ODA's Colorful Building Brightens Montieth Street at Former Rheingold Brewery in Bushwick

When we last checked in on ODA’s and Rabsky’s development on the former site of the Rheingold Brewery at 10 Montieth Street in Bushwick, it was just starting to take shape.

Now, it’s even further along. During a visit late last week, the building looked closer to its most recent rendering: The stacked-boxes form, a familiar theme for ODA, is more defined, and the window frames project a visually striking yellow, orange and red ombré effect across the facade.

The dark grey facade of the upper part of the building as well as the glass front of the ground floor, both noticeable in the most recent renderings, were not clearly visible.

Nor were the large courtyard and distinctive, sloping rooftop garden, both of which appear to be in the very early stages.

Part of the sprawling for-profit redevelopment of the former Rheingold Brewery, the eight-story complex will eventually have 392 mixed-income apartments, 20 percent of which will be affordable. In renderings of the interior, designed by Durukan Design, there’s a smattering of hexagonal patterns and a melancholy color palette of grey, brown and white, with the occasional bold stamp of red or blue.

The brewery, which took up many blocks in Bushwick, was run by the Liebmann family and produced Rheingold beer. The huge plant, which had provided many jobs to Bushwick residents, was torn down in 1981.

In the early 2000s, an award-winning complex of affordable housing was completed on part of the site. In 2013, the remaining undeveloped blocks were rezoned to allow housing.

At the time of the rezoning, the property’s initial developers promised 30 percent affordable housing, but subsequent owners have scaled back those to 20 percent, leading to controversy. The for-profit development will bring blocks of market-rate luxury housing to the traditionally working class neighborhood.

Bushwick has a significant amount of affordable housing, much of it built under the reign of the late State Assemblyman Vito Lopez, but the size of this for-profit complex will probably rival only Hope Gardens, public housing built on the ruins of the fires that swept Bushwick in the 1970s.

[Photos by Craig Hubert]

Related Stories

• ODA’s Eye-Popping Build With Green Roof for Rabsky and Rheingold Finally Rising in Bushwick
• ODA’s Design for Rheingold Brewery Site Seems to Be Inspired by Cliff Dwellings
• “My Beer Is Rheingold, the Dry Beer” — the Beer, the Brewery and the Bruhaha

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