Condos of the Day: 639 6th Avenue
After starting out on the wrong foot, the six-unit condo at 639 6th Avenue turned out to be a little more interesting, in our opinion, than the standard fare going up in the South Slope and Greenwood Heights these days. While the ceilings could be higher, the layout feels pretty lofty for a 976-square-foot apartment…
After starting out on the wrong foot, the six-unit condo at 639 6th Avenue turned out to be a little more interesting, in our opinion, than the standard fare going up in the South Slope and Greenwood Heights these days. While the ceilings could be higher, the layout feels pretty lofty for a 976-square-foot apartment and the kitchens are the nicest we’ve seen in a new development in a while. So far, though, buyers appear to be less enthusiastic. Although the lower duplex is in contract according to A&H, none of the five floor-throughs, priced from $569,000 to $675,000, has a taker yet. Theories?
639 6th Avenue: The Vanguard [Aguayo & Huebener] GMAP
Where Does a Tree Stand in Development Hierarchy? [Brownstoner]
I’d have to agree with Park Place here on Park Slope (especially the South Slope) in the 1960s-1980s.
Polemicist needs a bit of history, hindsight and moreover, foresight.
PS. Park Place, you are correct about the park and an interesting observation about the view corridor. A bit too Robert Moses of a view for me. But to each their own.
Hey Polemicist- Can you articulate your aesthetic sensibility? Can you articulate in a few sentences? Can you only define it by pointing at things you don’t like? From what you’ve written, it seems so delicate that it must be hard to live at all in New York City. Or maybe your raw and jumpy neurons are placated simply by the color brown?
Did you look closely at the state of maintenance and upkeep of all the 6th ave north slope and center slope brownstones? Most are in horrible shape, many have been hopelessly muddled, many need roofs, new sidewalks, decent windows, stoops, etc… but yup, they’re all decked in shades of brown.
Yup- the greenwood houses are dilapidated and haphazard and mostly wood, and they’re all different colors, and they haven’t been restored, but underneath, they’re all nice italianate row houses that would look great with cornices restored and fresh paint. People haven’t put a lot into the homes, but it’s not a slum either, and by and large there is less litter, and street crime than the North Slope neighborhood where I’m coming from.
Guess what- if you had walked through Park Slope in the 60s and 70s when it was redlined by the mortgage companies, it was a real slum, with lots of burned buildings, vacant lots, totally falling apart buildings, and also brownstones covered in weird things like fake bring, fake stone, shingles, siding, etc… The brownstoners saw through that, and slowly brought the place to the overbearignly brown neo-victorian state that now delights your aesthitic sensibilities.
The folks who are moving to Greenwood now and are looking to restore their houses are carrying some of that same spirit forward by moving to a place where they see potential and others do not– by restoring what is old and not mowing it down– by not blindly buying the most expensive housing stock on the market because it’s alrady nice– and yes–by being priced out of other areas.
P.S. Your other comments are all class-baiting claptrap.
SYNTHETIC STUCCO IS THE NEW ALUMINUM SIDING. My God would someone please stop this madness. Everywhere you look, it’s there. This fake surface, this plastic Disney veneer of styrofoam and pigment. It’s an abomination. Every half assed architect and their ham handed minions who abuse this crap should have their bodily fluids drained and replaced with this stuff. They should be plastinated and have their preserved corpses positioned on all fours like those mechanical animals outside toy stores for everyone to ride like small children. We can collect all those quarters and put them into a fund that would pay for the cost of building paper bags big enough to cover most of the new buildings in Brooklyn, 639 is on the short list.
“Again- too expensive by just a little, or too small by a few square feet. I bought a frame instead. I look forward to restoring it and someday getting rid of the aluminum siding.”
Park Place, thank you. And if the frame was in GWH, welcome.
-ccgh
Polemicist – Why do you assume “Diverse” means “Poor”?
“That is hardly a rent that will make the lives of your “diverse” friends more livable.”
Are you at least ashamed of that?
“Anyway, you’ve failed to instill any kind of shame in me. My loyalty is to all people of New York City, not an insular community that wishes to forever exclude outsiders and the poor in addition to maintaining the shantytown aesthetic.”
Polemicist,
No need to shame you, you are doing a good job doing that yourself.
As far as elitism, I stand by that observation considering you said “…you’d praise the developers want to build lots of new housing for them.”
Where, in Brooklyn, are developers building units for “huddled masses.”
Anything built in this area for the past 5 years has been for one demographic (to use a broad white brush). However, there is a large contingency of folks who bought into the “shanty town” before the new condos drove property values off the charts. Those of us who moved here, when it was “less desirable” pre-Developers Group forecasting, intend to work on our homes, restore them (back to their original pre-1900 look, modern redo or just new siding…who cares) and live in a neighborhood where I can walk down the street, at any time of day or night, say hello to a fellow GWH resident (owner or renter) and feel I am a part of a community…old timers, immigrants, home DIYers or new condo buyers alike.
Nothing wrong with new housing stock either, just when it’s done in a contextual and responsible manner. However I’d bet you’d lobby for high density on a low density block (check out the 9-story POS on 22nd St.) to benefit “all people of NYC.” Please, spare me.
The POS highlighted in the post is the very thing that has ruined the sense of scale and mixed character (yes, we can agree this is not brownstone Brooklyn) of this low rise area of south Brooklyn. I’ll take an old frame needing a redo, clad in vinyl, any day over this stucco monster’s units.
Again, please stay where you are…from whatever elitist neighborhood’s rooftop you are preaching from.
-ccgh
As an East Williamsburg resident, I love Greenwood Heights–it’s the only neighborhood I’ve seen in Brooklyn that makes me feel good about the aesthetics of mine.
Hey action jackson- I wasn’t really commenting on developer’s methods- just the location next to the park. However bad the construction was, the park seems to have survived. That park, by the way, is an informal dog run- as in people let their dogs poop there. I don’t think the building effed up the park so badly as I still see people walking by and through all the time. It’s a notoriously undermaintained stretch of park.
Anyway, I still stand by the location. The views of the expressway from that block are mitigated by the skyline views of lower manhattan, statue of liberty, and the jersey city. Is this a secret or something? People complain about that expressway, but it provides this amazing view corridor all the way out to monmouth county on a nice day.
Again- too expensive by just a little, or too small by a few square feet. I bought a frame instead. I look forward to restoring it and someday getting rid of the aluminum siding.
2:52 PM
I’m sorry, the neighborhood is not diverse in any way we know of the term. Certainly, the vast majority of new residents are wealthy and white. It is incredibly insular, and their lobbying for the change in the zoning is evidence of that.
Nothing has sold in the neighborhood at prices for “middle class folks” for several years. Latin folks are not moving into the neighborhood, unless they already know a landlord. They can’t afford it. I’m actually very amused you would think this area incredibly undeveloped neighborhood is some kind of immigrant destination.
If you truly were interested in accommodating these huddled masses yearning to be free, you’d praise the developers want to build lots of new housing for them. So please, let’s not try to pretend that you are looking out for the little guy. You’re looking out for the upper middle class fools who think it’s a great idea to pay a million bucks for a shack.
Anyway, the friend in question is moving out of the neighborhood. She was paying an appalling rent of $1400 a month for a very small 1-bedroom apartment in a pre-war rent stabilized building. That is hardly a rent that will make the lives of your “diverse” friends more livable.
It just baffles me that someone can think there should be no aesthetic standards regarding home maintenance and that living next to a slum is fine and dandy, but that their neighbor can’t choose to building a moderately sized multi-family apartment building.
What is worse, living next to a brand new apartment building or a house that hasn’t been maintained since the Eisenhower administration?
Anyway, you’ve failed to instill any kind of shame in me. My loyalty is to all people of New York City, not an insular community that wishes to forever exclude outsiders and the poor in addition to maintaining the shantytown aesthetic.