Photo Essay: Brooklyn’s New Everyday Architecture for the 1%

Photo Essay: Brooklyn’s New Everyday Architecture for the 1%

Now available! Your boutique luxury condo awaits, bursting with amenities, in rough-edged Brooklyn’s bodacious new developments.

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You’ve always wanted to call Brooklyn home. But it’s complicated. You’re not really the pioneering type. Brooklyn can be rough around the edges. Amenities are lacking. We understand. Industrial-chic finishes are important in life. So are 25-year tax abatements. And European-style, car-sized parking turntables.

Not to worry. Your motto: No compromises. Our motto: Uncompromising boutique developments. Welcome to the new luxury Crown Heights condominium of your dreams. You’re a foodie—we’ve got kitchens with butcher-block islands. You enjoy fresh air—we’ve got tree-lined boulevards beckoning beyond your private-keyed elevator. You surf—did we say ten minutes to Beach 69th Street on our air-conditioned shuttle Hummer? For god’s sake, we would live in this property ourselves.

This jaunty architecture was designed by actual architects. They live in Brooklyn. They know Brooklyn. They’re not ashamed to bring a bit of jaunt to Brooklyn. They have a motto, too: A dollop of Walter Gropius does everybody good. They’ve got solid concrete superstructures. Unique geometries. Acres of glistening glass. And chocolate-brown stucco facades for a nod to the old neighborhood. Does that sometimes make our buildings look a little awkward? A little incongruous? Full of gobsmacking, sore-thumb effrontery, even? Oh, piffle. We are delivering loft living to communities that have been chronically, unjustly deprived of lofts. And penthouses. And separately deeded, covered parking spots available for an additional cost.

Crown Heights too “emerging” for you? We have stunning opportunities in Williamsburg, Prospect Heights, Greenpoint, and Park Slope. Not to mention Bedford-Stuyvesant. Don’t get us started on Bedford-Stuyvesant. We’re going to transform Bedford-Stuyvesant. Why? Because Bedford-Stuyvesant deserves to be a million-dollar neighborhood chockablock with soaking bathtubs and dual-flush, wall-mounted toilets just like the rest of New York City. And it has your name all over it. Remember, you are not just the occupant, the sales prospect. You are the end-user. This is all about you.

Photographs by Cameron Blaylock. Text by Jeff Byles.

Jeff Byles is an author and urban thinker deeply engaged in public design and its role as a catalyst for cultural innovation. Through his role as Partnership Director of Being Here Landscape Architecture & Environmental Design, PLLC, a collaborative design and consulting practice, Jeff works at the intersection of site and society to create places and communities that foster well-being.
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