The Brooklyn Trust Company Building, 138 Pierrepont Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 138 Pierrepont Street by Carter Horsley

The Brooklyn Trust Company Building at 177 Montague Street at Clinton Street in Brooklyn Heights is one of the handsomest pre-war buildings in Brooklyn and its top floors were converted in 2015 to 12 residential condominiums.

Its great banking spaces in the base of the building are now used by the Chase Bank.

The Beaux Arts-style building was erected in 1916 and modeled after the Palazzo della Gran Guardia in Verona, Italy, by York & Sawyer, whose other major commissions in New York City include the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in Lower Manhattan and the Apple Bank Building on Broadway between 73^rd and 74^th Streets.

The building is an official city landmark.

The Stahl Organization, which converted the Apple Bank building in 2006, is converting the building and Barry Rice is the architect for the residential conversion.

Bottom Line

When the Medicis decide to encamp in Brooklyn, this is where they’ll be found banking, if not residing.

Description

The building has a rusticated limestone base with high arched windows.

The former offices above the banking hall have two floors of windows separated by two-story Corinthian limestone columns.

The building’s top floor has no windows but has operable skylights and steel trusses from which the lower floors are suspended.

The great banking hall was modeled on the tepidarium of the Baths of Caracalla whose central hall also served as the model for the concourse of the demolished Pennsylvania Station in midtown Manhattan.

This building is adjacent to another, smaller bank building, mid-block on Montague Street, that the Brooklyn Heights Blog reported on October 9, 2014 was being bought by Jonathan Rose Companies.

Amenities

The building has a lounge, a music room, a fitness center, two playrooms and a roof terrace with a barbecue grill.  The bank vault will house a bicycle and stroller room and a dog spa.

Apartments

Three of the four duplexes have a stair ladder in a secondary bedroom that leads to loft space.

Apartments will range from two-bedrooms to five-bedrooms.