Red Hook Un-Modern: CB6 Dings Townhouse Proposal
To the great surprise of local developer Marshall Sohne (who’s done conversion and development projects on Tiffany Place and DeGraw Street), Community Board 6 has overwhelmingly rejected his proposal for three modern townhouses on the corner of Columbia and Woodhull Streets in Red Hook. Evidently, board members didn’t like that the defining material of the…
To the great surprise of local developer Marshall Sohne (who’s done conversion and development projects on Tiffany Place and DeGraw Street), Community Board 6 has overwhelmingly rejected his proposal for three modern townhouses on the corner of Columbia and Woodhull Streets in Red Hook. Evidently, board members didn’t like that the defining material of the proposed buildings was metal. It’s not that the committee is against modern, it’s that the committee wants some elements of the existing Columbia Street stock, incorporated in the design, said Land Use Committee czar Jerry Armer. As far as Sohne is concerned, context doesn’t mean a whole lot when the surroundings are “pretty much some crumbling buildings, barbed wire, and used car lots. Since the community board’s vote is purely advisory in nature, there will be no changes to the plans before they go in front of the BSA.
Land Use Committee Doesn’t Welcome Columbia St. Plan [Courier Life]
A Red Hook Renewal on Tiffany Place [NY Times]
Photo by Kate Leonova for Property Shark
“Brooklyn’s version of Beirut”
while i’ve also used this phrase many times in jest, it is a bit outdated.
i hate to say it but most of beirut these days looks more like chelsea. it’s nothing like it was 20 years ago.
i’ll go with calcutta, although.
or do they call it mumbai now…
and we should assume that a half way home for mental patients is contextual to the neighborhood? where were all these community board good for nothing lunatics when the plans for erecting such a use building on columbia street bet. degraw and kane were approved? one thing is for sure, these guys will probably have a “contextual” facade, but it will be just that, a facade. What will be its true effect over the community – and the columbia street they brag to be so concerned about? some input from cb6 would be appreciated!
Ooh, Donatella, you’ve just made me realise why I moved to Red Hook! Fantastic!
Contextual in Red Hook? Hello? What are these guys smoking? Contextual materials are quonset, linked fence, rusted cars.. For contextual design, what you need are movie set designers, not architects. Planet of the Apes…. Mad Max…. Blade Runners… Excape from NY….
Anonymous 11:34 is right. CB6 has been screwing Red hook for years.
In addition, no one on the board has the faintest inkling what good design is, and apparently don’t know their asses from a hole in the wall. It’s unbelievable that they’re acting like a Landmarks Committee for a project on a burned out corner next to the battery tunnel. Community Boards have no place dictating aesthetics in a non-landmarked district.
What is funny about this is the fact they wont allow something new to be built with a modern facade but the housing projects down the block are just dandy. LOL. this board need to be overthrown.
Some renderings of the proposed design would be nice. There’s quite a difference between the Guggenheim and Sohne’s Tiffany St. work.
Then again, that end of Columbia St. is a wasteland, so I’d be inclined to support any not-total-crap development.
Sohne is a Scarano fan. The crap projects he’s put up around Tiffany Place are an embarrassment. Any oversight on this guy is a good thing for Brooklyn…
not “whatever they want,” but if it’s decent quality and design, it shouldn’t matter if it’s made out of plastic!