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April 24, 2006

HOTD: Mixing Modern and Traditional on Sixth Ave

building
Inspired, perhaps, by our recent focus on Fifth Avenue in the South Slope, a reader shot us a photo of this recently completed building on the corner of Sixth Avenue and 14th Street. "Anything would be better than the hollowed out brick building that was there about a year ago," he writes, "but I think this is great mix of modern and contextual." We think the top three floors look okay but aren't really grooving on the choice of material for the ground floor. Why not just continue the brownstone (if that's what it is) from the upper floors? A little web surfing turned up the listing on Brooklyn Properties. Turns out it's a 2-family asking $2.25 million. It won't come as a surprise we'd opt for something different in that price range, but this looks like a lot of square footage with solid rental income and, get this, a 3-car garage. We could see someone stepping up to the place in that range if the interior finishes are well done.
Extravagant 2-family [Brooklyn Properties] GMAP




Posted by Brownstoner at 11:32 AM | Comments (28)
Categories: Properties

Comments

is this the day of the launguishing listings or something? this has been sitting on the bp website for ages.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 24, 2006 11:57 AM

This is on the corner of 6th ave and 13th street, not 14th.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 24, 2006 12:00 PM


Looks pretty awesome from the outside.

Sometimes the dogs turn out to be the best deals. For the buyer, it's often a GOOD thing if a property has been on the market for a long time. Let the negotiations begin!

Posted by: Jake the Snake at April 24, 2006 12:22 PM

hey brownstoner:

there is no more brownstone available for building materials, so there is no way the upper material is brownstone.

Posted by: anon at April 24, 2006 12:25 PM

It's not a brownstone or stucco exterior, it's rustic stone or brickwork that doesn't look very good. Also not great is the ironwork -- typically stock shlock.

I've been watching this building being constructed and it sure did look interesting until the finishing details came to light -- reinterpretations of the brownstone type are few and far between. Still, despite the finishes, I think an interesting project.

--an architect in brooklyn

Posted by: Anonymous at April 24, 2006 12:26 PM

First of all, if you notice the piece of paper glued to the window in the lower right hand corner of the photo, that is a "stop work order" and has been there for ages. The interior does not appear to be finished yet and they seem to still be working on that so even though the house has been listed forever, I don't think it's actually done yet. But come on, let's be realistic here. I actually live on this block and love it. But for that kind of money, I would buy a whole brownstone in say, well...just about anywhere! IMO, this place is a total miscalculation built by a developer who hasn't spent time in the neighborhood and has no idea what people who buy in the South Slope are actually looking for.

Posted by: west at April 24, 2006 12:28 PM

I am the previous anon. I must amend my comment as I just read an article about a quarry that began producing brownston in 2002. In any case, clearly this building is not made of brownstone...looks more like cinderblocks.

Posted by: anon at April 24, 2006 12:30 PM

if anyone is interested...apparently some people in portland, ct (one of the original big brownstone quarries) have begun to produce brownstone again. my whole life growing up in brooklyn everyone always understood brownstone to be "extinct"...in any case just an FYI

Posted by: anon at April 24, 2006 12:36 PM

www.brownstonequarry.com

Posted by: anon at April 24, 2006 12:37 PM

Interesting about the brownstone. But I can promise you one thing: the people that built this house didn't get the material from there. I believe the "stone" lining the ground floor can be purchased for 99 cents a square foot at 11st Street Linen down on 5th Ave., if anyone is familiar with that establishment.

Posted by: west at April 24, 2006 12:46 PM

I want to know what the deal is recently with these condo buildings that utilize large glass facades in the stairwells? Sure, it's makes your experience getting to your apartment nicer than going up a darkly lit stairwell, but wouldn't it be nice to have this quality of daylight in your apartment? Am I missing something?

--another architect in South Slope

Posted by: Anon at April 24, 2006 1:33 PM

i used to live on this block and while the derlict building that was previosly here was an eyesore, this is totally hideous in my opinion. i also know that the construction done was quite sketchy and that's probably why they had to stop work on it. i can't imagine that the price they're asking is in any way worth it, not from a use nor a long term investment pov. it was sols to these developers for 1 million a little over a year ago, so...these builders are totally out of touch!

Posted by: Anonymous at April 24, 2006 2:23 PM

I'm jumping on anon's brownstone post late (you already corrected it), but brownstone as a building material is available. In addition to the reopening of the quarries in Conn., there are a host of other sources. Some of the best quality stone comes from Canada and Great Britain.

I haven't seen this building in person, but the materials do not convey a sense of elegance or attention to detail. The massing of the building really bothers me too - in particular the huge blank parapet above the third floor. I like the center tower, but everything around it falls flat.

Anyone know who the architect is?

Posted by: Halden at April 24, 2006 2:34 PM

Most of the new buildings in the South Slope are a lot worse. I like that they made an effort to build something that basically fits in with its surroundings -- it looks okay next to the building next to it on 6th Avenue (not in picture). But the ground floor stone is so, so awful. Yuck! Still, I could see paying a huge premium to have a garage, as parking gets tighter and tighter around here.

Posted by: Rose at April 24, 2006 2:53 PM

Halden,

Not sure who the architect is but I used to see an Orthodox guy there everyday chatting on his cell. He might have been the architect or just the rabbi praying it doesn't fall down.

Posted by: west at April 24, 2006 3:38 PM

This is a ridiculous building.

And from the openess of the stair it looks to be a one-family. Am I wrong?

Posted by: Anonymous at April 24, 2006 7:11 PM

Mogatu announces his new real estate line...

DERELICTE!!!

Heh, sorry, this is just what came to mind upon reading the above.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 24, 2006 8:04 PM

i think it looks pretty cool actually
i asked one of the workers and he told me that large glass window covers the entire 2nd and 3rd floors through the bulk head-roof and there is tons of light in the house also the huge window's throughout seems like con ed wont make much money from lighting in this masterpiece i wish i could afford it

Posted by: james at April 24, 2006 8:55 PM

Anonymous 8:04,

Huh?!?

Posted by: west at April 24, 2006 9:17 PM

yeah west, you know, at night when the moolight is shinin in?

Posted by: brickhead at April 24, 2006 9:38 PM

Hate it. Agree that this is not what most South-Slopers are looking for (If I had 2 million dollars, this is NOT what I would buy.)

Posted by: Anonymous at April 24, 2006 9:39 PM

looks like someone found an old pallette of that classic 70's lava rock and busted it out. lava rock, coming soon to an exterior near you.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 24, 2006 9:42 PM

Aha. It's from Zoolander! I'll move it to the top my queue!

Posted by: west at April 24, 2006 9:55 PM

been for sale for eight months .. .. ..

Posted by: Anonymous at April 24, 2006 10:31 PM

There is something disagreeable about using cast veneer stone/brick that makes you think about surface, even in this case where they have put a lot of thought and money into it. The large window seems problematic. Leaking? Condensation? What about the solar heating affect in the summer? Con Ed will be making a fortune on cooling that space. It seems like they are still far from finished. What was the Stop Work Order about?

Posted by: Anonymous at April 24, 2006 11:00 PM

pennywise and pound foolish. if the interior is as cool and well done as claimed (big if), a modern-house lover would have paid top dollar for this kind of house, which is very hard to find in NYC. (It doesn't matter what the "average" buyer in South Slope wants. You only have to sell the place once.)

But the crappy finishes raise all kinds of doubts about the place, besides just looking bad. A better exterior would have paid for itself many times over.

Posted by: linusvanpelt at April 25, 2006 8:38 AM

All I can say is it could have been worse. Do you see any errant AC boxes/grills? No?

So for now, be happy. It still looks better that most of the vinyl-covered houses with boxed-in cornices.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 25, 2006 3:17 PM

Saw it. Went the4re with an architect. BAsic story: the house is so poorly constructd that, according to the arch the place would best be ripped down and reconstructed correctly.

Problems incluse things like structural beams going through a/c ducts, a/c unit embedded in ceiling with no access for repair, door framings sealed with epoxy to cover up holes due to mis-measurement, etc. I really could go on -- like talk about the fact that the basement is un-finishable due to the fact that when I saw it there are two grates in the floor due to drainage returns.

Sorry. I liked the facade, but the house is a nightmare. A badly planned nightmare.

Posted by: mr10seconds at April 28, 2006 12:49 PM

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