Architecture 101: Amity Street Delight
We were driving through Cobble Hill on Sunday morning when and had to pull over to take a moment to admire this beautiful limestone and brick mansion building at the corner of Amity and Henry that is now the home of the Lamm Institute, a child neurology clinic. Finding our own architectural vocabulary lacking, we…
We were driving through Cobble Hill on Sunday morning when and had to pull over to take a moment to admire this beautiful limestone and brick mansion building at the corner of Amity and Henry that is now the home of the Lamm Institute, a child neurology clinic. Finding our own architectural vocabulary lacking, we looked to see what the AIA Guide to New York City Architecture had to say about the 1902 building designed by Charles Hough:
Richly adorned and in dark red brick, this latter-day miniature Henry IV “hotel particulier” recalls the architecture of the Place des Vosges and the Hopital St. Louis in Paris. It is a fitting neighbor to its adjoining bourgeois row houses.
Took the words right out of our mouth.
The Lamm Institute [We Heal New York] GMAP
p.s. It ain’t “you guys” either–it just one guy with a very full plate!
It’s more that at this point we have so little time to get out and take pictures that we have no choice but to drive. Believe us, we wish we had time for leisurely two-hour strolls that included popping into stores, sitting on park benches, etc. This weekend, for example, we literally could only find half and hour to go exploring. That’s why we hope readers will continue to send us more and more of their own material.
I agree with the above. I’m sure Brownstoner’s response will be that he has two children and therefore must drive – he’s said similar things before (you can’t do without a car if you have children in Brooklyn etc.) As a non-driving parent of 2 children, I say get out and walk! And your kids can play on the cute playground accross the street from the Lamm Institute.
Brownstoner’s awesome, a regular must-read. You guys, however, would be a lot cooler if you stopped DRIVING around Brooklyn so much. So many of your posts start that way, it’s depressing. Neighborhoods aren’t just pretty house after pretty house. Fetishizing discrete buildings is fine; spending afternoons barrelling through their streets hunting for objets d’art is antithetical to the life of the neighborhoods you’re gazing at.
That is so funny! I live near there and noticed the building for the first time while jogging yesterday. I also wondered if it had been a residence. The building across the street I believe used to be a school so I just assumed that they were built together.
Well, if you really love it, the ground floor 2br condo at next door neighbor (across a driveway and yard) 122 Amity is FSBO for under 800k on the NYTimes website. The listing actually looks very nice, with a 200-ft private deck in the south-facing rear overlooking the garden and very low monthly costs.
Not NYC maybe (unfortunately).
Thanks for the discovery Babs. Yeah, you’d never see this type of buildng as a residence in this kind of location in a city.
Hotel particulier = residence. One would think that initially from reading the AIA verbiage above. However, from LICH’s website:
1902 Dudley Memorial Building erected by Henry W. Maxwell in memory of Dr. William Dudley, who was instrumental in the founding of LICH. Intended as a nurses residence, it served as a private pavilion for patients for its first five years.
Guess that’s why they had hotel particulier in quotes.