One Last Look Inside the Strong Place Church
The Strong Place Church, shown at right in a photo from 1930, has been gradually damaged by water and time over recent years, despite being of great concern to Cobble Hill preservationists. Now the structure is slated for an extensive residential conversion by developers James Plotkin and David Yerushalmi along with Manhattan-based Baxt Ingui Architects….
The Strong Place Church, shown at right in a photo from 1930, has been gradually damaged by water and time over recent years, despite being of great concern to Cobble Hill preservationists. Now the structure is slated for an extensive residential conversion by developers James Plotkin and David Yerushalmi along with Manhattan-based Baxt Ingui Architects. “We could not be more pleased” said C. Murray Adams, President of the Cobble Hill Association. “One of most important churches in the Cobble Hill Historic District has been saved from almost certain destruction by thoughtful, careful adaptive re-use.” We’re all for adaptive re-use but are a little worried by the photos on the architects’ website. There’s nothing to suggest they have any experience actually salvaging and re-using building parts (to the contrary, the apartment shown on their site is downright cheesy), but an email we received said that there will be an attempt to re-use salvageable details. Regardless, the owners are being good sports and holding an open house on Sunday from 1 to 4 for architectural history buffs to get one last look at the interior. Admission is free.
Strong Place Church [NYPL]
Home Page [Baxt Ingui Architects]
I think that one factor is that Cobble Hill is a landmarked district. Also, there are three other very successful conversions of former churches into residential in the area that got high prices for their apartments (one on Court, one on Clinton, one on Hicks). People will definitely pay a premium to live in a unique historic building around here.
I ask from Astoria, Queens: do you cobble hillers believe the church is being “renovated” and not torn down because of market forces based on the tastes of your community or because of developers’ fears about a possible outcry if they tear it down and put in boxes?? Are the 2
separable? Are they generalizable to other areas
of NYC?
pls respond….it’s important for antoher community’s preservation efforts! We’re looking at you! thanks.
I too live just around the corner, and can see the church from our deck. It’s a beautiful church, but I was becoming worried that it was past the point of no return. Great news that it will be saved.
I agree Carol, the property definitely needs a face lift. Glad to see they won’t be knocking it down.
I’m optimistic. And I hope they finally clean up all the garbage that has accumulated on the property! It is getting quite gross.
May not be your bag, but the pictures show that they are sensitive to maintaining the integrity of these beautiful old buildings while bringing them up-to-date in reasonable ways. I think the pictures are gorgeous.
This is great news. We live around the corner, and pass it every day. Has so much potential, and this way at least it won’t be torn down. I’d also imagine, from the look of the arichitects photos, that these will be nicely done apartments!
Glad to hear it. Great news if that’s the case. The website gives the impression that they do more of a contemporary traditional style that’s not really our bag.
Ben Baxt probably has more experience with Brownstone Brooklyn than any other architect in NYC. I met with him before we renovated our home and was very impressed with his work and his recommendations. Unfortunately, the scope of his proposal was more than I was looking for.