Landmarks credited the residents of Crown Heights for generating designation. On April 24, 2007, Landmarks voted unanimously to designate the Crown Heights North Historic District encompassing 472 Brooklyn buildings built between the 1860s and the 1930s.

Landmarks Chair Robert Tierney opened the comments by saying that the importance of the designation became clear to him when he stood within the homes of Crown Heights’ residents and viewed what he called “the strength of the neighborhood.” Tierney credited the residents for spurring the designation, adding that he asked Denise Brown, of the Crown Heights North Historic Association, to speak following the commissioners’ comments. Commissioners Jan Hird Pokorny and Roberta Brandes Gratz both emphasized the extraordinary variety of architecture within the new district, referring to the fact that the newly designated buildings include row houses, mansions and churches built in the Romanesque Revival, Georgian, Queen Anne and Renaissance Revival styles of architecture. (more…)

Rendering of the new senior housing development Weeksvillage. Image Credit: HPD.

On June 22, 2023, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), and the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) announced plans to develop 200 affordable senior homes in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The project, called Weeksvillage,  will be developed by CAMBA Housing Ventures (CHV) on underutilized NYCHA land within the Kingsborough Houses campus. (more…)

City officials and development partners celebrate the ribbon cutting at 1101 and 1089 President Street as residents move in to the two new residential buildings. Image Credit: HPD.

On March 21, 2023, officials from the New York City Department of Housing preservation and Development (HPD), Housing Development Corporation (HDC), and Economic Development Corporation (EDC) joined development partners to celebrate the opening of 1101 and 1089 President Street in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. New residents moved into the new two affordable buildings that were part of the redevelopment of the Bedford Union Armory.  (more…)

Mayor Bill de Blasio at the announcement of the new Medgar Evers College Preparatory School building. Image Credit: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.

The new building will replace eight Transportable Classroom Units. On November 23, 2020 Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the groundbreaking on the 681-seat new school building for the Medgar Evers College Preparatory School in Brooklyn. This project will be adjacent to the school’s current site at 1186 Carroll Street in Crown Heights. This project was undertaken by the Mayor’s Office in partnership with the Department of Education, the School Construction Authority, and the City University of New York. (more…)

Rendering of 1511 Pacific Street (Center Building)/ Image Credit: Citiscape Architectural Consulting

The proposed building design features elements that are characteristic to the historic district such as triangular pediments and fluted pilasters and brackets. On February 4, 2020, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to approve, with modifications, a Certificate of Appropriateness to construct a new three-story, two-family residential row house on a vacant lot located at 1511 Pacific Street within the Crown Heights North III Historic District, Brooklyn. The lot is located on the north side of Pacific Street and bounded by Kingston Street to the west and Albany Avenue to the east. It is located between a four-story brick building on 1509 Pacific Street and a two-story stucco building on 1513 Pacific Street.

(more…)