7200 Ridge Blvd. Flagg Ct. SSpellen 1

Here is another look at one of Bay Ridge’s most important buildings:

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Flagg Court (apartments)
Address: 7200 Ridge Boulevard
Cross Streets: 72nd and 73rd Streets
Neighborhood: Bay Ridge
Year Built: 1933-1936
Architectural Style: Moderne
Architect: Ernest Flagg
Other Buildings by Architect: St. Luke’s Hospital, Chas. Scribner’s Sons Building, Scribner mansion, now Polish Embassy, Singer Buildings, FDNY Engine 33 – all Manhattan. Also buildings for US Naval Academy in Annapolis; Corcoran Gallery, Wash. DC, and many others
Landmarked: No

The story: Ernest Flagg was one of the early 20th century’s pre-eminent architects. The son of an Episcopalian priest, he was born in 1857, here in Brooklyn. He had a long distinguished career and full life before leaving this earth at the age of 90 in 1947. This apartment complex is his last major work, designed when he was 76. It shows the innovation of a man who made his fame and fortune designing mostly Beaux-Arts style buildings for the industrialists and self-made men of the Gilded Age.

A cousin by marriage to Cornelius Vanderbilt II, he received his formal education at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, sponsored by Vanderbilt. Coming back to NYC, he opened a firm with several partners, and began designing the classically inspired buildings that brought him fame and fortune. Among them, the original St. Luke’s Hospital, and two buildings and a mansion for Charles Scribner, book publisher, including the beautiful building at 597 5th Ave, between 48th and 49th St.

He designed the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and designed several important buildings for the Singer (sewing machine) family, including the Singer Building, now demolished. For a hot minute it was the tallest building in the world. He also designed the Little Singer building, still on Broadway in Soho, and the Towers, a huge “castle” for the Singer family on an island in the St. Lawrence, one of the 1000 Islands.

Throughout his career, Flagg was an advocate for intelligent zoning restrictions and height regulations. He believed that setbacks, and restrictions on height were necessary for light and air to reach all parts of a building, allowing for a better quality of life for those living and working there. This concept is most excellently illustrated in Flagg Court. The six contiguous buildings in the complex are grouped around a large central court, and every apartment’s large windows either face the street or the courtyard.

The apartment windows were designed with reversible fans under each window, and outside window shades that could be drawn against the heat, both long gone. He also designed the apartments with concrete ceiling slabs, now an everyday practice. Flagg Court was one of the first residential buildings to incorporate concrete ceilings, which of course, also meant concrete floors. The complex also had an auditorium of vaulted concrete. Today, Flagg Court is a very successful co-op, and is still a beautiful example of intelligent urban multi-family living. More architects should make the trip to Bay Ridge to study why, and emulate accordingly.

(Photograph: S. Spellen)

GMAP

Photograph: S. Spellen
Photograph: S. Spellen
Photograph: S. Spellen
Photograph: S. Spellen
Photograph: S. Spellen
Photograph: S. Spellen
Photograph: S. Spellen
Photograph: S. Spellen
Photograph: S. Spellen
Photograph: S. Spellen

What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

Leave a Reply

  1. The facts that Gallstoner mentioned are incorrect., namely, the auditorium was never a bowling alley, the tennis court was never the swimming pool and the pool did not close because someone took a swan dive in from their window. The pool was located in the courtyard with the pergola as a backdrop and from which the diving board was situated. A tenant, who had unknown psychological problems, did jump in the pool one Sunday night from the roof. She survived and lived a full life. The pool closed many years later when NYC closed it because they would no longer let Flagg Court use their well water to fill it. The bowling alley existed in its separate location far from the auditorium. The auditorium held parties and housed The Flagg Court Players, a drama group. These facts are correct, because I grew up in Flagg Court and was there when these events took place.