The Darkness at Richard Meier's Brooklyn Tower
When Richard Meier, the architect famous for his glass and steel towers such as those on Perry Street in Greenwich Village, announced plans in 2005 for one of his signature buildings at Grand Army Plaza, the idea met with plenty of resistance from residents of Prospect Heights, Crown Heights, and Park Slope, as well as…
When Richard Meier, the architect famous for his glass and steel towers such as those on Perry Street in Greenwich Village, announced plans in 2005 for one of his signature buildings at Grand Army Plaza, the idea met with plenty of resistance from residents of Prospect Heights, Crown Heights, and Park Slope, as well as Brooklynites throughout the borough. Thus, some people might have read with relish the New York Times article profiling the building, now open ten months but on the market for much longer. Through interviews with neighbors and residents, the article leaves final judgment somewhat up to the reader: its vacancy rate proves the Richard Meier experiment in Brooklyn a failure, or a building planned in the boom years that is now struggling to fill spaces (the developers report sales of 50 percent of the units, while Streeteasy has recorded only 25), just like many other new developments, independent of architect or developer. Some residents of the sparsely occupied glass box expressed worry about the dropping values of their new purchases, while one retired couple showed more longevity of thought: “We’re living here for the rest of our lives. We know there are ups and downs in the market. It’s not a time to panic.”
Glass Half Empty: Richard Meier’s Brooklyn Tower [NY Times]
On Prospect Park: Is Anybody Home? [Brownstoner]
Photo via Curbed
That’s an interesting observation Brenda. I like the idea of the bubble building.
This post demonstrates exactly why so many in the Brownstoner, Brooklyn, NYC community are total a$$holes…..
Really read this quote (from the B’stoner post above):
“Thus, some people might have read with RELISH the New York Times article profiling the building”
Now lets ignore taste (i.e. whether you like the building or not) and lets ignore price (i.e. whether or not you think prices are too high and want them or hope that they come down)
On what planet does anyone who is not a total schmuck take relish in the failure of building built in a signature location, in the middle of our boro????
WTF is the explanation for this – the only one I can come up with is jealousy – which is sad and pathetic.
Who benefits if the building (now completed so even if you dont like it its not going anywhere) remains empty???
I like this building. Would I buy there? NO, Do I think the prices will keep going down ? YES, DO i think the people who purchased there dont mind losing hunderds of thousands f dollars in equity? DUH
Brenda – I like the bubble idea – its even irridescent in the pic above.
Judging by the condition of the street level stone ramps, the area skateboarders are loving it.
at the end of the day, the meier towers in the west village work because they are tall, on the water and have floor to ceiling windows crating unobstructed views of the hudson rive, the city, etc as well as privacy above, say, the 4/5th floor.
OPP, on the other hand, is a short, squat version of those towers, and instead of being high in the sky, the floor to ceiling windows create a fishbowl effect thus eliminating privacy for the inhabitants. Instead, they require full curtains / blinds to provide a semblance of privacy — this is the antithesis of why you would want to live in the meier building in the first place — so the whole thing fails in my opinion.
Some buildings, for good or ill, become icons of their particular eras, and Meier’s creation looming over the park is a fine candidate to embody the Bubble in Brooklyn; it even looks like a bubble, bloated, glassy and a bit unreal. In the age of reality TV paeans to house-flipping and crib-pimping, what could have been more emblematic than a luxury pile that’s literally all windows? And now, what could be more richly symbolic than that the windows are dark and empty? Here’s to the Bubble Building!
Methinks that there alot of knee-jerk schadenfreude in the article and some of the posts.
The interviews demonstrates well that the target market for this building are those who already have alot of equity in their abode. Given that fact, these folks will do fine.
Question to the envious ones in this thread: which do you think represents a greater downside to your equity: holding on to your 40-year old ranch house in Great Neck (with its super-high property taxes), or trading it for a new apartment in a signature building in an up-and-coming area?
Umm… by the way, not to cast a Brownstoner advertiser in a bad light, but has anyone caught the One Brooklyn Bridge Park banner ads?
30% cut in prices… 2-bedroom unit $1.45 million –> $945k.
WOWZERS! Still crazy prices, but wozers!
(And the Toren ad, looks like those prices are shaved too, eh?)