David Estrada testifying before the City Planning Commission on behalf of City Council Member Carlos Menchaca. Image credit: CityLand

Opponents of the nursing home are primarily concerned about its proposed location being within a flood zone. On March 30, 2016, the City Planning Commission heard testimony on an application submitted by Conover King Realty, LLC, on behalf of Oxford Nursing Home, to build a new nursing home in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn. The proposed nursing home would be eight stories tall with the capacity to hold 200 beds and would serve to re-locate the existing Oxford Nursing Home located in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood.

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Architect’s rendering of the Pavilion Theater development. Image credit: Morris Adjmi Architects

Proposal would demolish one-story commercial building to construct five-story-plus-penthouse apartment building, and build a contemporary addition onto 1920s theater. On April 18, 2015, Landmarks considered a proposal to demolish a one-story 1920s commercial building, construct a new apartment building, and alter and build an addition to a 1920s theater at 187-191 Prospect Park West in the Park Slope Historic District Extension. The theater building, at the corner of 14th Street, faces Prospect Park, as would the new apartment building, but with a longer curved facade on Bartel Pritchard Circle. The site’s developers are Hidrock Properties.

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Proposed Rendering for 112 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn. Image Credit: BKSK Architects.

Testimony in opposition to new 4-story brick-clad building focused on contemporary design and size of bulkhead. On November 18, 2014, the Landmarks Preservation Commission considered a proposal to construct a new building at 112 Atlantic Avenue, at the corner of Henry Street, in Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill Historic District. The site is currently occupied by a 1960s gas station. The applicants proposed a new four-story residential building, with ground-floor commercial uses, and a garage for residents. (read more…)

Revised Congress Street project. Image courtesy: Morris Adjmi Architects

The Morris Adjmi-designed project includes renovating and enlarging four existing rowhouses and building five new rowhouses along Congress Street. On October 16, 2012, Landmarks approved Congress Street Development LLC’s multi-rowhouse development project at 100 through 128 Congress Street in the Cobble Hill Historic District. Congress Street Development plans to restore and enlarge four rowhouses by adding one-story, set-back rooftop additions. The developer will also replace an abutting low-rise garage with five four-story rowhouses.

At a September 2012 hearing, the commissioners asked the developer to revise the proposal. The commissioners disliked the metal stoops, proposed for all nine rowhouses, which would be in a side-stair configuration, as being atypical for the district. The commissioners also found the zinc-clad rooftop additions too visible, and recommended more clearly differentiating between the renovated rowhouses and new rowhouses. (See Cityland’s coverage of the hearing here.)

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Congress Street project rendering.

Developer wants to restore and enlarge four mid-19th century rowhouses and replace a low-rise garage with five rowhouses. On September 11, 2012, Landmarks considered Congress Street Development LLC’s proposal to restore four circa 1850 rowhouses, demolish a 1983 two-story garage and replace the garage with five, single-family rowhouses at 110 through 128 Congress Street in the Cobble Hill Historic District. The four rowhouses, which had been used as hospital buildings, and garage extend from mid-block of Congress Street to the corner at Hicks Street.

At the hearing, Ward Dennis of Higgins Quasebarth & Partners LLC testified on behalf of the developer. According to Dennis, St. Peter’s Hospital had used the four existing rowhouses beginning in the 1870s. The hospital converted the four buildings into a single unit by the 1880s. The existing garage had been built in 1983 with Landmarks’ approval. The developer plans to convert the existing rowhouses to single-family homes.

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320 Court Street in Carroll Gardens

City Council reacted to application’s inaccurate architectural renderings and restaurant’s history of noise complaints. On August 22, 2012, the City Council denied Buschenschank restaurant’s application for an unenclosed sidewalk cafe at 320 Court Street between Degraw and Sackett Streets in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. The application called for 24 tables and 48 chairs fronting Court Street.

At the Council’s Zoning & Franchises Subcommittee hearing, a representative of local Council Member Brad Lander and a representative of Brooklyn Community Board 6 testified in opposition. In a statement read by his policy director, Michael Freedman-Schnapp, Council Member Lander urged his colleagues to deny the application. Lander noted that Buschenschank’s application to the City’s Department of Consumer Affairs had inaccurately measured the sidewalk width and had not provided enough pedestrian space between a bike rack and the proposed outdoor cafe. In addition, Lander stated that more than two dozen noise complaints about the restaurant had been registered with 311, and that the NYPD had issued the restaurant a noise violation. (read more…)