133 Water Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 133 Water Street by Carter Horsley

This 12-story residential condominium building at 133 Water Street was completed in 2006 and is adjacent to the Brooklyn approach to the Manhattan Bridge in the Dumbo section of Brooklyn.

It contains 52 apartments and is also known as 26 Adams Street. It was planned as a condominium but switched to a rental in early 2007.

It was developed by Jack Guttman Partners and designed by Scarano & Associates Architects.

According to the architect's website, "this new building blends old with new, allowing both to be recognized and appreciated for what they are." The exterior has aluminum panels and textured manganese brick

Exterior surfaces reveal the varied nature of the interior layouts by using glass window wall systems on the upper level units, most of which have double height ceilings.

Turning the mass on a 45 degree angle to the street grid allowed for unique and varied vistas for many units and combined with its different façades gave the building a distinctly unusual appearance.

Triple glazing and acoustically super-insulated exterior walls mask the din of noise emanating from the adjacent Manhattan bridge roadway and transit lines.

With 5,000 square feet of retail and community space on the 1st floor and parking in the cellar, the residential portion on the floors above responds to the New York City Quality Housing Program, mandated by the local residential district.

The building has a garage, a roof deck, a fitness center and washer-dryer hookups. Many apartments have balconies or terraces. Its lobby has a curved wall and was designed by FXFowle Architects.

Designed by Scarano s Charles Diehl, the street frontage of the building will be composed of concrete.

The top eight floors are turned at an angle to align with the bridge.

"We paid close attention to the architectural styles of the area," points out Robert Scarano, the firm's founder and principal said in an September 21, 2004 article by Barbara Jarvie at globest.com.

"We didn't believe Manhattan-style modernism would be appropriate here, but rather a design that could celebrate the historic qualities of the neighborhood, while taking advantage of potentially remarkable vistas," Mr. Scarano, one of the most prolific architects in the city's history, continued.

The interiors have been designed by Andres Escobar.

The building is not only very close to the bridge but also to a nearby pre-war building that its triangular balconies almost seem to touch especially when the other building extended its chimney about five floors above its roof to mitigate a carbon monoxide issue that was bothering some of the residents in the building in early 2009.

Water Street Realty, of which Ron Hershko and Mike Resnick were principals, acquired the building in August 2006 for $17.3 million but filed for bankruptcy in February 2009 with listed debt of $30.4 million and assets of $20 million. .4 million and assets of $20 million.