As Vishaan Chakrabarti, a principal at SHoP Architects, was unveiling the Southside Williamsburg master plan they designed for Two Trees, he evoked the image of Manhattan’s skyline. “Just like in the dead center of New York,” he told the assembled group of reporters, “we have this parabolic moment—there’s this moment of exuberance that happens” as Read More
They’re not against housing the homeless per se, but Milton Street residents just feel that some other block or some other neighborhood would be a better choice, a more appropriate choice.
“I’m not against the homeless having someplace to go, but not like this,” Don Stella told The Brooklyn Paper, differentiating himself from those who believe the homeless should not, in fact, have someplace to go. Read More
It was about this time last year that The Observer had first heard that Greenpoint Landing, the just gigantic 10-building development at the mouth of Newtown Creek, was about to come back to life after having been forgotten following the building boom and subsequent collapse in North Brooklyn. “The project has been there a long time, but now the market is finally there,” one of the people involved in the project said at the time. It was predicted buildings would begin rising this year.
But here we are in October with nothing to show for it. Well, nothing but a blog post from Greenpointers hearing that work may just be beginning. The evidence? A message from the local councilman’s office and the apparent departure of the boardwalk from Boardwalk Empire that has been on one of the lots since the show debuted. But it’s true. While a year later than promised, The Observer has confirmed that the project is again underway. Read More
Do you live in Fort Greene? Enjoy sipping seasonal cocktails outside of Roman’s, playing fetch with your dog in Fort Greene park, bragging to all your friends about how low key and undiscovered and underrated Fort Greene is? Well, if you rent you should probably start skimming the real estate listings right now, as Fort Greene has been declared Brooklyn’s most livable neighborhood by The L Magazine.
Of course, its hard to tell if readers of the hipster glossy will take the ranking to heart, following the prevailing counter cultural fashions of the day, or if they will display a contrarian streak, as they are sometimes wont to do, and seek out the next industrial wasteland to remake in their tattooed image. Read More
Last night, Word Books in Greenpoint hosted the first anniversary party for Emily Books, the “online indie bookstore” that functions like a book of the month club, run by Emily Gould and Ruth Curry. As guests sipped boxed wine, Ms. Gould switched the official Emily Books mixtape (some choice selections: Dinosaur Jr.’s “Puke and Cry,” Tegan and Sara’s “Burn Your Life Down”) to a more upbeat playlist featuring L’Trimm and Peaches. At 7:30, Word events manager Jenn Northington took the stage to apologize for the delay, and to point out the free condoms whose wrappers bore the cover design of Emily Books’ September pick, Maidenhead by Tamara Faith Berger. Read More
Big, fluffy Bob Ross clouds hung over the Manhattan skyline yesterday afternoon, in full view from one of the best vantage points in the city to view them: Greenpoint’s new Transmitter Park. Almost perfectly parallel with the Empire State Building, the park provides an unparalleled panorama of Midtown and the rest of Manhattan.
Mayor Bloomberg and his Parks Commissioner Veronica White had crossed the river not only to take in the scene but also cut the ribbon on the 1.6-acre, $12 million project. It was Ms. White‘s first official public appearance after replacing Adrian Benepe, who had been in the job since 2001. It was her coming out, if a quiet one, with limited fanfare and few workers. Just another day on the job.
“Our administration has been revitalizing old infrastructure and recasting it in new ways that makes sense for New Yorkers today,” the mayor said proudly, pointing to the success of other projects like the High Line and Brooklyn Bridge Park as well.
But unlike those open space developments, heralded the world over, the waterfront of Williamsburg and Greenpoint has long languished. Read More
After a lifetime of compliments, the four-letter “u” word hit male model Josh Wald particularly hard when he encountered it, quite possibly for the first time, after listing his freshly-renovated house at 87A Guernsey Street in Greenpoint.
The New York Times reports that Mr. Wald, who has appeared in everything from Dolce and Gabbana to Dockers ads, was shocked, shocked, to be on the receiving end of an insult. Read More
McCarren Pool may be located at the epicenter of hipsterdom on the border between Williamsburg an Greenpoint, but its reopening has brought on a strange, unfamiliar feeling in such environs: an earnest, completely unironic, swooning kind of love.
“The tide of consensus has turned,” Charles Graeber, a 42-year-old freelance writer who attended the pool’s opening yesterday told The New York Times. “People are really rather proud. This is a very hopeful, grand, Great Society gesture. Williamsburg is famously hipsterish, sneering and ironic, but there’s nothing ironic about this.” Read More
Remember when people once liked practical things on their houses? Porches and overhangs and aluminum awnings and such?
Well Greenpoint, for one, has had it with aluminum awnings, reports The New York Times.
Those humble providers of shelter are so mid-century, and not Eames chairs/ skinny ties/ birth of the cool kind of mid-century, but smoking around children and eating TV dinners kind of mid-century. Read More
BLOG POSTS THAT PRACTICALLY WRITE THEMSELVES
Yes, we know. It just ended on Sunday. And you already miss it. So we ask, at full volume:
Are you ready for the second season of HBO’s ‘Girls,’ Bob Ross-lookalikes, “Muffle Car”-owners, and unicycling hipsters? Read More
