Two Kinds of Development in Williamsburg
In his above-ground walk along the L train’s path, Charles Graeber makes a few keen observations about the real estate boom that has been following the eastward path of gentrification. At the start of this walk, he generalizes–quite accurately, we’d say–about the two kinds of development going up in the nabe: The first is essentially…
In his above-ground walk along the L train’s path, Charles Graeber makes a few keen observations about the real estate boom that has been following the eastward path of gentrification. At the start of this walk, he generalizes–quite accurately, we’d say–about the two kinds of development going up in the nabe:
The first is essentially a box, with small grilled windows set in a blond-brick façade accessorized with those brown Fedders air conditioners. These are the same buildings that are popping up all over the Hasidic enclaves in Southside Brooklyn and Manhattan’s Lower East Side. They are unattractive and, not coincidentally, the cheapest construction possible by code. In a housing boom, who needs pizzazz?
The other construction is so common that the blueprints must come free with the purchase of accounting software. It’s a modernist mini-scraper of three or four floors, plate-glass front, stainless-steel trim, with a smaller atrium or penthouse up top. It has pizzazz, but inside it’s rather similar to its cheaper brick cousin.
L-Ification [New York Magazine]
hana food (korean) = bodega.
only in new york.
i’ll take neither, thank u very much. though as long as i’m not living in ’em, i’l take the fedders boxes, which at least blend into the ‘hood in their bland way. the glass mini-towers are aggressively ugly and depressing.
also, i’ll take a writer who can tell the difference between what’s new and what’s been there for quite some time, like the hana food bodega next to the lorimer stop. sunac natural on n. 7th st doesn’t exactly qualify as “brand new” either.
and when he says with a straight face that the northside’s future includes “ample parking” … what the hell is he talking about?
I’ll take the glass mini-tower over the Fedders boxes any day.