ODA's Boxy Towers for Spitzer Rise on Kent on Williamsburg Waterfront

Brooklyn’s East River waterfront is undergoing a major transformation from industrial to residential, with new towers and parks on the rise from Dumbo to Greenpoint. One such development is 420 Kent, a three-tower, 857-unit residential development on the South Williamsburg waterfront by Spitzer Enterprises.

The 800,000-square-foot development is located just south of the Domino Sugar site, another Williamsburg mega-project under construction. Eran Chen’s firm ODA is responsible for the design of the 22-story towers, which feature the firm’s signature style of breaking down a simple extruded massing into a multiplicity of boxes.

In this project, the boxy massing serves the purpose of increasing the number of residential units with often-desired corner windows. Instead of the four corners offered in a typical rectangular plan, ODA uses two standard floor plans mirrored around a central axis to create three different tower massings with many horizontal extrusions.

Because of the massing, 80 percent of the residential units will contain corner windows and many units will offer outdoor terraces.

Installation has begun on the glass curtain wall at the north tower, which is further along than the two remaining towers to the south. Residents will have views to the Williamsburg Bridge, the Manhattan skyline and Brooklyn from the floor-to-ceiling glass.

The development will also offer a total of 77,000 square feet of outdoor space, including a boardwalk along the East River that will help connect the Brooklyn waterfront from Dumbo to Greenpoint.

The design has changed dramatically, and details have changed over the years, with more apartments planned now than before — tipping it into mega-project territory — but the project adheres to a zoning waiver approved under a previous owner, as we have reported before. 20 percent of the units will be affordable, according to previously published reports.

This long-stalled site was formerly home to the Kedem winery and is directly across the street from luxury condo and townhouse development the Oosten, in the heart of Hasidic Williamsburg.

Spitzer Engineering purchased the site for $165,000,000 closed in 2015, according to public records. Spitzer Engineering is a family business headed up by former New York governor Eliot Spitzer.

ODA’s many other Brooklyn projects include the controversial Pier 6 towers, the Rheingold Brewery development, Bushwick’s 71 White Street, Dumbo’s 10 Jay Street, and 510 Driggs Avenue, also in Williamsburg.

For more by Field Condition, a photo blog covering new developments across the five boroughs, visit Field Condition.

[Photos by Field Condition]

Related Stories

• Facade Rising on First Tower at Two Trees’ Domino Sugar Mega-Project on Kent Avenue in ‘Burg
• ODA Keeps It Boxy in New Renderings for Ex-Governor Spitzer’s Williamsburg Mega-Project
• Landmarks Asks for Redesign for Domino Factory Conversion

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