Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Before, There Was Blue Sky, Now ....360 Smith Street Finally Tops Off

oo

Before, there was blue sky....

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In early March, as soon from First Place
(photo credit: Tim)

AND
TODAY


(photo credit: Tim)

KSQ Architects' design for 360 Smith Street/ 132 Second Street

What a difference a few months makes.


Reader Tim sent me a current photo of Bill Stein's "Oliver House" at 360 Smith Street/ 132 Second Street from his vantage point. He writes:
"So, want to see what it looks like now from our window? It was bad before, take a look."
The steel structure has been slowly but steadily rising to 70 feet, with a 20 foot rooftop bulkhead. The building has now completely dwarfed the surrounding brownstones. It has also changed the Carroll Gardens landscape forever. It can now be seen as far away as Park Slope when looking down 3rd Street as well as from Boerum Hill when looking up Smith Street. It is particularly visible when coming down Smith Street from 9th Street.
Tim writes: "I am still amazed that permission was given."
So am I, considering that Stein's monstrosity had been stopped by the Wide Street Text Amendment. Unfortunately, the Board Of Standards And Appeal gave him an exemption and allowed him to continue building.

To read more about the history of 360 Smith Street:




6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeesh, what a monstrosity.

Jeanette said...

This is a blatant reminder why we cannot let bad land use decisions stand for projects that haven't been built yet. Public Place is a great example. It's a house of cards - based on invalid fiscal assumptions, no regard for public safety, and too dense for our neighborhood. 360 Smith is horrid, but maybe will finally wake up people in the neighborhood and generate more involvement to stop this stupidity.

Anonymous said...

You can now see how the developer played tricks-off-the-eye with their presentation drawings to make this appear less massive than it is in reality.

So how could we trust those drawings made for the proposed Public Place project? They too seem to be hiding tall buildings with a view angle well above human eye-level on the street.

Ellen said...

Public Place site - I don't get it. It has not been rezoned for residential. And the city is holding off on rezoning. Why do the pols and developers think this is a done deal? 360 Smith is miniscule compared to what the plans for Public Place site are!

Anonymous said...

Yuchhhh

Anonymous said...

hope it's rocking the foundation of a certain building across the street and keeping them up all night.