Construction is complete on 545 Metropolitan Avenue, a six-story mixed-use building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Designed by Tony-Saba Shiber of Commoncraft Architecture and developed by Thomas Finnican of Patoma Inc., the project involved the vertical expansion of a one-story building into a 75-foot-tall cantilevering structure. The development spans 7,233 square feet and yields six condominium units with an average scope of 991 square feet, as well as 1,289 square feet of commercial space and a 17-foot-long rear yard. 545 Metropolitan LP is listed as the owner of the property, which is located between Lorimer Street to the east and Union Avenue to the west.
The entire exterior was completed since our last update in late January, when crews were working to frame out the steel superstructure with metal studs, CMU blocks, and insulation boards. The following photos detail the finished appearance of the structure and its dramatic cantilever, which features a curved corner on its underside. This aesthetic is repeated on the rear upper setback, the double-height retail frontage, and the white frame of the roof deck pergola. The façade is composed of charcoal-hued stone surrounding a grid of recessed, mullion-free windows.
545 Metropolitan Avenue. Photo by Michael Young.
545 Metropolitan Avenue. Photo by Michael Young.
545 Metropolitan Avenue. Photo by Michael Young.
The fenestration is composed of rectangular windows with two exceptions: one window on the fifth story of the main elevation features an upside down arch, and a lone window on the mostly blank eastern face features a conventional arch shape.
545 Metropolitan Avenue. Photo by Michael Young.
545 Metropolitan Avenue. Photo by Michael Young.
The below Google Street View image shows the former site conditions with the small one-story building.
545 Metropolitan Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn via Google Maps
The nearest subway from the ground-up development site is the L train at the Metropolitan Avenue station, which offers free transfers to Lorimer Street station for the G train.
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If the “hangover” was on both sides, it might be more interesting instead of odd. The building otherwise is nice enough and the use of stone is unexpected.
Both sides? That may be the one possible way to make it look even more outrageous
A funky, quirky building amongst a row of funky buildings feels just right. I hope we someday see the limited nature of cantilevered towers, but this building is unique, its scale is minimal and it is an interesting addition to the neighborhood.
Bring back color
Vote Democratic 2028
Ugly, and short sighted.
These cantilevered buildings prevent development of adjoining properties and hamper housing creation in the long run.
Nothing compliments ugly more than dumb.
I walked by this a few weeks ago and I didn’t hate it. The very good quality of the finishes and thoughtful massing is totally atypical, but proves it can be done. This is about as good as cantilevers go, if we choose to continue to allow them.
Yes, a ‘good’ quirky. It’s as if the cantilever was saying, “excuse me”
..and luv that pergola.
Yeah. I’ve delayed my commentary on this to gather my feelings. I still don’t like to see a cantilever in the urban streetscape, I think they shouldn’t be allowed in a lowrise setting like this and I can’t believe that 2000 pages of NYC zoning code leads to a permission for a building like this to become reality.
THAT SAID…
I don’t hate it either. Maybe it will be just this one time, but if a cantilevered lowrise is to exist, it should look like this. This is a well designed piece of architecture and the cantilever is handled aesthetucally better than any other example I’ve seen. Just the seamless finished underside and radius motifs across the facade should be enough to win a blue ribbon.
Butt ugly
Fantastic photos of such quirky and questionable architectural design
Say no to this City of Yes stupidity.
Say no to this say no to this City of Yes stupidity.
Super cool.
Looks like the design was created with the thought of Tetris in mind. NYC new builds become more and more interesting every year.
What vertical expansion? This is a new building.
Yes it’s a “new building” but it was expanded from the existing one story building on site and was not a ground up new construction with new foundations. A distinction in search of a difference for most people but a distinctive construction classification.
@NFA. That is not true, it is not an extension of the existing 1 storey structure. If you look at the previous update it shows the former building has a parking spot behind the roll up garage gate. This a total new structure from the foundation up. The writers used the term extension does not mean what we thought of when that term is used. Yeah it’s a bit confusing sounding.
The original single story building was set back about 15 feet behind the roll gate. So this building permit was technically both a vertical and horizontal expansion. No doubt no original structure but a short strip of footing was used for the new construction. Almost to the point of absurdity can the definition of an expansion be exploited, but this is the system DOB has. If it doesn’t impede and makes building in a very expensive city just slightly more affordible for smaller builders, I have no problem with that.
Looks dope, but now I wonder – the fact that the 5th and 6th floors overhang technically takes up next door buildings space (in the air), how much of the actual land square footage did the owner pay for and how was that calculated?
The exterior is not stone. The writer is confused and doesn’t recognize what stucco work is. And black stucco is just damn ugly .
And no expansion reveals or joints anywhere! This installation is going to have problems 3-5 years down the road. Poor detailing and installation.