'Millennial Row Homes' Shot Down In Bed-Stuy Historic District

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — The architects behind four new row houses on Chauncey Street will need to go back to the drawing board before they get the OK from the city's landmarks commission.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission decided Tuesday that it will hold off on voting on the 39 Chauncey St. project until architects revise their design of the row of single-family homes, which would sit in a long-vacant lot in the Stuyvesant Heights Historic District.

The decision comes after 30 neighbors, the community board and several cultural organizations came out against the plans. They contend that the project's design make it "dramatically out of place" on what has become a prized block of Brooklyn brownstones.

"It is evident that the new building will significantly alter the character and the aesthetic of this historic block," the neighbors wrote in a letter to the commission. "The architecture, design and external features are like nothing else nearby."

Everyone who spoke Tuesday said they agree with the idea to build four row houses instead of one apartment building on the historic lot, whose original homes were torn down after a fire in the 1990s and early 2000s.

But neighbors and housing experts said the current proposal, by NV/design.architecture, seemed to "cherry-pick" architectural ideas from across the neighborhood instead of matching homes closest to the project. They specifically pointed out the coloring and materials, the roof details and the window design.

Landmarks commissioners were a bit more measured in their critiques, contending that a "modern approach" could work on the property if architects made minor adjustments.

They suggested changing the color or adding more depth and detail could change their minds about the project, and prevent it from looking like an apartment complex.

"It adds up to a monolithic building...that means that the individual town houses are not differentiated enough," said Commissioner Frederick Bland. "I don't think you need to dramatically change the approach to the design to fix that, but I do think it needs to be fixed."

Architects told the board that they had originally held off on adding too much detail to the building given that it might come off as "cute" given the small size of the homes, but that they were open to changes.

"We're amenable to a fair amount of change," said Tom van den Bout, principal with NV/design.architecture. "We're happy to investigate adding some detail."

The board ultimately took no action on the proposal, but told architects that they will schedule another meeting when the design is revised.