Time Puts Its Stamp on South 4th Street
When we first moved to Brooklyn in 2003, we lived in the upper duplex of the yellow house on the far left of the top photo. We stayed there for two years; the second year was when we were doing the renovations on our newly purchased house in Clinton Hill. When we lived on the…
When we first moved to Brooklyn in 2003, we lived in the upper duplex of the yellow house on the far left of the top photo. We stayed there for two years; the second year was when we were doing the renovations on our newly purchased house in Clinton Hill. When we lived on the block, neither the heinous new building in the top photo or the super-modern building in the second photo existed. We walked down the street a couple of weeks ago for the first time and struck by both of them. While we hope there’s some utilitarian reason for the tiny windows in the latter, we find it interesting; the former has no business ever having been built. Anyone like the modern one?
99 South 4th Street: GMAP DOB
107 South 4th Street: GMAP DOB
Yes, I like the modern one. I would need more windows to live there but think it manages to be original while fitting in with its surroundings.
You can check out some of the interior features for 107 south 4th at http://www.standardarchitects.com/projects/0520.html#
The former looks like a slot machine if you rotate your view 90 degrees. The latter looks like a modern mob social club or a South Beach hotel.
Can anyone identify the closest attempt in the city at replicating a bonafide brownstone? Seems architecturally simple exterior-wise but I havn’t seen it.
***Bid half off peak comps***
The mod building has the feel of a mausoleum for vampires…
and the other, well, it’s just plain tacky.
The lower grey building is rather Cylon-like, but preferable to the upper buildings because it at least makes a design statement. I’m not thrilled with it, contexturally, but would rather have that on a block than the tiny windowed Fedders building. I bet the back is spectacular with a sheet of windows. At least, I hope so, or else this bunker would be as dark as a cave most of the time.
As for the first building, at least it’s better than a Fedders, at least they tried with the windows a little bit. But I don’t understand – couldn’t they have made it the same height as the surrounding buildings, with taller ceilings inside? And yeah, more windows and better windows. In this neighborhood, they’d sell it for a lot more, so the margins would be the same. Or maybe even better. Well, I hope. I mean, it doesn’t take a genius.
That new mod building gives me the willies. Kinda reminds me of a big grey stormtrooper helmet from Star Wars.
i wish google streetview had better pix, but i really like the (latter) modern building.
methinks the small windows in front are for street noise attenuation, with probably huge floor to ceiling windows for the backyard. i’ve seen a lot of modern buildings (like the 14 Townhouses on State St.) that have an almost-complete glass curtain wall in back.
is that a showroom on the ground floor? or a garage?
it is crazy how the landscape changes. when i first moved to nyc i lived on ludlow street on the LES (almost 8 years ago) and going back and looking at that street is like night and day, architecturally and culturally.
nyc is a fast paced environment. to lament the fact that it changes so fast flies in the face of why someone likes nyc in the first place. yeah new buildings are fugly at first, but dirt, grime, and crime eventually find their way onto it and it looks old again.
all of the new buildings on layfayette in soho looked SO out of place to me in 2001 and ugly. now they are weathered and look totally in place. you get used to it, and new buildings ingratiate themselves in their immediate environment. such is life.
i like these kinds of threads tho, i love seeing what was there before what is there is there now. in 100 years something else will be there and someone will be lamenting the loss of a beautiful old building.
*rob*