Architecture

Terra Cotta Twins Fly Under the Radar in Downtown Brooklyn

Why these twin buildings in Downtown Brooklyn have been forgotten and ignored in the architectural history of Brooklyn amazes me.

brooklyn architecture 308 livingston street downtown brooklyn

by Suzanne Spellen

10/09/2017 3 minute 0

Editor’s Note: This post originally ran in 2010 and has been updated. You can read the previous post here.

Why these twin buildings at 308-310 Livingston Street in Downtown Brooklyn have been forgotten and ignored in the architectural history of Brooklyn amazes me. I’ve wondered about them since the first time I ever went downtown, way back in the late 1970s.

I remember there used to be a bookstore in one of them, long ago. They are a fabulous Flemish inspired set of buildings, that would be right at home in Amsterdam or Brussels.

Look at those detailed ornate polychrome terra-cotta figures, and the other trimmings on the gables!

brookyn architecture 308 livingston downtown brooklyn — The building nearing completion in 1911. Image via Brooklyn Daily Eagle

They were designed in 1910 by the firm of Kirby and Petit, who later also later designed as Kirby, Petit and Green. Together, or separately, they are responsible for some great buildings in the New York area, and as far away as San Francisco.

They were very eclectic and versatile, designing many different styles for many different kinds of buildings, ranging from the landmarked American Bank Note buildings in Manhattan and the Bronx, to row houses in Stuyvesant Heights, to mansions on Long Island, to the buildings of William Reynolds’ Dreamland Amusement Park in Coney Island.

John Petit, especially, was very talented, and is best known in Brooklyn as the architect of many of the large and eclectic homes of Prospect Park South, in Victorian Flatbush. He was the official architect appointed by the developers of Prospect Park South.