174 Pacific Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 174 Pacific Street by Carter Horsley

This distinguished, 6-story building 174 Pacific Street between Clinton and Court Streets in the Cobble Hill Historic District in Brooklyn was erected as P.S. 78 in 1892 and was converted to 26 co-operative apartments in 1984 by the Arker Company of which Allan Arker, Sol Arker and Michael Rosenberg are partners. 

The Victorian Style building contains many interesting apartment layouts. 

An article by Shawn G. Kennedy in 1984 in The New York Times noted that "until the early 1970s, the four-story, red-brick building...served as P. S. 78," adding that "then, until 1981, it was a yeshiva for girls."

Bottom Line

A Cobble Hill landmark, this building was converted to 26 co-operative apartments, many with rather exotic and handsome layouts, 14-foot-high ceilings and wood-burning fireplaces and a highly articulated main façade.

Description

The  Cobble Hill Historic Designation report noted that "dominating the street in height and picturesque mass is Louis Hirsch Memorial Jewish Education Center (Nos. 174-182)." 

"Built in 1888-1892 as Public School No. 78, it is an interesting example of municipal architecture in the early Victorian style.  Its high...bulk is surmounted by an elaborate roof cornice of formal balanced design, with gables and central tower in bold profile against the sky.  The projecting entrance tower rises above the roof cornice and is crowned by a truncated slate roof." 

The building has a fence along Pacific Street with a three-step-up entrance at the base of the projecting center pier that has rustication on the second floor above the portico that is engraved with "P.S. 78," and an incised vertical line on either side of the windows  The top of this pier has a pyramidal and corbelled cornice while the rest of the cornice has low curved. 

The building has multi-paned fenestration and strong stone window accents, some curved in the center pier. 

The second-floor has arched windows. 

Amenities

Wood-burning fireplaces, a bicycle room, intercom, an elevator, central air-conditioning, and each apartment has a parking space in the adjacent lot. The building is pet-friendly.

Apartments

Apartment 4A is a triplex unit with an 10-foot-square entry foyer with an open kitchen and 3 steps up to a 22-foot-long living room with a wood-burning fireplace and three skylights and two-steps up to the small with the bedrooms.  The entry foyer also leads to a 18-foot-long dining room with a staircase to 10-foot-square loft space with one window that also has a staircase to a second 10-foot-square loft space with two windows. 

Apartment 1C is a triplex with a 20-foot-wide living/dining room with a wood-burning fireplace and an open kitchen with stairs up to a 20-foot-long loft and down to the garden level with two bedrooms and an 8-foot-wide study. 

Apartment G1 is a two-bedroom unit with a small entry foyer that leads up two steps to a small landing that leads up four steps to a 20-foot-long living room and an enclosed 11-foot-long kitchen  and a 17-foot-wide garden that leads down four steps to a 20-foot-long parking space.  The entry foyer also leads down three steps to the 17-foot-long second bedroom that has three windows. 

Apartment G2 is a two-bedroom unit with a small entry foyer that leads to one bedroom and also down three steps to the 21-foot-wide living/dining room with a wood-burning fireplace and an open kitchen. 

Apartment 3F is a two-bedroom unit with a 7-foot-wide entry foyer that leads to a 21-foot-long living/dining room with a 13-foot-wide open kitchen with a breakfast bar and a staircase to a loft bedroom. 

Apartment 4B is a two-bedroom unit with an entry into a 13-foot-long angled dining area adjacent to a 11-foot-long kitchen with three steps up into a 19-foot-long living room with three skylights and an angled wood-burning fireplace and three steps into the bedroom area where each bedroom is 16-feet-long and has two skylights and jutting exposed girders. 

Apartment 4C is a two-room loft unit with a 17-foot-long living room with a fireplace and a skylight and three stairs up to an 11-foot-long "upper living room" with a skylight.  The lower level has an enclosed kitchenette.