As of March 2009 this project is still in construction. It will be a 12 story market rate building. Built on a very small piece of land and going up 12 stories this building will have 74 high end units. A typical built up roof will have concrete patio blocks to allow the share holders access to rooftop cabanas. Portions of the bottom 2 floors will house a church.
With 135 units this 12 story block and plank building is located in Harlem. The units are mainly low income co-ops however 23 of the 135 total units are fitted out to be market rate units with up scale finishes, strip wood floors and high end stainless steel appliances. This bulding has a full height basement, used for share holder parking and mechanical spaces, built on top of piles. The remainder of the building's construction is typical for block and plank buildings with built up roofs.
Located in East New York this 48 unit building was designed to look like 6 individual houses with separate entrances but is considered one building because the utilities are common. Built using block and plank construction the front and rear exterior walls are non bearing, framed with metal studs and finished with brick veneer and stucco. The building is 4 - 1/2 stories high, just at the maximum allowable height for a walk up. The top floor apartments are duplexs.
Another 6 story block and plank building, there are 38 low income rental units. Located in Bushwick as well this building is not part of the Rheingold project. Very similar in construction to the Rheingold buildings with the exception of a full height window wall above the main entrance
This project proved to be substantially more difficult than the previous. The building has two 7 story towers sitting atop a common parking garage. Together there are 88 units. These are not rentals however. Although still considered low income these units are co-ops. The space above the garage and between the 2 towers is a common use plaza deck for share holders. Each of the two buildings fronts on a different street with a difference in elevation of nearly 12 feet. The first two floors, including the garage and plaza deck is constructed of structural steel and poured concrete. The property that this building occupies is triangular forcing the design of the building itself to take on many different angles making the structural steel portion more difficult than typical. The first floor of the far building contains community office space while the near building was designed to house a more commercial tennant. The plaza deck, being the roof of the garage, is a built up tapered insulation membrane roof with concrete patio blocks. It has a comfortable park - like feel with plenty of park benches, landscaped planters and game tables.
A 62 unit, 6 story, low income rental. This too was built utilizing the block and plank process and also has full height basements and flat roofs. The first floor of this building uses the required community space as an Senior Citizen Center. This senior center has a full commercial kitchen serving 3 meals a day and access to its three levels via ramps for handicap accessibility.
This pair of 6 story buildings are low income rentals. There is a total of 93 residential units and community/office space on the first floors. These buildings are typical block and plank construction with flat membrane roofs and full height basements. The lower roof on the south building takes advantage of a "green" roof in order to comply with minimum green space requirements. Both buildings have playgrounds in the rear yards built over a poured in place rubber safety surface.
A total of 72 private homes. Mostly 2 family houses, four 3 family and ten condos. These houses were built on piles to minimize the amount of contaminated soil that needed to be removed. They are constructed of block and plank while the front and rear exterior walls were framed and the roofs were built with structural insulated panels (SIPs) allowing for high cathedral ceilings.
Bushwick
This is an aerial photo of what once was the Rheingold Brewery in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. This property was considered a "Brown Field" property from the years of brewery production and required substantial remediation. The new neighborhood consists of 72 private town houses and three low income rental buildings with a total of 155 units. These projects required quite a bit of infrastructure work including new roads, new water and sewer mains and gas mains.
Other Brooklyn Locations
Harlem
