Rendering of 20 Old Fulton Street/Image Credit: NV Design Architecture

The new building features arched windows and entryway inspired by arches of buildings within the historic district. On February 11, 2020, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to approve, with modifications, a Certificate of Appropriateness to construct a new one-story commercial building on a vacant lot located at 20 Old Fulton Street. The lot is on the south side of Old Fulton Street, between Everit Street to the west and Elizabeth Place to the east. The lot has been vacant since the mid-1920s.

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Rendering of proposed St. Ann’s Warehouse theater in Brooklyn’s Tobacco Warehouse. Image Credit: Rogers Marvel Architects.

Commission heard testimony from those who opposed significant alterations to preserved ruin, and those who wished to see structure used as cultural space. On June 4, 2013, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to issue a favorable advisory report following a hearing on a proposal to convert the stabilized ruins of a tobacco warehouse into a theater and community facility space. The structure stands at 45 Water Street in the Empire Fulton Ferry Park within the Fulton Ferry Historic District, near the Brooklyn Bridge. The structure, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, was stabilized by the National Park Service, which removed the collapsing roof from the dilapidated building, and opened it to the public.

In 2011, a coalition of civic groups and preservationists won a lawsuit after the National Park Service wrongly excluded the structure from the park’s boundaries on the request of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation in order to convey the land and warehouse to the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation. The District Court decision pointed out that the Parks Department must go through a formal conversion process, in which the excised land has to be replaced with suitable land of equal or greater value. The conversion process has not yet concluded. The government still intends to convey the property to the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation, which awarded a contract to the St. Ann’s Warehouse theater company to convert and occupy the space after issuing a request for proposals in 2010.

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Tobacco Warehouse at Empire Fulton Ferry State Park. Image: CityLand.

Court ruled that the National Park Service unlawfully removed warehouse and adjacent building from park boundaries. In 2001, the National Park Service awarded to the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation a federal Land and Water Conservation Fund grant to help fund a cove restoration project in Empire Fulton Ferry Park in DUMBO, Brooklyn. The Park Service’s grant was contingent on the State Office of Parks agreeing that the restoration project area would be used for public outdoor recreation.

The approved boundary map of the park area included the Tobacco Warehouse building and the adjacent Empire Stores warehouse bordering the park along Water Street. The dilapidated Tobacco Warehouse has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1974. The State Office of Parks stabilized the Tobacco Warehouse, removed its collapsing roof, and opened the building to the public. Empire Stores was used to house the park’s administrative offices and a public restroom.  (read more…)

Project would fill gap in historic row near Brooklyn Bridge. On May 5, 2009, Landmarks heard testimony on a proposed new residential building at 9 Old Fulton Street in Brooklyn’s Fulton Ferry Historic District. The four-story-plus-penthouse structure would occupy a vacant lot in a row of 1830s Greek Revival rowhouses.

Calling the vacant lot a “missing tooth” in the street’s composition, the project’s architect, Walter Maffei, testified that the new building would match the height of the adjacent rowhouses. Maffei based the new building’s design on the adjacent rowhouse located at 7 Old Fulton Street, proposing a brick-face, ground floor retail, cherry-wood storefront, and a fiberglass cornice. He stated that the proposed penthouse would be set back 25 feet, ensuring that it would not be visible from Fulton Street. A bulkhead set back 12 feet from the facade would likely be partially visible from the street. Maffei noted that Landmarks had approved penthouse additions to three other buildings in the row. (read more…)

Plan calls for partial demolition and conversion of three buildings into residential units. Ironworks LLC proposed to convert three vacant buildings located along Old Fulton Street in Dumbo into residential units. Built in the early 1800s, the adjacent four-story brick buildings sit within the Fulton Ferry Historic District, less than 75 feet from the Brooklyn Bridge. Due to their manufacturing zoning, conversion to residential use triggered the need for a variance from BSA.

Ironworks’ plan called for the demolition of the rear of all three buildings above the first story, the internal connection of the buildings, and the addition of a fifth story. The final project would contain 15 dwelling units in one 22,948- square-foot structure with 5,237 sq.ft. of commercial and retail space in the cellar and ground floors. (read more…)

Commission decides that Brooklyn Bridge sightline merits destruction of a building within a historic district. Landmarks held a hearing on February 21, 2006 on an application to demolish the Purchase Building, located at 11-85 Water Street in Brooklyn’s Fulton Ferry Historic District. The applicant, Brooklyn Bridge Development Corporation, was created to manage the development of Brooklyn Bridge Park, a new 85-acre park expanding from DUMBO to Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. The Purchase Building, a 300-foot-long Art Deco warehouse built as a WPA project in 1936, divides the park site and blocks views of the Brooklyn Bridge.

At the hearing, a representative from the Brooklyn Bridge Development Corporation testified that Brooklyn Bridge Park would be the most significant park project for the City since construction of Prospect Park in 1860-1868. Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe urged Landmarks to approve demolition despite the fact that, according to him, Parks “usually appeared before Landmarks to urge preservation and restoration.” A representative from the State Historic Preservation Office also testified in favor of the project, arguing that the warehouse was out of context and non-contributing to the Fulton Ferry Historic District. Other demolition supporters felt it was important to reconnect surrounding neighborhoods to the Brooklyn Bridge and the shoreline, and stressed the area’s current state of industrial underutilization. (read more…)