My Life In Brooklyn

I am pretty sure I have mentioned this building before.  It is an old beauty that is slowly falling apart.  Today, while walking around, I grabbed a couple more photos.  It really makes a difference what time of year you take photos.  Not only does the lighting differ, but also the foliage and growth around the houses (or lack of) impact what you actually see of the subject. 

So I did take (again) a couple of pics of this house and a close-up of what was once a very nice stained glass window that is ccurrently in desperate need of help.  You can see there is some wire placed over the window to protect it.  Higher resolution on my flickr account.

Just because I have been watching this building slowly deteriorate.  This is the most recent pic, as of this morning.

Frankly, this tactic — allowing buildings to passively deteriorate until they HAVE to be removed — is worse than annoying.   Someone should make owners responsible, or help them.  But to allow this is bad for the community, the new building that will replace it is bound to be ugly and out of context.

Someone needs to step in here.

Past posts on this one:

http://mylifeinbrooklyn.com/2006/09/13/shameful-195-hawthorne/

http://mylifeinbrooklyn.com/2007/01/10/hawthorne-revisited/

I’ve been watching this building for a long time now, the scaffolding has been up forever, or it feels that way – well over a year and could be way longer.

I assume this building was a school, possibly an elementary school.  That is Erasmus Hall looming behind it.  I’d be interested in knowing more about this building if you happen to know anything.

Anyway, this is a huge building on a very large piece of property and it seems to just be slowly rotting away.  I have yet to see anything happen in the four+ years I have looked at it.  Property Shark has the build year as 1934 and from what I can tell, it looks like the City is in charge.

This building is in the heart of a Fedders-loving teardown-and-rebuild area, on the corner of Lott and Albemarle.  It is almost directly across the street from a public elementary school. 

The danger sign is evident, along with the “RO” notation.  You can’t see it well in this smaller image, but the windows are broken and one has a bicycle rim or tire displayed.  I have no idea what the fate will be in this case, but it happens to be in a risky neighborhood, in the company of many new buildings and ongoing construction projects.

I’m placing a hi-res version of this image on Flickr if you care to have a closer look.  This building has a few nice details on the exterior, no telling what the inside might reveal.

Only a couple of blocks outside the Lefferts Historic District, 173 Winthrop Street.  I just liked the lines of this house and grabbed a picture of it.  Not in particularly good shape, judging from the outside alone, though it looks occupied.  So who knows what fate will be in store for this one.

Estimated year built, 1901 (via PropertyShark).  Where I live in PLG several times a week I find business cards or other promotional material from people who wish to buy real estate – ”all cash” offers.  This is the sort of building I worry about being torn down.

2163-73 Clarendon Road, corner of Flatbush Ave (also known as 1133 Flatbush Avenue)  — appears to be in bad condition.  Still, I find it difficult to look at a grafitti-covered, windows-boarded building like this without trying to imagine what it might have looked like when it was prime.

This is currently for sale, offered by Marcus & Millichap — didn’t see any details on their website.  Built in 1930 according to Property Shark.  Actually I glanced at the site again today and the asking price for this one is $999k and it appears to have been for sale forever, or since it last snowed.

On my return walk on Maple Street I happened to notice what turned out to be an empty wood frame house at what I believe to be 263 or 265 Maple, between Rogers and Nostrand on the north side of the street.

A couple of men were working on the house next door and said the owner of this place died (they heard).  But both said the interior is gorgeous and full of details.  It is a huge place, in the image, the roof that appears at the top — seeming behind the house itself, is actually part of it.

So the owner of the house next door said a pipe burst in this place at one point and he called the city about it; interested parties can expect to see some impact of water in the basement.  It will be interesting to see what happens to it, no telling the money needed for restoration, but I would hate to see a Fedders building here.

Looks like a 1905-1910 era building to me, has some original stained glass visible. No number on the building itself, next door is numbered 261.  This is the next block east of the historic district.

So walking around today I ventured around Kingston Avenue, which I can only summarize as Fedders Central in terms of new construction.  They should consider a name change to Fedders Avenue, maybe they could get some kind of corporate sponsorship.

One block on Maple appears to be mostly new buildings, all with the requisite Fedders slots.  I can’t really say what was there earlier, it could be buildings that were in a sad state and needed to come down.  And it could be they were unnecessary tear-downs.  I did have a look at the satellite maps online – no idea when those images were originally acquired but I assume it has to be within a reasonable period of time — and I can say from the aerial view the block looked very different than it presently does. It would take some research to learn details on this.  However, I think I may map out the buildings that are so very clearly new and in the future continue to obtain pics of those that look as though they are facing the fate of tear down. 

Ultimately this is changing the face of the “greater neighborhood” which perhaps holds little meaning now, and to some may represent nothing but improvement.  However it will not be long, if the tear-downs continue at the current rate and wild abandon, when suddenly the neighborhood will not only look very different but also be very different.  I understand a block away can mean the world of difference by New York City standards.  As I continue to observe the changes in neighborhoods, I do think in this case the impact of greater residential density, cars and traffic, and something that really bothers me — most of these new building have no green space at all — are all factors that will ultimately affect bordering neighborhoods at the very least.

I just believe that development should be for people, not contractors, in design and the context should work within the greater neighborhood.

Yesterday I rambled around west of Flatbush.  On Woodruff Ave, right around the corner from Flatbush on the north side of the street, I was a little surprised to see this builiding.  In general the state of disrepair is usually not so evident in buildings this close to Flatbush.

It appears there are still residents in the building, at least on the ground floor.  Air conditioners are in the windows. Upper floors look really bad, but I think this could be turned into something very nice.  The original decorative glass is still in evidence on the ground floor, in 5 of the six windows.

Property Shark has this as being built in 1931, a tax lein acquisition in August 2002 from the City, it appears to have changed hands January 2006 to Tratt Management & Dev, LLC with David Tepper as party2.  Also it looks to have been an SRO with 43 units on record which is pretty amazing to think about.

Given the state of disrepair this is another building I am worried will be a future teardown.  It would be great to recover this and turn it into eight condos or co-ops — or even rentals. Very sad indeed, it is so disturbing to think what it could be replaced with.

In the past couple of weeks I made mention a few times how many buildings I’ve seen in my recent ramblings about the neighborhood that are (probably) destined for demolition, or have been recently demolished as evidenced by vacant lots.  My concern is the buildings I have seen that are still standing (though marked) are mostly — in my opinion from simple observation only — far from demolition material.

The continuous teardown of historic / period buildings to make way for the shoebox buildings contractors are building — structures that lack style and do not visually fit in the neighborhood has to stop.  Oh, you may not mind it so much now, cause maybe that that is “way over” near New York Avenue, but I guarantee it will eventually have an effect upon the general sense of the greater neighborhood.  I feel contractors/builders have the most to gain in this initiative.

I live in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, but  I walk all over the place – in all directions outside of the historic district.  Trust me when I say this teardown and new contruction is happening all over, and quite close to PLG.  Sure, our little enclave will not effected, but you can be sure we will, over time, see other effects.

Today in the New York Times Metro Section, see “A Town’s Architectural Shift, Chronicled Online,” by Tina Kelley.  This article focuses upon just this issue.