Breaks Ground on Fulton Mall [Brownstoner]
03/10/2011 10:00 AM
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Amidst Demolition, What of Landmark Burg Bank?
As Curbed provided visual evidence of on Monday, two floors of an un-landmarked wing of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank on Broadway and Driggs are in the process of being demolished. The big question–aside from why a portion of the building, even if it’s not landmarked, is being demolished–is what’s going to become of the landmarked section. As the photos above show, the inside of the landmark is in the process of being spruced up. Even though the building’s new owner, 175 Broadway Hospitality LLC, runs a hostel, a contractor at the site said the plan is to get a new bank into the property. (It used to be an HSBC before that bank sold it off.) Multiple attempts to reach the property’s owner for clarification have been unsuccessful, but it’s difficult to imagine the LPC green-lighting a plan to chop the space up so it could accommodate a hostel.
Burg Demolition Won’t Affect Landmark Bank [Brownstoner] GMAP
Last photo in set from Property Shark.
03/09/2011 11:00 AM
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Ward Bakery Remnants Coming Down
The last structure standing in the near-empty stretch of Vanderbilt between Pacific and Dean is starting to be demolished for Atlantic Yards. The past few months we’ve covered the other buildings being demolished on this stretch; a parking lot has replaced them. This one was originally part of 774-802 Pacific Street, the old Ward Bakery building. (Click through for a Tracy Collins picture of the building pre-demolition.) We couldn’t get a great shot of what’s left on account of Pacific Street being closed as construction continues. GMAP (more…)
03/01/2011 2:40 PM
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Steeple Demolition Uncontroversial in Sheepshead
This weekend The Times took a look at Sheepshead Bay’s United Methodist, where the congregation says it will have to take down the steeples on the neighborhood’s oldest church because they’re a safety hazard and would be too costly to repair. According to the article, the impending demolition has not been met with much outcry in the neighborhood: “There were no protests, heated community meetings or fund-raising campaigns to save the steeples. That quiet, said Ned Berke, the editor of Sheepshead Bites, revealed just how fragmented and disconnected from history Sheepshead Bay had become. ‘Sheepshead’s changing demographics are an ongoing obstacle to communication,’ Mr. Berke wrote in an e-mail. ‘It really throws a wrench in any attempt to preserve the building and its history.’” The story also notes that the church’s congregation has declined drastically over the years and its “officials said the decision to tear down the spires was not an easy one. It was made only after years of meetings with architects, engineers and city officials.”
A Neighborhood’s Steeples Are Set to Disappear Quietly [NY Times]
Here is the Church, and There Go the Steeples [Brownstoner] GMAP
Photo by wallyg.
02/28/2011 9:30 AM
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New Housing to Replace Bay Ridge Church
Bay Ridge Journal reports that “the charming Salam Arabic Lutheran Church building, at 345 Ovington Avenue between 3rd and 4th Avenues in Bay Ridge, is scheduled for demolition, to be replaced by a 5-story, 25-unit residential development…Salam, originally known as Salem Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church, after a church in Copenhagen, Denmark, was renamed after being acquired by an Arabic congregation in 1995. The Arabic congregation, which says it can’t afford to maintain the building, is sharing space at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church at 80th Street and Fourth Avenue.” According to Property Shark, the church dates back to 1920; the DOB application for the new construction is here.
Developer Buys, Will Demolish Salam Arabic Church [Bay Ridge Journal] GMAP
Photo from Property Shark.
02/21/2011 9:00 AM
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One Wall Left at Pepper and Potter
We knew the Pepper and Potter demo was coming at 125 Flatbush Avenue Extension, but we caught the building right before the fact. Stopping by the other day we were able to snap a few shots of the demolition in progress. After speaking with a co-owner of the site, we were told a hotel was not longer in the works, so this will be an empty lot soon enough.
Pepper and Potter Goin’ Down, Hotel Plans Sunk? [Brownstoner]
Pepper and Potter Prepped For Demo [Brownstoner]
Stimulus Boost for Downtown Brooklyn Hotel [Brownstoner]
From Cars to Mini-Fridges on Tillary [Brownstoner] GMAP
02/18/2011 11:00 AM
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Burg Demolition Won’t Affect Landmark Bank
A couple days ago Curbed ran an item about how one of the additions on the landmark Williamsburgh Savings Bank at 175 Broadway is covered in tarp, and permits have been filed for the demolition of its top two floors. While Curbed notes that the wrecking ball is set to hit an “un-landmarked wing of the building,” an LPC spokesperson fleshed out the details for us in an email: “The part of the W’Burg bank building (175 Broadway) that’s shrouded in that tarp is not landmarked. The main 1870-1875 bank building, the 1905 addition and the 1925 addition were all designated in 1966, and the bank interior was designated in 1996. The part that’s covered, constructed 1941, was not included in the Commission’s 1966 designation, most likely because it was not 30 years old and was not designed by a prominent architectural firm as the earlier additions were. Because this addition is on a separate tax lot and was not designated or calendared, DOB issued permits for work to remove the second and third floors. Those DOB permits for the 1941 addition are now grandfathered.” OK! Meanwhile, Curbed notes that the entity that purchased the building last year is “175 Broadway Hospitality.” The DOB permit is also to “obtain new certificate of occupancy.”
Part of Landmark Williamsburg Bank Building Getting Torn Down [Curbed] GMAP
Photo from Curbed.
02/16/2011 11:30 AM
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Here is the Church, and There Go the Steeples
Yesterday Sheepshead Bites had a post on a story it’s been tracking concerning how the current congregation of the church at 3087 Ocean Avenue intends to tear down the steeples on its 142-year-old building. An organization called the Bay Improvement Group (BIG) is advocating for their retention and tried at one point to convince the church’s owners to pursue landmark status: “We at BIG tried in the early 1990′s pleading with their Board of Directors/Trustees to Landmark the Church and they were sadly, ignorantly afraid of ‘Landmark status’ even though we tried to persuade them with experts in Church preservation, Engineers & Architects and myself, as an Attorney, to explain the great help they would have in obtaining Landmark status. They could have received State, City, Federal and private grants to restore the Church!” Today The Daily News picks up on the story, and has a quote from the church’s pastor about how the steeples are unsafe and the congregation can’t afford to renovate them: “‘We are concerned really about safety,’ said Pastor Jay Kyung Kim, who said the spires are cracked and leaning precariously. ‘If it falls down, it’s a tragedy.’ He hopes to eventually raise the cash to build new steeples, but has no idea how long that will take.” Sad stuff.
BIG Pleads For Savior Of Methodist Church [Sheepshead Bites]
Historic Steeples of 142-Year-Old United Methodist Church Will be Torn Down [NY Daily News]
Photo from Sheepshead Bites.
02/11/2011 10:00 AM
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Pepper and Potter Goin’ Down; Hotel Plans Sunk?
In November we noticed the old Pepper and Potter Building getting prepped for demo, then this permit came through noting that demolition work should have begun February 4th. (When we stopped by the other day, the building was still up.) We called a co-owner of the site, which was snatched up in 2008 for $10.8 million, and he did say demolition would begin soon. However, he claimed the demolition was to take care of the “unsightly and unsafe” building itself, and that previous plans for a hotel are no longer in place. We wrote in November 2009 that the site received a $20 million tax-free loan, but to qualify it had to break ground by the end of 2010. That obviously didn’t happen, so we wonder if the loan just fell through. Update: A commenter informs us the demo has begun, and so far the roof and interiors are gone.
Pepper and Potter Prepped For Demo [Brownstoner] DOB
Stimulus Boost for Downtown Brooklyn Hotel [Brownstoner]
From Cars to Mini-Fridges on Tillary [Brownstoner] GMAP
02/10/2011 11:30 AM
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RIP Hot Bird Building
Demolition began two weeks ago, and Thursday morning saw the last of the Hot Bird building at 540 Vanderbilt. The second shot (on the jump) was taken earlier in the week, when demolition allowed for an eerie look into old rooms in the building. (more…)
01/21/2011 11:32 AM
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H&M Breaks Ground on Fulton Mall
Demolition has begun on a group of buildings at 401-411 Bridge Street to clear the way for the glassy new H&M store scheduled to open at the corner of Fulton and Bridge streets on the Fulton Mall. 401 Bridge Street, a cute building with some historic windows you can see in pre-demolition form after the jump, was being torn into when we passed by on Monday, although the building permit is only for a partial demo. 405-9 Bridge Street was already done for, and the brick building on at 411 Bridge/497 Fulton also had work being done. (That building is approved for a partial and interior demo.) All the buildings are owned by Al Laboz’s United American Land. As you can see from the renderings above, the new structure appears to be slightly smaller than the one that the landlord originally envisioned more than two years ago. (more…)
01/19/2011 10:30 AM
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Fare Thee Well, Hot Bird Signage
Just the other day we caught the HoodRich building at 812 Pacific Street going down. And now its neighbor at 540 Vanderbilt Avenue, one of two in the area with vintage Hot Bird signage, will soon suffer a similar fate. It looks like it has been chipped away from the top and gutted from the inside. Like we already mentioned, this will someday be arena parking.
HoodRich Building Demo’d [Brownstoner]
01/07/2011 11:30 AM
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Henderson Building Goes Down
Thor Equities received approval to demolish the Henderson Building in September after a premature and permit-less start. And now the new year has begun with (a sad) bang: Amusing the Zillion shares demolition pictures taken on Wednesday by Eric Kowalsky. The area was rezoned to accommodate for a high-rise hotel (ample motivation to tear down a less monetizable property like this) but there are no immediate plans for its development.
Joe Sitt’s Bulldozer Crushes Henderson Building [Amusing the Zillion]
01/07/2011 11:00 AM
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HoodRich Building Demo’d
[Gallery not found]
A reader sent us some photos of the HoodRich Building at 812 Pacific Street near Vanderbilt getting demolished over the holidays. We went by yesterday to check on it and it was already levelled. ACRIS shows this building was part of a much larger acquisition by ESDC including 540-546 Vanderbilt Avenue (home of some Hot Bird signage). Both are being demolished to make way for arena parking. GMAP
01/05/2011 9:00 AM
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59 Orient Avenue Bites The Dust
When we last checked in with 59 Orient Avenue, the freestanding house (and former squat) had already been hacked half-to-death and was back on the market for $1,389,000. The Williamsburg property ended up selling for $1,090,000 back in July to someone without preservation on his mind. (5,000 square feet of unbuilt FAR has a way of doing that to people.) Full demolition began last week and, according to the photo that New York Shitty snapped yesterday, didn’t last long. What a loss.
East Williamsburg Photos Du Jour: Goodbye [NY Shitty]
59 Orient, Half-Butchered, Is Back on the Block [Brownstoner]
Another One Bites the Dust? [Brownstoner] GMAP P*Shark
House of the Day: Endangered on Orient Avenue [Brownstoner]
12/16/2010 9:31 AM
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Closing Bell: Demo of Carlton Ave. Bridge
12/02/2010 4:01 PM
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Demolition Underway at 5th Avenue Fire Site
Our loyal South Slope tipster sent us some photos of the demolition that has begun at 613-617 5th Avenue, the buildings that housed the Associated Supermarket before the recent fire. A vacate order is in place for 613, 615, 617, and 619 5th Avenue. This is particularly sad news for the Mambo Lounge and tenants of 613 5th Avenue, which we were told did not burn down, but sustained smoke and water damage. Residents were hoping to be allowed to get back into the building, but it looks like that’s not going to happen.
South Slope Fire Victims Seeking Apartments [Brownstoner]
5th Ave Fire Post-Mortem [Brownstoner]
Fire at 17th Street and 5th Avenue [Brownstoner]
11/24/2010 9:00 AM
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cara
May 21, 2012 | 02:16 PM