Water Street Showdown: Guttman to Gut Dumbo?
If you’re wondering what the next preservation fight is gonna be, we’ve got a pretty good idea. Joshua Guttman, who has earned almost universal contempt for the lack of respect he has shown for both his tenants and the building code, is prepping to tear down 205 Water/188 Plymouth Street in Dumbo, we hear. The…
If you’re wondering what the next preservation fight is gonna be, we’ve got a pretty good idea. Joshua Guttman, who has earned almost universal contempt for the lack of respect he has shown for both his tenants and the building code, is prepping to tear down 205 Water/188 Plymouth Street in Dumbo, we hear. The way things are shaking out, it’s going to be a sprint to the finish line. Preservationists (including the DUMBO Neighborhood Association) are scrambling to save the 19th Century foundry, which was built by E.W. Bliss, a builder of the Brooklyn Bridge, just as Guttman is erecting a scaffolding. Landmarks may hold a hearing as soon as next month but it’s not clear whether Guttman will have already received the green light to begin demolition before then. As an aside, it looks like Scarano was the architect of record on this project last Spring until he lost his self-certification rights. GMAP DOB
Can we please remember that to be preserved it would be designated by the LANDMARKS Preservation Commission….the commission that was set up to preserve buildings like the original Penn Station. It is not in existence to stop all change and save everything that is old.
I’m sure Guttman will want to do something horribly ugly and badly built in that location, but that is not for the LPC to make a judgement on. This building does not warrant designation as a landmark. Let them focus on more important pieces of New York history and architecture.
Dumbo context?
How about a working shipyard, a garment shop or another power transformer?
This was a grubby crumbling light industrial area until recently.
Jacques Torres doesn’t get to define context and neither do you.
I do live in DUMBO and came here because I love the industrial, old-timey, waterfront vibe. What I see happening is ugly apt buildings popping up like mushrooms, and I would like to see the context maintained. Spot demolitions like the ones we have witnessed in our ‘hood recently have been replaced by non-contextual atrocities. I don’t mind being called a brick-hugger. I like bricks, especially the ones that are here now.
anyhow it will probably ‘catch fire’ mysteriously at any moment…
well if we assume that short sighted developers are driven by greed then surely even they would realise that people still pay crazy premiums for ‘loft’ type warehouse conversions. this would mainain the feel of the area and provide good returns for investors. it works a treat in London even in deprived and dusty areas.
I don’t live in DUMBO, and from the picture above it looks like this particular structure is in back knick and not remarkable looking, but part of the draw of Dumbo is the industrial feel of the neighborhood and adaptive reuse of warehouses. It is a bit like Tribeca in that sense. I imagine the concern is that if you tear down too many (not all are worth preservation imo), you lose that industrial feel and end up becoming a small neighborhood of towers, which isn’t what really attracted people in the first place.
What would this structure be preserved for?
Regardless of its aesthetic value (which appears marginal), a small 19th century warehouse in a residential area isn’t very useful.
I like the waterfront industrial buildings generally, but think there are only a small number of superior examples that are worthy of preservation efforts (the redhook warehouses come to mind).
why do most of the commenters on this website act like children and only understand extremes. 10:58 you speak exactly to 10:25’s point – the irrational attitude that all new construction sucks and all old buildings are wonderful. this building is unremarkable and uninteresting. who cares if some contractor used this building 100 years ago. should we save every old building as a monument to the past? that’s pathetic. even though guttman sucks, and is certainly responsible for some fugly buildings that’s no reason to stop him from developing his property. either landmark all of dumbo and turn it into yee olde time new york waterfront / south street seaport east or get over it.
yeah! wonderful buildings are the ones that are only 10-20 years old, haven’t you heard?