One of the most interesting condominium developments in Brooklyn draws inspiration from a distant land. It’s called Oosten, and it’s the product of Chinese developer XIN Development, Dutch designer Piet Boon, and Brooklyn-based think! architecture and design pllc. You’ll find it under construction at 429 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg and our friend Tectonic sent YIMBY exclusive photos of an inside tour.
The wave of development that’s transformed western Crown Heights is moving east toward Utica Avenue. Today, we have a look at a small project under construction at 1119 St. Marks Avenue, between Schenectady and Utica avenues.
The Furman Center’s newest State of the City report declared that Fordham and University Heights, in the northwestern Bronx, are “non-gentrifying.” Both neighborhoods are working class and largely Latino and black. While rents have risen there over the last decade, the cost of living hasn’t increased quite as dramatically as it has in “gentrifying” South Bronx neighborhoods, like Mott Haven and Port Morris.
Back in November of 2015, renderings were revealed of the renovations that are planned to go into repositioning the Brooklyn War Memorial and Cadman Park Plaza. The upgrades are associated with a large-scale revitalization of Downtown Brooklyn’s parks and public spaces, dubbed Brooklyn Strand. New details and renderings of the entire 50-acre project can be revealed now that the two-year-long community input process has completed. The Community Vision Plan will now go through the city’s review process.
After former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in 2010, rejected plans to build a public park over a two-block span of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway between South 3rd and 5th streets in Williamsburg, Councilman Antonio Reynoso is re-proposing the project. Dubbed BQ Green, the $200 million project could potentially be incorporated into the city’s $2.265 billion budget for park capital spending, according to Gothamist. As currently envisioned, a concrete platform would completely cover two blocks of the BQE, while partially covering the below-grade expressway one block in either direction. The part of South 4th Street that currently spans over the BQE would be reconstructed as parkland, and the existing green space lining the expressway will be revitalized. The proposal also includes a baseball diamond, a waterpark, and wooded and landscaped areas. DLANDstudio is behind the design of the 2010 proposal. The project is expected to be discussed before the city’s budget is adopted.
