Rendering of proposed building at 29-37 Jay Street in Brooklyn. Image Credit: LPC/Marvel Architects

Landmarks Preservation Commission sends applicants back to the drawing board. On September 25, 2018, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a public hearing on an application for a certificate of appropriateness to demolish an existing 2-story brick warehouse building located at 29-37 Jay Street, at the northeast corner of Jay and Plymouth Streets in Brooklyn, within the DUMBO Historic District. The application calls for a proposed new 11-story office building at the location made almost entirely with glass. To read CityLand coverage on the designation of the DUMBO Historic District, click here. (more…)

DUMBO Historic District marker unveiling group shot. From left to right, Doreen Gallo, president of the DUMBO Neighborhood Alliance; LPC Executive Director Sarah Carroll; Christina Davis, Co-Chair New York Landmarks Preservation Foundation; Basil Walter, Co-Chair of the New York Landmarks Preservation Foundation; and Council Member Stephen Levin. Image credit: LPC.

Marker celebrates importance of manufacturing history of the district. On August 24, 2018, the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the New York Landmarks Preservation Foundation, and the DUMBO Neighborhood Alliance, announced a historic district marker to promote and commemorate the 2007 designation of the DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) Historic District. The marker is located mid-block on Jay Street, between Water and Plymouth Streets, highlighting the boundaries of the district and its historic importance. To read CityLand’s prior coverage on the DUMBO Historic District, click here and here. (more…)

Council member Stephen Levin. Image credit: William Alatriste/NYC Council

The modified proposal provides for a larger Brooklyn Heights library branch, the construction of a new library branch, STEM education laboratories, and additional monetary incentives.  On December 16, 2015, the City Council at its stated meeting voted to approve the Department of Citywide Administrative Services’ and Brooklyn Public Library’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure application to redevelop the Brooklyn Heights branch of the Brooklyn Public Library.   The Council-approved version of the library redevelopment plan modifies the City Planning Commission-approved plan from November 2, 2015. (See previous CityLand coverage here.)

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Carlo A. Scissura

Brooklyn’s growing sector of small food makers has meant more jobs for the local economy over the past few years. As part of this growth, Brooklyn itself has become a brand for artisanal food makers who have set up in small kitchens and incubator spaces across the borough to make their tasty creations.

The Brooklyn “Food Chain” – starting with food manufacturing and wholesale distribution, and including grocery stores, specialty stores, restaurants, and coffee shops – account for 12.5 percent of the borough’s 472,000 private sector jobs. According to the Brooklyn Chamber’s Winter 2012 Brooklyn Labor Market Review, food accounts for one out of six of the 49,000 businesses in Brooklyn — with nearly 59,000 people employed by 7,800 businesses.

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Rendering of 55 Pearl Street entrance. Image Courtesy: Alloy Development.

Proposal garners high praise from Commissioners after reduction in visible height, revisions to alleyway entrance. On March 12, 2013, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to approve a proposal by Alloy Development to construct a five-story residential structure where a garage now stands at 55 Pearl Street in the DUMBO Historic District. The corner-lot building will house five individual townhouses with entrances on both Pearl and Water Streets. The project will total approximately 3,000 square feet.

Commissioners originally considered a proposal for the site on February 5, 2013. (See CityLand coverage here). At the hearing, preservationist organizations objected to the bulk of the proposed structure. A representative of the DUMBO Neighborhood Alliance asserted that the existing early-20th-century garage building should be preserved in some form. Commissioners found the scale generally appropriate, but objected to the design of an “alley” on Pearl Street that would serve as a garage entrance, and asked for further design refinements.

Architect Jared Della Valle presented the original proposal and announced a number of revisions to the proposal at the March 12th hearing. As the original plan proposed, the building would be clad primarily in wood on the ground floor, while the glass facade of the upper stories would stand behind a pattern of ductile concrete fins. Della Valle produced a sample of the concrete material that would be used for the one inch thick fins on the upper stories and used the sample to demonstrate the “warm palette” of the planned building.

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