Apparently there wasn't nearly enough blogging material in the West Village to suit Tumblr founder David Karp. So what's a shaggy-haired techy to do? Move to Williamsburg, of course! Mr. Karp has purchased a $1.6 million condo in Brooklyn's tony Esquire loft building. Read More
While the haute androgyny of Agyness Deyn has been discussed ad nauseum over the past few years as the covergirl has seen her star swiftly rise, it comes as some surprise that her apartment has only recently come to light. Thanks to Curbed, we now have an insider's view in the model/actress/singer's boho Brooklyn digs. Read More
It was perhaps inevitable. Even a beloved boutique manufacturer could only survive for so long on the condo-crazed shores of Williamsburg. Brooklyn Brewery was the city's first big-time microbrewer and helped bring the sudsy movement to the East Coast in the 1990s. Now, the brewery's home has been quietly sold, and it looks like a Read More
Pity the plagiarist! Especially if he has written a thriller, and the books he copied from are James Bond novels and books by Robert Ludlum. That's what Quentin Rowan, who writes as Q.R. Markham, has done. Today Little, Brown recalled his debut novel, Assassin of Secrets, from the shelves of bookstores across the country, offering refunds to those who have already bought and now would like to return his book. Read More
The Finger Building may just be the most loathsome tower in the entire city. Designed by Robert Scarano, sitting smack in the middle of a low-rise block in a low-rise neighborhood, the long-suffering Williamsburg condo building has been called too many nasty names to recall (or appropriately repeat) in this space. Which is why it is so surprising to hear the Daily News sing its praises. Read More
The sun had not quite broken over the rowhouses and warehouses of Greenpoint Monday morning when The Observer arrived at the new concrete pier jutting out into the East River at India Street. The dock seemed barely finished, its concrete planks not entirely even, the sides of the structure lined with chain-link fencing. Whole sections were torn up and surrounded with orange construction netting.
When the ferry pulled up, ghost decals clinging to the foredeck, the passengers filed on, handing over their $4 tickets, joining the nearly 3,000 New Yorkers who have ridden the ferry each weekday since its launch in mid-June, according to the city—more than double the number officials had expected.
After ordering our locally brewed fair-trade coffee and a pain au chocolat, we turned to see a gay couple smiling across a starboard table, sharing a quiche, a floating picnic. On the port side was a pretty biracial pair staring out the window at Long Island City, its gleaming towers pulling into view. The woman held a breastfeeding baby on her lap.
The subway this was not. Read More
This is the last thing anyone was expecting, but it looks like a new shiny tower is coming to the Williamsburg waterfront, the site of one of its more troubled developments, in fact. In a bit of a coup, Douglaston Development will build a 40-story rental tower, according to The Journal, and while they have spent years struggling to sell their Edge development, the tower is actually being built next door, on the third North Side Pier site, which had been the provenance of Toll Brothers. Read More
Things have been up and down ever since the renowned JellyNYC Pool Parties left the McCarren Pool and moved to the Williamsburg waterfront. Sure, the backdrop was nicer, but there have been money woes ever since. Senator Charles Schumer even had to come to the rescue two years ago to keep the party rocking.
The latest complaints come from the neighbors, who are fed up with all the unwashed masses streaming down the side streets of Williamsburg to get to the waterfront. The Open Space Alliance hopes it has a solution, according to The Brooklyn Paper, and JellyNYC will move the parties a few blocks north. Read More
"It's like a working-class hick town," the artist Collier Schorr said of Williamsburg, in a 1992 New York piece on the neighborhood, which was handsomely titled "The New Bohemia."
Of course, a lot has changed over the past 20 years. Read More
Few buildings have symbolized the city’s real estate boom and bust more than the notorious tower at 144 North Eighth Street in Williamsburg. The developers, exploiting old zoning codes that gave empty manufacturing sites an excess of air rights, planned a 16-story tower in a low-rise neighborhood of rowhouses of only three to five stories. The infamous architect Robert Scarano was brought on, and using his mezzanine trick and other loopholes, he pushed the plans to essentially 21 stories.
It was 2004, and the locals were in the midst of having the neighborhood rezoned, but “the finger building” as it came to be known for its perceived sleight to the neighborhood, snuck through. That is until a fight with the neighbor mired the project in court, its developer could no longer afford the loan, and was forced to sell. Now, nearly complete at a more modest but still very tall 10 stories, 144 North Eight Street is hitting the market, according to The Journal. Read More
Savvy restaurateur Taavo Somer has avoided the "hipster" appellation since the opening of Freemans, that taxidermy fantasia on the Lower East Side. The aggressive grizzly man pose of the alleyway eatery aside, Freemans is still a nice place to have a bite. We like to go when our father or brothers are in town -- why pass up a perfectly good dumb joke?
Now Mr. Somer has made the logical progression and chased the Freemans Sporting Club scruff across the L to Williamsburg, where he will open his first Brooklyn-based place, Isa, next week. And then he could be done. Read More
Our colleagues over on the Culture page bring word that Williamsburg art space Monster Island is really, finally closing. This is only the latest gallery/venue to be shuttered by gentrification's creep across the neighborhood, though this time, the scene may truly be over—it is rumored a Whole Foods is taking over the space near the waterfront. Read More
Your basic Brooklyn apartment will get you a chic interior and hardwood floors, but little room for a kitchen table.
"Where do you put a kitchen table? Does no one eat around a table in New York?," asked one potential buyer on Sunday. Read More
Surprise, surprise—the new Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel report shows that North Brooklyn home sales have more than tripled during the past year, which is just further evidence of expansion in an area that's growing in popularity with the young people.
Sales in North Brooklyn, which includes Williamsburg and Greenpoint, went from 127 units at this time last year to 402 units in the second quarter of 2011, a significant increase that could partly be attributed to trendy new condo development The Edge. The complex has 565 units and, according to its website, is more than 50 percent sold. Read More
Williamsburg You Ever Hear of It?
As new revelations about the impending criminal trial of Dominique-Strauss Kahn continue to emerge, the New York Times went for a triple-play of coverage on the story this (decidedly American) holiday weekend. Buried in the story concerning New Yorkers' attitudes about the case, however, was this gem of a parenthetical: Read More
