WGPA

GTM: September, 2005

Last Friday marked the two year anniversary of the Greenpoint Terminal Market fire. Two years later, there is still no sign of development activity at the site. The owner's have cleared the rubble (and sold off the brick and timbers), but no other work has been undertaken.

Gowanus Lounge has a great series of before, during and after photos to mark the anniversary.

The Times' City Section had a piece today on the impending demolition of the Kent Avenue BRT power plant. In the article, a Con Ed rep admits that they company has no idea what they are doing with the site. They're not even sure if they are going to sell it. Given the lack of clarity on the site's future, we'll reiterate our position that its premature and wasteful to tear down a building that could be an excellent candidate for reuse. Doing environmental abatement does not necessarily require demolition.

Unless Con Ed is proposing to turn the site into a pubic park, there is no reason to tear down the building right now. Unless, of course, Con Ed isn't telling us something about their plans.

Engine 212
Photo: Triborough

Some good news on the plight of Engine 212, or at least the company's former house. NAG and the People's Firehouse, two community groups that have long been active in the Northside, were awarded the development rights for the former 212 firehouse on Wythe. The groups plan a $1.3 million project to convert the building into the Northside Town Hall community center.

(Engine 212, the company, dates to 1869; Engine 212, the building, dates to about 1910 or so.)

From Fire Engines to Philharmonic for Brooklyn Firehouses [Eagle]
Engine 212 ≠ Luxury Condos [11211]
Developers Picked for 2 Closed Brooklyn Firehouses [NYT]
B'Klynites Hot Over "Fire Sale" [Post]

GWAPP (Greenpoint Waterfront Association for Parks and Planning) has been rolling out a series of "Friends of..." groups - mini-advocacy groups for specific parks in Greenpoint. This is a great way to bring grass-roots advocacy down to the neighborhood park level, all the while with the backing of a large and experienced organization. We'll let GWAPP explain further:

The best way to get the parks we deserve is through persistent community attention to each park. GWAPP (Greenpoint Waterfront Association for Parks & Planning) is helping kickstart a big (and sustained) Push for Parks all across our North Brooklyn neighborhoods to create, support and unite park-specific Friends Groups. The purpose of these groups will be to gather information about the way the community uses the parks, the issues and needs of each park and to establish a community representatives for each park, who persistently push for improvements – whether from the city, the Open Space Alliance for North Brooklyn, neighbors, local businesses, grants…

On Wednesday, the first meeting of what, for now, is called the Friends of BIP (Bushwick Inlet Park) will be held at the Gutter Bar. BIP is the new park that was promised during the City’s waterfront rezoning - it will be a 28 acre park straddling the Greenpoint/Williamsburg Waterfront, stretching from the State Park at North 9th Street to the northern side of the Inlet by Meserole Avenue.

As GWAPP says, this park was promised to the community - come help make it a reality.

Details:
Who: Friends of Bushwick Inlet Park
When: May 14th at 7 pm
Where: The Gutter Bar
200 N.14th (between Wythe and Berry St)
(Unfortunately no children allowed – against bar policy)

As seen first on Curbed, a local architect has been thinking creatively about the former Brooklyn Rapid Transit Power House at 500 Kent. (Meanwhile, Con Ed has been spinning creatively.)

There are many possibilities for this site - housing, industry, cultural institution, community facility, or any combination thereof. Demolition - without a plan in place - is simply a waste of a building and another opportunity lost for the community.

The BRT site is a very interesting location (see image after the jump). The plot to the north (Certified Lumber) is applying for a rezoning to construct housing along the lines of Schaefer Landing or Kedem Winery. The site to the south is probably destined to become a part of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. To the west is an inlet from the East River/Wallabout Bay, which lies at about the location of the historic Wallabout Creek. To the east (across Kent) is Roberto Clemente Park. This site is really a point of transition, an opportunity to bridge different uses, and provide a connector from the park to the east and the waterfront to the west. The site itself includes a fair amount of open space as it is. As public open space, it could terminate a new waterfront esplanade that would run from south of Division Avenue north to Broadway.

None of this requires demolition of the historic building. Without a plan in place, demolition is simply a waste of a building and all of the energy that went into its construction. Short of turning the site over to public open space, there is no use that requires demolition.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation issued its annual 11 Most Endangered list today, and prominent on the list is the Lower East Side (you may recall that last year's featured the Brooklyn waterfront prominently). In its nomination, the Trust notes:

[This] legendary neighborhood—the first home for waves of immigrants since the 18th century—is now undergoing rapid development. New hotels and condominium towers are being erected across the area, looming large over the original tenement streetscape. As this building trend shows no sign of abating, it threatens to erode the fabric of the community and wipe away the collective memory of generations of immigrant families.

Also of note is the strong support expressed by Kate Daly, Executive Director at LPC, encouraging more support for preservation of this neighborhood.

Austin Nichols & Co. Building (proposed)

Via Curbed, a new rendering has surfaced showing the proposed makeover of the Austin, Nichols & Co. building (184 Kent Avenue). The rendering was issued in connection with the marketing of the ground-floor retail space (an impressive 17,850 sf, with an option for an additional 8,600 sf of mezzanine space).

Astute readers will notice that rendering shows none of the atrocities previously proposed for the building - lido deck rooftop additions, picture windows, shaved cornices, etc. Curbed attributes this to "rumors" of a big preservation tax credit, and, in fact, that is the case (you can look it up). Nice to see that the new owner is preserving the building - we've thought all along that is was a wonderful building.

Mother Goose in an Airship, McLoughlin Brothers, 1909.
Source: Brooklyn Historical Society

At the turn of the 20th Century, south Williamsburg home to at least two of the country's largest printing houses. The larger of these was D. Appleton & Co., U.S. publishers of the Alice in Wonderland books and The Origin of Species, among many others. Appleton was located on Kent Avenue between Hewes abd Penn Streets; the building was taken down for the construction of the BQE. The second publisher - McLoughlin Brothers - was located on South 11th Street between Wythe and Berry. The McLoughlin plant was constructed in two phases - the original ca. 1870 building is located on the side of South 11th Street at the corner of Berry; the extension, constructed before 1900, is located on the south side of South 11th Street at the corner of Wythe. The red brick buildings still stand, their decorative sandstone or terra cotta trim still legible beneath a layer of flaking white paint. The extension still retains a mansard roof with iron cresting. A pyramidal roof which sat atop the corner pavilion of the original building has been removed, but much of the rest of the buildings are intact (and very rough around the edges). At the moment, the buildings are occupied as artists lofts (have been for decades, we understand) - that may be changing as the building is either changing hands or going through foreclosure.

McLoughlin is the subject of an exhibit now underway at the Brooklyn Historical Society (its been running since last September, and continues through this August). The exhibit includes pop-ups, ABCs, children's "classics," cautionary tales, travel and adventure titles, and Christmas books. BHS has this to say:

This exhibit highlights beautifully-illustrated children’s books, printed in Brooklyn by McLoughlin Brothers, a publisher who pioneered new technology and marketing techniques in the mass production of inexpensive children’s books... Visitors will see children’s classics, such as Alice in Wonderland and adaptations of Robinson Crusoe, educational books, such as The History of the United States in One Syllable, cautionary tales like those in the Little Slovenly Peter Series, ABCs, Mother Goose stories, Christmas Books, books teaching children how to paint or draw, along with games and puzzles.

McLoughlin's success was largely due to the innovations in printing technology and inks that were developed at the South 11th Street plant. As a result of these innovations, McLoughlin was able to put out brightly-colored, visually stunning books and games for children at relatively low cost. As a result of its combination of skillful design, innovative printing and clever marketing, McLoughlin Brothers were practically synonymous with illustrated children's books and games. The company was bought by Milton Bradley in the 1920s, and all of the Brooklyn operations were relocated to Springfield, Mass.

McLoughlin Brothers Printing Plant, 1895
View west from Berry Street
Source: King's Views of New York

Current views of the buildings after the jump.

Jeremy, the man behind the renderings for the reuse of the BMT Power Plant at 500 Kent Avenue has started a blog and a petition drive.

(By the way - we have been referring to 500 Kent as the BRT Power Plant; Jeremy and others call it the BMT Power Plant. They are one and the same - the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company was reorganized as the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation in 1923. As BMT, the company was one of three major operators of subway lines in New York City (along with IRT and IND). BMT operated the Franklin Avenue Shuttle, the J/M/Z, the L, and the N/Q/R/W. BRT constructed and operated many surface and elevated lines in Brooklyn, including the elevated portions of what is now the J/M/Z line. It was for the operation of these surface lines that the Kent Avenue power house was constructed.

This is an old article, but the tensions it highlights have not gone away. What it describes is a two-front war, the likes of which we have already seen here in Williamsburg and will no doubt continue to see. On the one hand, as we all know, it is a struggle to get the Landmarks Commission to recognize buildings that are significant for non-traditional reasons. This includes buildings of significance to minority communities (the focus of the article), but it also includes less "loved" buildings, such as industrial buildings, Modernist buildings, or workers' housing (to name but a few). In the 10 years since this article was written, LPC has done much better in recognizing architectural and cultural diversity, but still has a ways to go.

On the other hand, minority communities often see Landmarking as elitist - the vanguard of gentrification - or imperiling their own development plans (as the article says, the ministers, politicians and businessmen "just don't want some landmarked building getting in the way of their housing and economic development plans"). We have already seen this play out in the fight to landmark Domino Sugar, where local affordable housing advocates have argued that Landmark designation will somehow mean less affordable housing (a fire that has been fanned by the developer, in this case). In fact, Landmark designation has no impact on use, and in the case of a large site like Domino, doesn't even impact the overall density of development. (One of our Councilmembers, in voicing his opposition to landmarking the Austin, Nichols & Co. Warehouse, claimed that designation would mean no affordable housing at the site. The landmarking was overturned by the Council, and the site is now being developed as 350+ market rate rental apartments - with no affordable housing component.)

Clearly, we all have a lot more work to do.

Rendering of proposed Domino redevelopment.
Source: Viñoly Architects, via Brooklyn Papers.

Assemblyman Joe Lentol is not convinced that developer Community Preservation Corporation Resources needs all the zoning it is asking for at the Domino site. Lentol wants CPCR to open its books and make the case for the huge upzoning it is requesting from the City. So far, CPCR has resisted calls from community activists for greater transparency, saying, in effect, trust us.

At issue is the height and density of the CPCR proposal (seen above). CPCR is asking the City to approve substantially taller and denser buildings than were approved during the Williamsburg/Greenpoint Waterfront Rezoning. The developer is claiming that the finances of the project, including 30% affordable housing and the preservation of the Refinery building, require the huge increase in luxury market-rate units. At the same time, they have refused to share any numbers to back up their hardship claims. (The 2005 rezoning was opposed by the community on the basis of its lack of affordable housing, industrial retention and open space, and for its excessive height and density.)

According to Lentol's office, one factor in the assemblyman's call for more information was the recent DOB filing by CPCR to construct a hotel in the Refinery building. CPCR is claiming that there are no plans for a hotel. At the most recent Community Board 1 meeting, a CPCR spokesperson claimed that the hotel filing was a "typo".

Pol sour on Domino Sugar plant proposal [Brooklyn Papers]