Carter's Review

This 7-story, mid-block, 49-unit rental apartment building at 178 North 11^th Street between Driggs and Bedford avenues close to McCarren Park in Williamsburg should stop you in your tracks.

It is a cool, asymmetrical building with two large bright blue-green façade elements “floating” in a sea of gray brick.

More sophisticated than bold, it is almost elegant but a bit quixotic.  It would be totally elegant if the entire building were bundled with the blue-green elements.

Great Point Properties is the developer and Kutnicki Bernstein is the architect.

Bottom Line

A rather startling rental building façade treatment brightens up the already colorful McCarren Park neighborhood in Williamsburg.

Description

The building has a setback roof deck above the 7^th floor and an entrance marquee.

It is notable for its very handsome, four-story-high and a five-story-high light-blue-green façade sections at opposite ends of its 11^th Street frontage.  The former is above the second story and below the seventh story of its side of the building and the latter is between first and top floors of its sixth-story side of the building.  The two sections are separated by three window bays framed in gray brick which also covers the second and top floors of the shorter colored section.

The far sides of these two section have triple-wide colored piers and the larger section has a broader colored top.

Both sections have square colored elements below their inset windows and tall rectangular colored elements beside the windows.

The colored elements are glossy and appear in renderings a bit like “mother-of-pearl,” a finish desperately missing from the cityscape.

Amenities

The building has a virtual doorman, a video intercom, bicycle storage, a garage, storage, a gym and a roof deck.

Apartments

Apartments have double-glazed windows and wide plank wood floors.  Kitchens have lacquer cabinetry, Caesarstone countertops.  Bathrooms and Toto toilets.

Apartment 3G is a two-bedroom unit with an entry foyer next to the pass-through kitchen and a 19-foot-long living/dining room with a balcony.

Apartment 3D is a one-bedroom unit with an 18-foot-long living/dining room with an open, corner kitchen and a balcony.

Apartment 5 on the 4^th and 5^th floors is a one-bedroom unit with a 14-foot-long living/dining room with a balcony and an open kitchen.

Apartment 2C is a studio unit with a 14-foot-long living/dining room with an open corner kitchen.