Closing Bell: Engravings on Degraw
[nggallery id=”48342″ template=galleryview] We stumbled upon this home at 694 Degraw Street and were pretty taken with the unique engravings all throughout the exterior. The design consists of leaves, hands using sign language, and the occasional star. Does anyone know the story behind this house? We would love to know.
[nggallery id=”48342″ template=galleryview]
We stumbled upon this home at 694 Degraw Street and were pretty taken with the unique engravings all throughout the exterior. The design consists of leaves, hands using sign language, and the occasional star. Does anyone know the story behind this house? We would love to know.
I think it looks great and it makes the houses next to it look bland and boring by comparison.
Actually, they’re terra cotta sculptures. The original tiles that are on the other buildings on that side of the block couldn’t be preserved so the sculptor replicated a lot of the designs in terracotta. The hands are something that the sculptor is into, as can be observed from the website. The sculptor is the developer’s son. The developer has reno’ed a few other buildings in Brownstone Brooklyn — one in Boerum Hill and another on Atlantic, and each property has a hand sculpture incorporated. Call it a hallmark of his projects.
I know because we own one of the condos in this building.
I wouldn’t say that we were into “outsider art” or “creepy art” — we found the layouts of the condo units really appealing, and found the fact that the exterior was different than other houses on the block to be charming. Just as some prefer their homes to be as historically accurate to the original period in which they were built, others prefer to have their homes evolve into something that incorporates more modern features. Although we can see appealing aspects to both positions, in this case, we sided with the latter. We believe that, after all, objects, just like living things, don’t remain static but evolve with time, each with their own biography.
But we love our home. We find people staring up at the building all the time. Of those we’ve managed to talk to, they find it really refreshing to see something so different and “artistic”. And based on what we’ve been told by other residents on the block who knew the building before it was reno’ed, apparently it was quite a dump with no roof and lots of squatters so as far as they’re concerned, the current building was a welcome change.
“‘unique engravings'” — cast-in-place concrete. Keep trying Emily.” (Zarathustra)
That’s just nasty. Nope, they’re not engravings, that’s right. Why not correct her politely?
Looks like some kind of creepy outsider art. If not, it’s just a run of the mill aesthetic abomination. Hard to see why anyone would be “taken by” this, unless they thought it was outsider art and are connoisseurs of the same.
Uh, no?
it’s still considered an engraving tho
*rob*
“unique engravings” — cast-in-place concrete. Keep trying Emily.
Some Googling reveals the bricks were sculpted by Alex Racine.
http://alexracine.com/bricksportfolio8.htm
i personally do not like them but i guess they are interesting.