Modern Design: Brooklyn Plagued by Mediocrity
We had just read Nicolai Ouroussoff’s article yesterday raving about Jean Nouvel’s two new residential buildings in Manhattan (which we share his enthusiasm for) on the subway and were walking down Washington Street towards our office in Dumbo when we were confronted with this vision of the Beacon and J Condo. All we could think…
We had just read Nicolai Ouroussoff’s article yesterday raving about Jean Nouvel’s two new residential buildings in Manhattan (which we share his enthusiasm for) on the subway and were walking down Washington Street towards our office in Dumbo when we were confronted with this vision of the Beacon and J Condo. All we could think was, “How mediocre.” The following statement from the Ouroussoff piece certainly couldn’t have been written about either of the new Dumbo towers or much else that’s been built in Brooklyn during the current building boom: “Mr. Nouvel doesn’t reject this history; he tips his hat to it, showing us what can be accomplished through ingenious planning and calculated consideration of the setting.” Besides Richard Meier’s design for On Prospect Park, there’s very little recent architecture that would merit the attention of critics. (The fiberglass house on Vanderbilt Avenue is one exception. What are some others?) We understand that the economics probably aren’t as compelling for starchitect-designed developments, but that’s no excuse for the lackluster buildings that will define the skyline for decades to come. There are certainly plenty of un-famous architects out there who could do better than the status quo. The hurdle: A little imagination and appetite for risk on the part of developers.
Seductive Machines for City Living [NY Times]
everyone seems to forget that one of the bigest and best architects in the world is about to remake brooklyn. Gehry is responsible for some of the most radical and forward thinking architecture the worls has seen in the past 30 yrs. i personally wish Ratner had held open design competitions or multiple great architects work on atlantic yards but he could have easily someone like Costas Kondylis who would have designed much blander and much, much easier to build buildings. he should be applauded for that.
for what its worth (and I know plenty of critics of 14Townhouses on this site), seems that quite a few lately are going into contract (on Corcoran website).
I think that development looks great from outside and from what I can see thru windows and pics.
(too bad backs of houses face parking lot with bright stadium lighting – but maybe that will end soon enough).
have any of you people ever heard of 15 Central Park West!! it seems to fit what everyone on this site wants, an excellent recreation of a pre war coop.
there are plenty of great buildings and conversions in manhattan, but that is because the sky is the limit there. to name a few:
urban glass house
40 bond
40 mercer
tribeca summit
many new buildings going up along the high line
Scarano and his imitators are ruining brooklyn simply because too many buildings have gone up that look similar. big windows and high ceiling do not make for good modern design.
what i’d like to see are more modern townhouses. if you look at some of the most expensive townhouses in the west village they are all modern and very beautiful. check these out. brooklyn needs more of this (not the prices tho)
http://www.elliman.com/Listings.aspx?ListingID=859024&rentalperiod=&SearchType=houses
http://www.elliman.com/Listings.aspx?ListingID=851636&rentalperiod=&SearchType=houses
Ah, but what of the mighty 145 Park Place. An interesting, yet unappealing, mix of both impulses. You have the faux Brownstone facade on Park Place, and then you have the ungainly glass and metal thing on Flatbush, and both of them combine with dubious internal construction to produce some very awkward living spaces.
As for this “you know nothing of this architecture, Brownstoner man”, I think you miss the point. These buildings are public spaces, and they do need to be at the very least easy on the eye. We all get a say, even crazy-azz old lady dominated community-boards.
I love it when the archisnobs here go nuts upon reading Mr. B’s architecture critiques. How dare he deign to comment when he is not a member of the profession, or better yet, of the Critical Priesthood? In general, Mr. B’s “take” is pretty reflective of how “the rest of us” reasonably educated and aesthetically conscious bourgeouisie would react–which is precisely what drives the archisnobs into fits. We are supposed to humbly await our orders and be *told* by the cognoscenti how to feel about architecture, not go making our own judgments! Don’t let them snow you, Mr. B.
Traveling through Brooklyn, I am just heartbroken at the ugliness I see taking over. There is a universal crap aesthetic that is stripping our many neighborhoods of their individual characters. You can walk down a lovely block of contextual buildings, and there, smack in the middle, is the same cheaply-bricked, bizarrely-balconied, fedders-scarred piece of junk you’ve seen ruin other blocks in other nabes. They are disruptive in ways other earlier additions to these streets weren’t. There is no effort at all made to build housing that displays pride of place. I like the Meier building. I’m not opposed to glass and steel. I dislike the cheap, taste-free idiom of this boom, which to my eye has its bust already built in.
slevin, where you been? he always writes “we”.
I love the meier building. it would be great as stoner suggests to have non starchitects aim for good design in the borough.
Walk down Bond Street in the City for some interesting and decent new architecture. At least three under construction that I can see.
Meier is tops in BK for the time being.
One more thing, Brownstoner, are you referrring to yourself as “we” in this article? Where you with someone else?
Scarano is building modernism for the masses today, or at least what passes for masses in Brooklyn’s condo market.
Glad to see people are realizing that J Condo is an awful design.