Inside the Naval Hospital
[nggallery id=”29053″ template=galleryview] The Kingston Lounge, a relatively new blog on the block, yesterday posted some incredible photos from inside the hospital at the Navy Yard along with a nice historical overview of the property dating back to 1824 when it was a farm purchased by the Secretary of the Navy. The first two photos…
[nggallery id=”29053″ template=galleryview]
The Kingston Lounge, a relatively new blog on the block, yesterday posted some incredible photos from inside the hospital at the Navy Yard along with a nice historical overview of the property dating back to 1824 when it was a farm purchased by the Secretary of the Navy. The first two photos above are from the Surgeon’s Residence and the other three are from the Hospital itself. Click through the link below for more great photos.
The Brooklyn Navy Yard Hospital Complex [Kingston Lounge]
Just wanted to give a shout-out to the exquisite photography here (how’d he get access?) I have recurring old-house-renovation dreams of spaces that look like these, vast and mysterious, menacing yet full of promise. The Kingston blogger deserves major kudos.
No, no one ran over my puppy. And I don’t “hate” the people at the Navy Yard, not at all. I just think they really could be doing more with the tremendous asset they have been put in charge of. All I see there is the most low-grade sort of management and some vision -but no action.
Managers at EDC get bonuses, are you sure managers in Navy Yard do not? Even the top guy? I am surprised at that, I will need to look into that a little more.
But putting aside the bonus thing, I hope they can figure out what to do with these two buildings and how to bring a more elnlightened approach (not just a bottom-feeder approach) to the future development of their enormous domain.
Sam – dead wrong. I happen to know for a fact that Navy Yards managers do not earn any bonuses. Navy Yard is a non-profit. All proceeds are invested in the facility. In general you seem to be pretty informed. Not sure why you feel the need to make stuff like that up.
Also – clearly having an engineer produce designs to connect the buildings to utilites is not extremely complicated (though it would obviously take more the the couple of hours you describe). The difficulty is in figuring out how to pay for it. Both buildings are relatively far from Flsuhing Ave, so it would be a pretty long run for those pipes and conduits. You seem to have some real estate experience, so I’m sure you can appreciate how that can really start to add up and make it very difficult.
Did someone at the Navy Yard run over your puppy or something? You seem to have an irrational hatred of them.
P heights, I think the problems you site, especially the infrastructure issues are relatively minor and could have been figured out by a private owners in, oh, half a day? I mean you need to bring in sewer and electircal. it’s an open lot. The real problem is that it is owned by a quasi-public entity whose mission is to make a profit because the Navy Yard managers’s yearly bonuses are directly related to those profits. In one brilliant stroke the City of NY has managed to combine the worst of the public sector and the private sector in one dysfunctional “corporation”.
THe Navy Yard is currently trying to figure out how to redevelop thses buildings. It’s more complicated than it looks since the infrastructure systems serving these buildings are totally shot, which makes bringing them back to life a seriously expensive endeavor. Still there’s been a lot of talk about finding a way to leverage off of Steiner Studios and create some sort of “back lot” media campus. If that happens it will be terrific, but it’s not surprising that getting something like that off the ground will take alot of time, planning and an infusion of public subisdy to make it work. As I understand it, the Navy Yard is in the midst of trying to figure all this stuff out- which will take time. Anyone (like Sam) who thinks they could have figured it out alreay is kidding themselves. In the meantime the Navy Yard has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in fixing the roofs so the condition doesn’t deteriorate and wind up like Admirals Row.
It’s been said before, but I’ll say it again – the Navy Yard are not the folks who let AR detriorate, that was the Feds. When the Navy Yard actually owns and controls historic buildings (both the surgeons house and the hospital are City landmarks) they actually make the effort to make sure the condition doesn’t deteriorate while they figure out what to do with it.
My suggestion – turn it into a coop that sells only Israeli products. That’s teach the idiots in park slope.
It is not owned by the feds any longer it is now owned by the Navy Yard Corporation, which is one of those weird semi-autonomous offshoots of the EDC.
would be nice to see stimulus money going to restore these instead of lining Ratner’s pockets
well here’s a dumb question – but aren’t the naval yards etc owned by the feds?
see the problem with this type of land(although I would love to see these buildings restored and put to good use) is that had been created only formilitary purposes and who’s to say we won’t need that land again in the future for the purpose of what that land’s initial intention was set up for.
The Surgeon’s house had been an Italian Restaurant until the eighties or early nineties. Did anyone ever eat there? I mean the three or four of us on this site that are over 30.
Since then it has been empty. The Navy Yard is just a hopeless property owner. They can deal with grade C commercial space and grade D manufacturing space, but beyond that they have a hard time finding a clue. You would think the City or the Navy Yard Corp would hire some smart managers.