Flipping the Bird at Williamsburg Developers
Al Goldstein used to have a segment on Midnight Blue in which he would ceremoniously give the finger to a person or entity that had particularly raised his ire in the previous week. We couldn’t help recalling this last weekend as we strolled around South Williamsburg. Although we complain constantly about all the bureaucracy we…
Al Goldstein used to have a segment on Midnight Blue in which he would ceremoniously give the finger to a person or entity that had particularly raised his ire in the previous week. We couldn’t help recalling this last weekend as we strolled around South Williamsburg. Although we complain constantly about all the bureaucracy we are having to deal with to renovate and change the C of O on our own house, surveying the eyesores that developers have been putting up between Grand and Broadway on the South Side made us thankful that our brownstone is in a landmarked district and reminded us that there is a role for government regulation. We honestly don’t think we could design uglier buildings than these if we tried. We also wonder whether this crap that is getting built ultimately will be the neighborhood’s own undoing. Who wants to pay $700 to $900 a foot to live next door to one of these things? Not us–we’re off to Clinton Hill where prices are half that. As for the tasteless developers, we hope the market votes with its feet and refuses to inhabit these soulless spaces. If we had a television show instead of a blog, you can guess what kind of a gesture we’d be giving them.
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Williamsburg Hall of Shame
i have no doubt that scarano has won lots of awards (so has alicia keys), and that’s one swanky little office he’s built for himself overlooking the bqe, but an ugly building is an ugly building, and there’s nothing that ISN’T ugly about 171 n.7th, to take one of many possible examples. let’s not even talk about tower 78, or whatever that thing on ten eyck street is called. i’m not opposed to new. i’m opposed to revoltingly butt-ugly. at $700 or more per sq ft, is that too much to ask for?
i love williamsburg, too, and i’ve lived there for more than one year but less than 25. thirteen years to be exact.
Unfortunately many of the opinions posted here reflect personal points of view that really are unfounded. Many people who moved in to Williamsburg before the press caught wind of it, believe that the neighborhood belongs to them and was discovered by them, and they want to preserve it the way they found it. Quite frankly it is a completely egotistical and insane concept. Those people are completely opposed to anything new–post-their arrival.
Speaking as a person who grew up there and lived there for over 25 years, it is a fantastic place to be. Not everyone shares these negative views. The real locals–pre-hipsters–embrace the change and the arrival of new faces. There is a reason why Williamsburg is so popular. There is a reason why development is rampant. Don’t trust the opinions of these naysayers. They don’t speak with real knowledge. Scarano Architects is a very reputable architecture firm and has received countless awards and accolades with the architect world–I’d say that’s credible. Check out their website and talk to people who actually live there and have for more than one year.
I am looking into buying in Brooklyn (Dumbo or Williamsburg perhaps) and there are certain elements of a development that have an appeal – are there any developers/architects that actually have any respect and/or credibility in terms of the product they are putting out there?
Am I about to get pelted with vegetables and be called yuppie scum?
The real crimes are being committed by the Scarano & Associates architects and the Developer’s Group. There are many lousy examples, but my two least favorite:
-171 n. 7th is hideous – are you serious with those glass Juliet balconies?
-The 22-story monstrosity going up on N.7th between Bedford/Berry – thanks for that!
Quick write-up on the Elan Padewh, the joker ceo of Developer’s group, who is very profitably killing brooklyn, one lousy construction at a time….
Elan Padeh recently celebrated a profitable year by buying a 40-foot
powerboat named Aquasition, a 28-foot sailboat called Lost Horizon and a
silver BMW convertible. His testosterone-fueled shopping spree may sound
like a Wall Street bonus-backed splurge, but Mr. Padeh is making his money
in a far less glamorous venue. He’s consulting on the development of luxury
condominium projects, mostly in the boroughs beyond Manhattan–namely
Brooklyn.
Well, new developers jumping in on the Williamsburg boom to take advantage of the rise in popularity they are not. The developers of those buildings are actually the natives of that particular area of Williamsburg–yes, they are hasidics who have nurtured their neighborhood forever, before most of you have settled in and claimed it your own. How can they do this to OUR beloved, rustic Williamsburg, which was at its best when we first moved here, before all the hype… like, what, 5-10 years ago? These people have been here forever. I say if the hasidic developers want to put up “style-free” buildings and there are people who find them appealing, so be it. If the general public is concerned that the architecure is below-par, then become involved, get a degree in architecture and do something about it. I am tired of the developers and real estate agents being cast as the “devils”. Basic supply and demand principles here, people. New York City is constantly changing. This is not the midwest, ok? Neighborhoods are always reinventing themselves. get over it.
Williamsburg is starting to look like Hoboken.
Yeah that’s true that these buildings have no style. The decision to use cheap materials and such has to do with the economics. If the developer hires a well known architect and builds with better materials, etc.. The cost would rise per sq ft and there is no guanrantee that people would pay more for that. Since these buildings look like condos, the prospective buyers would probably care more about whats inside their unit than how it looks on the outside.
Thank you for pointing this out. But it’s not just South Williamsburg. It’s all over Williamsburg, from Grand Street (yes, I mean you, 287 Grand Street), to that awful thing that people have already moved into on N.7th between Bedford and Driggs, to Stagg Street, to those ugly-ass places near the Graham Av L stop. And it’s not just pre-fabricated, soulless places. It’s also this plague of “modernist” glass-and-brick things that would look out-of-place in any neighborhood that wasn’t inhabitated entirely by blind people, but look that much more out of place among the modest lo-rises of our ‘hood. The king of this particularly revolting hill is architect Charles Scarano, who is destroying the look of the neighborhood 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 buildings at a time. Who the hell keeps hiring him? Aren’t there any other architects out there?
buildings need to be replaced over time, and styles obviously change, but you can hardly say there’s any “style” involved with the dreck that’s popping up throughout the bk and elsewhere. it’s all just dull, unimaginative and flimsy. bk developers should at least walk over to pratt and try to find some inspiration and probably some cheap labor as well.