NEW DEVELOPMENT:
REPLACING THIS:
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I’m assuming/hoping that beautiful cream building on the left side of this photo below is staying?
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The entire block is being redeveloped, it would be about where the new open plaza is in the new development.
These buildings will look kind of out of place once built since they’d be the largest things in their respective area outside of the main Brooklyn cluster.
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Looking at the plans, I believe that building is (sadly) being replaced.
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I’m not that sad to see the old dairy bottling plant be demolished, but for it’s upper 2/3rds, it’s been completely marred on the first floor with a disturbingly unwelcoming 70’s retrofit, unrecognizable from what it used to look like in it’s heydays with giant segmental arched store front windows on the ground floor. The backside also isn’t that pretty.
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I agree, the first floor is a mess, But in the hands of a good developer it could have been restored to something worthy of the other 2 thirds.
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That’s also a possibility the developer could have gone through, I definitely agree. But as it pertains to adaptive reuse, I think it’s better to work with historic structures that have not been altered so much like with Brooklyn Tower and the Dime Savings Bank. There’s certainly a differential from a cost perspective in renovating or cleaning a historic building/bringing it back to it’s former beauty vs having to rebuild a historic structure or parts of it.
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Yes, those examples are great. But what about an approach like the Powerhouse Arts? where a modern intervention can co-exist with the leftovers of an old structure or Domino Sugar (although the factory was in a better shape)
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Those are also 2 great examples of adaptive reuse, but they are different from the Dairy bottling plant because their original shells remained largely if not completely unchanged from how they looked when first built but for some minor details. In this situation, the first floor facade has been completely altered and none of it remains. While the overall building is still a product and example of adaptive reuse (from the 70s) It’s not a good one because of how it changed the first floor.
This is currently the only image I could find of how the first floor used to look.
(Building at center right)
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Too much loss 
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Its quite sas that lovely building’s exterior on the left couldn’t be salvaged and reused in a new design. But for that crap on the right, glad to see it go.
Lets hope Adjaye actually produces something that isn’t neutered like 130 William.
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I also immediately thought that as well! If he didn’t take inspiration from that, I don’t really have an idea of what he derived the design from. Kind of has a 130 William St vibe to it as well, and even aspects of Affirmation Tower.
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BedStuy, although I love the current architecture, is in need of new development like this. That middle cultural center is so beautiful - you wouldn’t even know you’re in BedStuy.
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He also seems to be developing his own style. It looks like an arched, inverted version of Mies Van Der Rohe.
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News?
Do you intend on bumping every old thread with some variation of “news?” or “any updates”?
Will someone enlighten us while some users never miss an opportunity to be obnoxious?
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If there was news the thread would have been bumped already
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