Are All New Developments Ugly?
Clearly tiring of our predictable bashing of condo developments, a reader asked yesterday whether there were any that we actually liked. Good question. Although we admit the evidence is against us, we are not anti-development or anti-modern by any stretch of the imagination, just anti-ugly. If we were buying a condo, we would probably lean…
Clearly tiring of our predictable bashing of condo developments, a reader asked yesterday whether there were any that we actually liked. Good question. Although we admit the evidence is against us, we are not anti-development or anti-modern by any stretch of the imagination, just anti-ugly. If we were buying a condo, we would probably lean towards an older building that had been converted into lofts. The fact is that the new construction that has been put up in Brooklyn during the building boom has been truly appalling. But we’re open-minded (and admittedly don’t avidly follow the condo market)and would love to be proved wrong, so we’d like to ask folks to point out any new buildings that have gone up in recent years that they think qualify as architecturally significant or at least attractive. LTJ Bukem likes the Washington Condos (above) in Prospect Heights, for example. Feel free to post links in the Comments Section.
I was actually thinking of volunteering to do a picture of the day based on williamsburg new construction, but it seemed off topic for “brownstoner”
The reason being, I think there’s a lot of Good, Bad & Ugly construction going on in the burg, but even the Bad is often better than the UGLY that is there already, meaning the horrible rotting siding of Mid-to East williamsburg, and the 1 story windowless decaying brick warehouses around Union Ave etc.
As a design snob I don’t “love” much of it, but I think a lot of it is OK and some of it is nice.
Of course, Bricolage Designs is in it’s own “WTF?!?” category.
Also, some of the new condos on 3rd Street in Park Slope between 5th and 4th Aves. As I recall, they all sold in about 30 seconds.
On Reade St in Tribeca (b/t Greenwich and Hudson, there’s some fabulous modern townhouse-style new contruction. Also in North Slope on Prospect Pl b/t 6th Ave and Flatbush, there’s a great modern house.
The new townhouses going up on State Street look great.
On one of the four corners of the intersection of Clinton and Degraw — southwest, I believe — is a new construction building that so seamlessly melts in with its surroundings you wouldn’t even notice. They even grew a little ivy on the brick! Think of it!
These condos in a brand new townhouse are on my bock. The inside is not my cup of tea, but they did an amzing job with the outside. It’s really hard to tell that it’s new construction.
http://www.corcoran.com/property/listing.aspx?Region=NYC&ListingID=800993
Some of the smaller condo buildings in Williamsburg are not ugly, and have some nice details, however there are tons of United Home Builder’s cookie-cutter, bunker-style developments that are such an eyesore that maybe they make the new condos look better just through context.
http://www.courthouseapts.com
2nd Street Park Slope – 1st Development closer to 5th
http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2003/12/28/realestate/cov.184.1.650.jpg