Boom Spawns New Mutant Form of Architecture
We discovered a new hybrid genre of house on Putnam Avenue in Bed Stuy this weekend. Call it the Fedders Sliver. And, as the sign says, it can be all yours for only 3% down. Any takers?
We discovered a new hybrid genre of house on Putnam Avenue in Bed Stuy this weekend. Call it the Fedders Sliver. And, as the sign says, it can be all yours for only 3% down. Any takers?
good point from 3:29. I agree and disagree here- in the grand scheme of things people buy places to live- so if the price point of this place falls into someone’s range it will sell- i think of when i first moved to brooklyn and some of the places I rented in my twenties- sometimes it’s all about compromise, these places do offer a space on a lot in brooklyn you can own. the problem, in my view, is the building material companies that seem to have a monopoly on anything new built in brooklyn – the brick choice,the windows- does anyone make anything affordable that has any aesthetic quality to it. sometimes buying building materials falls into how close the supplier is to the site or obviously a special deal… i believe there is a fine line between preserving some cohesiveness and integrity to parts of brooklyn and offering affordable housing- one shouldn’t and doesn’t have to cancel the other out.
Hi. It’s 1:53. Brownstoner, I’ve heard this concern for low income people from you before… I suspect you are sincere and I respect that.
However, that does not mean your rationale is sound. I work with poor people every day in my job, and the concerns you have about their lives (developers supposedly taking their money for inferior and unattractive new housing) are the not the problems they actually have.
The line between ‘sticking it to the developers’ and just being superior is very thin indeed. Although these may not be low income houses, they are definitely ‘lower income’ than restoring a brownstone in most parts of Brooklyn.
NYC desperately needs more housing stock and although this structure may not be perfect, I am not convinced that your visual annoyance is a good enough reason to be opposed to such devlopments.
Actually we did our renovation at relatively little expense. That’s part of the point: Cheap does not have to mean ugly. So, yes, we think we have better taste than the unimaginative developers who build these types of things. Does this make us superior? No. But it doesn’t mean we’re going to stop pressing these hit-and-run developers to have a little more vision. In the end, the lower-income person (if he can even afford this) who puts his life-savings into this is the one who really loses.
i guess there’s no use in putting in lot-line windows so that owners/renters could have some more light …until the
lot owner decides to build something..
oh well.
I’m with anon 1:53. There comes a point where “obsession with historic Brooklyn brownstones and the neighborhoods and lifestyles they define” turns into smugness.
We get it. You bought a lovely brownstone with excellent bones in Clinton Hill and renovated it at much expense and inconvenience. Your taste, fortitude, wisdom and superiority to the knuckle-draggers who would build or buy a place like this are to be praised.
Now can you give it a rest?
Nature of the beast, we’re afraid.
I don’t think it is so bad.. As usual on this board, a reasonable structure that may house a nice family is a ‘piece of crap’ because it doesn’t look pretty enough.
its a giant piece of rubbish
I saw this house. The inside is decent, nice wood floors mediocre finishes. The owner tried to buy the lot to the right but lot owner would not sell according to Corcoran broker so they built it skinny. It has been on the market for at least 6 months and the asking price has not yet come down.