Carter's Review

Turner Towers is an Art Deco-style apartment building at 135 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn that was erected in 1926 and has 186 condominium apartments.

The 16-story building originally had an attractive water-tank enclosure in a short tower on its roof but the enclosure has not survived.

The building has a recessed central entrance with a canopy and sidewalk landscaping.

It was developed by Morris Turner and reportedly was Brooklyn’s first residential high-rise, according to the official website of the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation.

The building was lost in bankruptcy and eventually tenants sponsored a conversion to a cooperative in the 1980. 

In the 1990s, John B. Lovett & Associates supervised a renovation of the building.

Joan Rivers, the comic, grew up with her parent and sister in Apartment 107 in the building, which is across from Prospect Park and near the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

Bottom Line

A very handsome, large, pre-war apartment building that was the childhood home of Joan Rivers and is missing its attractive water-tank enclosure but is across from the great Prospect Park and the very fine Brooklyn Museum of Art.

Description

The building has a one-story rusticated limestone base with light sconces and a broad bandcourse above the first story.  The second and third stories have some rope window surrounds that are also on the top two floors and the fourth floor has some arched window surrounds.

The building permits window air-conditioners.

Amenities

The building has a 24-hour doorman .

Apartments

Apartment 3E is a three-bedroom unit with a 9-foot-wide entry foyer that leads to a 25-foot-long living room and a 17-foot-long eat-in kitchen.

Apartment 8K is a three-bedroom unit with a 12-foot-long entry foyer that leads to a 21-foot-long living room and a 20-foot-long dining room next to a 13-foot-long kitchen.

Apartment 12A is a two-bedroom unit with an 11-foot-long entry foyer that leads to 19-foot-long living room, an 18-foot-long dining room next to a18-foot-long, enclosed and windowed kitchen and a 13-foot-wide breakfast room and a 15-foot-long gallery to the bedrooms.

Apartment 16C is a two-bedroom unit with a 14-foot-wide entry foyer that leads to a30-foot-long living room and a 19-foot-long dining room next to a 14-foot-long kitchen and a 16-foot-long hallway to one of the bedrooms that has a 20-foot-square terrace.

Apartment 13C is a three-bedroom unit with a 15-foot-long entry foyer that leads to a 20-foot-long corner living room and an 18-foot-long dining room next to an 18-foot-long dining room and a 14-foot-long maid’s room.

Apartment 10I is a three-bedroom unit with a 26-foot-long living/dining room with a 19-foot-long eat-in, windowed kitchen.

History

It was included in a March 4, 2011 article by C. J. Hughes in The New York Times on the “It” Buildings in the outer boroughs.