New Development Rises on Crooke Ave

Speaking of new developments, this building is getting filled out on Crooke Ave near the Parade Grounds.  Compared to the other new construction in the neighborhood, this one is a sculpture.

In our humble opinion, a building like this wouldn't be so bad as the new 185 Ocean Ave.  It could be much, much, much worse.

Comments

[LM]

Agreed, this looks better than 90% of the crap we see being foisted on horrified neighbors.

[Bob Marvin]

The "much, much, much worse" buildings at Parkside & Bedford are at least a little bit better than the gas station that was on that site when I moved to PLG. If you want to see REALLY ugly, take a look at the NW corner of Rogers and Albamarle.

What gets me about the new Parkside buildings is that the builder seems to have spent a bit more than the bare minimum to add some ornamentation. It's such a shame that he got it SO wrong.

[Disgusted]

Why is it so hard to build within the context of the neighborhood?

It really can't be all that expensive?

[Well I'm not disgusted]

I like it.

I would loathe everything being matchy-matchy all over NYC, if that's what "context" must mean. (the meaning of context being debatable IMO). Somehow Europeans in London and Paris can embrace modern buildings that are deliberately not in "context" among historic buildings (far more historic to boot). A very modern building next to an old one presents a constant dialogue between the two that's dynamic, stimulating and interesting. Not all of us want the "ooh isn't that purdy" experience of looking at architecture. It's a bit fascist to declare that's the only experience all people in Brooklyn are allowed to have, and to not allow new voices and visions. Unfortunately yes, there are so many new buildings that are terrible - but that's a whole separate issue. The buildings aren't inherently ugly simply because they're modern. So if anything is to be done, address the real problem. Don't condemn everything modern, different and new.