Tall Buildings, Big Problems in Sunset Park
August 3, 2005, NY Daily News — Out-of-scale development – which riddles blocks of single- and two-family homes with bigger multi-family construction – is a consequence of the red-hot housing market. It threatens residential sections of Staten Island, the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn. The construction of bigger buildings among the row houses drives neighborhoods toward…
August 3, 2005, NY Daily News — Out-of-scale development – which riddles blocks of single- and two-family homes with bigger multi-family construction – is a consequence of the red-hot housing market. It threatens residential sections of Staten Island, the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn. The construction of bigger buildings among the row houses drives neighborhoods toward overcrowding that could strain public services and infrastructure, residents said. And they fear it threatens to undercut the value of existing homes, which partly depends on an area’s character and quality of life. Other places have fought this type of development. Now it’s Sunset Park’s turn.
Tall Buildings, Big Problems [NY Daily News]
why cant people (developers) leave these neighborhoods alone. Sure its nice that the developer, and the few people who buy the apartments will make money, but why would anyone want to ruin a neighborhood that has been adding to its history for 75 yrs. Madness its just madness
Can’t we all just get along?
Based on that photo, the entire block looks ugly. Tear it all down and build high rises for all I care.
No one has the right to call something beautiful or ugly. All buildings are equally attractive, as long as they are built by architects. And furthermore, architects have licenses! Do you have a license in beauty?
I think that is a little self righteous to call something someone else has designed ‘ugly’. You seem to forget that these buildings are designed by architects, architects with licenses and degrees. You sound very arrogant to say that you think they are ugly.
As far as large buildings. These are no skyscrapers they are building here. Just 5-6 story buildings that afford homes for 10-12 families in an already overpriced, residence starved city. Unless you can come up with a better solution you should keep your mouth shut and encourage the building of new homes.
If developers are building multi-family structures that tower over their neighbors, can’t they at least be not-ugly? Many rather humble tenements from the 19th century have facades that, if not attractive, are at least not aggressively ugly. Take a look at new construction in Greenpoint, the southern end of Williamsburg, Sunset Park: ugggggleee.
i live on what some would call the grey area between sunset park and boro park– 40th street and 8th ave, and there are 3 construction projects on my one block. 1 of them soars above the rest at 4 stories, and is the ugliest building i think i have ever seen… 1 of them is one of those quickly constructed chinese owned building with horribly ugly and shiny gates and doors.. and the other one is being built slowly brick by brick, floor by floor– this last one seems to try to match the neighborhood, but there’s no telling how high it will go… the only good thing about the 4 story building is that they will never find a renter for the top floor– the lights from the neighboring railyard are really bright and are on ALL night. And… ALL the buildings on my block are ugly. The new buildings just make it uglier.
The author is confusing density with overcrowding – two very very different things. NY tenements were overcrowded, a few apartment buildings thrown in with houses – is not.
While I agree that new development should try to fit in with old (in scale and character) – this is straight up NIMBYism – residents who got in when it was cheap and want to pull up the drawbridge after them. Maybe they should be fighting for design standards and design review rather than downzoning. Increasing population in a popular neighbourhood is a pretty tough thing to stop. They could also put their efforts into getting improved services and the schools they need.
you posted this three times