[Old rendering on left Skyscraper Forum, center photo 110 Livingston, right rendering Clarett Group]
We’re not sure if the Clarett Group has a death wish or just had access to toxic financing, but the firm that built the virtually vacant Forte in Fort Greene is now well into construction of 111 Lawrence Street in downtown Brooklyn. It will be Brooklyn’s tallest building at 51 stories and two feet taller than the Williamsburg Saving Bank Building. The incredible (actually mindboggling, given the market) is that this thing will have 491 units when it’s done. Brownstoner, which has been all over this story for a long time, first revealed the rendering on the right last year. It has since been removed from the developer’s website. The rendering on the left, is from Wired’s skyscraper forum and shows that things could have been much worse. The photo in the middle is from 110 Livingston Blog, which has a great view of the building going up and a nice post about it. On the one hand, it’s a shame that Brooklyn’s tallest building, which comes from GKV Architects (which also doesn’t have a rendering up), will also be one of it less attractive. On the other, one smells a strong stench of death coming from Livingston Street where it boggles the mind that anyone with a shred of sanity would have put up nearly 500 units of housing, which will likely be rental. Wagers on bankruptcy and/or bank foreclosure using taxpayer dollars?
3 responses so far ↓
1 bklynite // Feb 9, 2009 at 10:16 am
I think it’s a great thing they’re moving ahead with this — there is demand for housing in this city and this will be good quality housing. Plus, more traffic will benefit the local businesses. H&M going in, new park, gonna be great.
2 rick // Feb 9, 2009 at 8:29 pm
I am very upset that The Williamsburg Savings Back will no longer be the tallest building in Brooklyn. To me it will always be tops. Brooklyn’s lighthouse.
3 Eric // Sep 1, 2009 at 6:55 pm
111 Lawrence Street put up a new sign today featuring a colossal black shadow of a woman standing in a provocative contrapposto pose. . . not entirely sure what they intend to market with that. Anyways, I checked out their website, and they claim that they are located in “the core of Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO, Fort Greene, Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens.” Since when did being situated at least a mile from a neighborhood put you in the core of that neighborhood? Fort Greene, maybe, but DUMBO? False advertisement. They are more like MetroTech. After 5pm, I’d be afraid to walk there at night.