Fujitsued!

20 Jackson Place flaunts its new split system a/c.

Centre Pompidou-esque, no?

South Slopes Structural Expressionism:  
Utilities prominently displayed.

Jelly Stoop #2

South Slope Stoop Series: 17th Street

"Come rub 'pon me belly like a guava jelly..."

 -- Bob Marley

Nap

let me sleep!

Fracture

Tosh was a West Highland Terrier. While relocating a small tree his long buried skeleton was unearthed.

During his lifetime he had been hit by a car, breaking his leg badly enough to require the fractured bone to be surgically stabilized using orthopedic stainless steel wire and a plate fastened with screws.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden's New Potager.

Welcome to the new 2010 Herb Garden. When I visited this week, they were mulching the beds with cocoa bean shells.

BBG's link


















"Please eat the Flowers" Herbs and vegetables ornamentally arranged along stone paths.

Trellis system awaits climbers.


















Espalier fruit tree training coarse.




















A la Carte... Various herbs and vegetables cue up waiting to be planted.

















Naming.

















Edible Brooklyn... Bon Appetite.


















Hardscape: The Living Classroom's kitchen design triangle...

Tool Shed+Sink+Waterfall.






















Center Stage.

"Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Herb Garden explores the origins, botany, and beauty of the plants we know as food. Reflecting the diverse cultures and culinary traditions of Brooklyn’s neighborhoods, the Herb Garden serves as a vibrant living classroom where the community can learn practical urban food gardening techniques and tips for making sustainable food choices. The garden is designed to be a decorative but utilitarian potager, or kitchen garden, that freely mixes medicinal and culinary herbs, vegetables, berries, fruit trees, and flowers."




















Roughly hewn granite trough sink paired with matching chopping island, both supported by hand forged iron bases.


















Water falls through carved stone portals into this concrete brute-styled pool.

















Yes, this is the tool shed.

Composting bins never looked so good.

The Overlook Pavilion gives one a bird's eye view of the garden's geometry.

Prospect Park Terrace Seeks Happy Ending to Epic Saga.

1638 8th Avenue proudly unfurls its "condos for sale" banner.

Building a memoir.














Karl Fischer started the ball rolling way back in 2001, and now after almost a decade of contentious work, including a 2006 South Slope zone-busting victory before the Board of Standards and Appeals, this little land locked architectural anomaly finally comes to market. The 27 residential units price range?

$549,000 for this 821 square foot 2 bed/2 bath simplex.





















$1,125.000 buys this 2 bed/3.5 bath triplex.

To get an idea of how unusual this property site is, the developer, The Bobker Group, offers this handy dandy interactive floor plan map here.
For reference, Units 1A, 1B, 2A, and 2B are the only apartments that face Eighth Avenue. Don't be fooled by all that remarkably uninterrupted green grass rendered in the architectural drawings... Those 30' back yards actually belong to your Prospect Avenue neighbors. On one side there is a minimal rear yard or "mews" along the entire depth of the property line providing access to individual units. The other side has the curb cut and driveway to enter the underground parking garage. There are 18 spaces for sale. Suggested retail price? $45,000.

Neighborhood comps... Our friends at Betancourt Assoc. have some.

155 15th Street has 21 Units currently for sale. Priced per pound slightly more expensive than the Terrace, cheaper than the Iroquios.

620 10th Street, "The Iroquois" still has three remaining units for sale. Seven are in contract. Not bad.







Terrace Iron from the IMBY Archives

14th Street Stalled Site Starts Up

In Progress

308 14th Street developer renews demolition permit to complete long stalled job. A little IMBY archival history, a two+ year old before photo showing the stalled, partially demolished house, and an after photo showing the site after the recent cellar back-filling.
A five story, 10 unit building was/is planned for the site.

There are still approximately 576 stalled construction sites in NYC as of April 25, 2010. DOB Stalled sites link.

Fresh Paint on Fourteenth Street.

Our fresh house of the day.

Architectural Voyeurism: 11th Street's Scape

As part of the IMBY Corps. Mental Health Regimen, I started a virtual runners club for Agraphobics confined in the South Slope. We usually get together to work out mornings using the touchscreens of our new iPads... Thanks to Google's Streetscapes, our Index Fingers Running Club recently completed our first 5k without ever leaving the security of our respective homes.

Hard Dogleg Left
Three quarters through the virtual run, my Middle Flexor Digitorum Superficialis started to act up, so I zoomed in on a nearby stoop to sit down and stretch through the pain. Surprisingly, I found myself on my old block.

I once lived on 11th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues for 5 years back in the later part of the 20th Century before satellite imagery became readily available to the public. The street has not changed much. Zooming out for a moment so as to take in my familiar surroundings, I discovered the 14.17' wide house behind me was actually built on a lot only 61.92' deep, and that an adjoining three story brick building makes a concealed left turn behind this row of little frame houses down through the block's interior.
This is extraordinarily odd even for Park Slope South, where there are many curious shaped lots due to it's more industrious past. An interesting find nun the less.
*click on any photo to enlarge*

Commercial Garage entrance on 11th Street.  This building runs behind the row of two story frame houses.

Park Slope South Carriage House Re-Do

White picket fences, green pastures, horse carriages... Brooklyn's 15th Street.




"The Before" Google voyeur.

Jackson Place Wood Frame Restoration

Fountain of Youth
We continue our mini architectural tour of the South Slope, taking a look at this beautiful historic exterior restoration of this semi attached wood frame home on Jackson Place.

Last Sunday, IMBY looked at these two Jackson Place wood frame restorations (link) designed in a more modernist direction.

RICHARD A. GOODSTEIN ARCH PLLC

197 COLUMBIA STREET BROOKLYN NY 11231

NADAV MAZOR GENERAL CONTRACTOR
BEYOND PERFECT PAINTING Inc.
77 ATLANTIC AVENUE BROOKLYN NY 11201

New Certificate of Occupancy for Armory Plaza would allow 4 times the parking.

Update:JOB SIGNED OFF 5/6/2010
Well, didn't take long...

LAST ACTION: PERMIT ISSUED-ENTIRE JOB/ WORK 05/05/2010 (R)
APPLICATION APPROVED ON: 05/04/2010 (DOB LINK)

"CHANGE IN CERTIFICATE OF OCCUPANCY TO REFLECT CHANGE IN NUMBER OF ATTENDED PARKING SPACES AT SUBCELLAR 1, SUBCELLAR 2 AND ADDITION OF PARKING SPACES IN OPEN SPACE AS SHOWN ON DRAWINGS SUBMITTED HEREWITH."

On March 10th, 2010 the owners of 406 15th Street filed an Alt-1 "no work" application to increase the current off street available parking from 26 spaces to 108 spaces. Eighty eight spaces will be divided up between subcellar 1 and 2. An additional 20 automobiles can now be parked outside in the side lot. The original C of O states 11 accessory parking spaces for both subcellar levels and 4 additional accessory spaces outside for a grand total of 28. There are 27 residential units in the building.

CENTRAL PARKING

The new schedule "A" indicates the spaces will be "attended". The only access to the subcellars parking is via elevator.

Previously, in April 2009, the Department of Buildings issued 2 violations to the Armory Plaza for operating a commercial pay-by-the hour garage in violation of their C of O , and for violating parking regulations in a residential district. There are $5,200 in unpaid Environmental Control Board fines still on the books.

After almost a year of operations, the New York City Padlock Enforcement Unit visited the the garage in February of this year and the owner removed the illegal monthly/hourly rate signs advertising that the garage was being managed by Central Parking Systems.
Zipcars website lists 406 15th Street as a current Park Slope location with 12 cars available.

How will this effect the levels of carbon monoxide exhaust vented into the backyards of 16th Street residents? (LINK)

Click to enlarge.

This apartment building was built under the city's Quality Housing Program. According to these plans, they are currently using the required recreation space for a parking lot.

"The Quality Housing Program, mandatory in contextual R6 through R10 residence districts and optional in noncontextual districts, encourages development consistent with the character of many established neighborhoods. Its bulk regulations set height limits and allow high lot coverage buildings that are set at or near the street line. Quality Housing buildings must also have amenities relating to the planting of trees, landscaping and recreation space." NYC Zoning Handbook