Man on the Street: How's the Novo Look to You?
We chatted up some Slopers to get their opinions on the design of the the Novo, the biggest condo to hit 4th Avenue since the thoroughfare was upzoned a few years ago. The people we talked to weren’t feeling a lot of love for the building… “I’ve been inside, and the units are nicer than…
We chatted up some Slopers to get their opinions on the design of the the Novo, the biggest condo to hit 4th Avenue since the thoroughfare was upzoned a few years ago. The people we talked to weren’t feeling a lot of love for the building…
“I’ve been inside, and the units are nicer than they are at the one a few block away [the Crest]. But there’s nothing architecturally interesting about it. It’d be a shame if all up and down 4th Avenue we got buildings like this as a result of the upzoning.” -Patrick
“I never really paid much attention to it. It’s just sort of there.” -Linden
“It’s pretty ugly and out of character with the area. The problem with this place is that it’s been about three years in the making and they’ve used non-union labor and haven’t been very friendly with the neighborhood…Basically, I think it looks like a low-income housing project.” -Jim
“Hideous. An eyesore. Horrible. It doesn’t fit in with the neighborhood.” -Julie
“Looks like a big brown turd.” -Boris
Obviously, since Joist is providing none himself.
Whoa whoa Mr. Joist. Cool it. There’s no room on this blog for rational thinking.
What considerations have been giving to expanding or developing the other elements of this area, e.g. schools, parking, mass transit services. It seems that these kinds of developments – regardless of their architectural merits – will put a hefty strain on the existing services available.
Does anyone know what the plans are for these other essential elements to a livable community?
If this building is a sign of things to come, 4th will look more like Manhattan than Brooklyn.
Guest @ 12:12pm said:
“Mr. Joist: I don’t think the Novo is particularly affordable at all.”
I hear you. It would have been more precise to have said *relatively* affordable.
Although I do think $300k to $400k for a real one bedroom IS *relatively* affordable. That’s ~$550/sf. (Source: StreetEasy, Apts. 4J, 4C, 4A, 4F, etc.)
1:18pm: Indeed, indeed.
Mr. Joist:
Surely you jest. Boymelgreen should have built an elegant, Prospect-Park-West-like building, using union labor, then given the apartments *at cost* to the working class.
Anything else is unconscionable!
It looks like a prison. Just like all the other garbage being built all over the place, by Boymelgreen and his friends.
Kind of ironic that the people who are behind all of these buildings that look like prisons, actually belong in prison.
“The problem with this place is that it’s been about three years in the making and they’ve used non-union labor and haven’t been very friendly with the neighborhood”
Uh, that’s THREE problems.
Mr. Joist:
I don’t think the Novo is particulrly afforadble at all.
Jim is a dick who obviously doesn’t live near any low income housing projects.