Gair 2, 25 Washington Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 25 Washington Street by Carter Horsley

Gair2 is a rental apartment building located just to the south of the Manhattan Bridge at 25 Washington Street in DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) and overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge Park.

The 8-story building was erected in 1901 by Robert Gair who had developed in 1879 a technique for the mass production of cardboard boxes and this was the second of nine buildings he would erect in DUMBO.  In 2007, the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously to create the DUMBO Historic District comprising 91 buildings bound by John Street to the north, York Street to the south, Main street to the west and Bridge Street to the east.

The commission found that the DUMBO district was “essential to Brooklyn’s rise as a major American industrial center and was he home of some of the most important industrial firms in the nineteenth and early twentieth Century America including Arbuckle Brothers (coffee and sugar), J. W. Masury & Son (paint,), Robert Gair (paper boxes), E. W. Bliss machinery), and Brillo (steel wool).”

This building was converted by Two Trees Management which is headed by David and Jed Walentas, in 1981 and contains 106 condominium apartments. 

The conversion was designed by WASA/Studio A- Wank Adams Slavin Associates L.L.P., and  added two black-metal-clad, setback stories to the building.

Bottom Line

With its waterfront park across the street with its staggering vista of Lower Manhattan framed by the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, this building has one of the world’s most dramatic locations.                                                                                                                    

Description

The red-brick building has rectangular windows with arched tops. 

It also has a moat with a simple cast-iron fence.

The entrance has two doors and the top two floors are setback and clad in dark metal.

To accommodate the city’s “light and air” requirements, three courtyards at the back of the building were created during the conversion.

Amenities

The building is three-tenths of a mile from the Fulton Ferry Landing, three-tenths of a mile from the A and C subway lines and half a mile from the 2 and 3 subway lines.

The building has a 2,500-square-foot roof deck, a live-in superintendent and it allows pets.

Apartments

The apartments and hallways have exposed wood beams and white oak floors.

Apartment A on floors 3 through 7 is a two-bedroom unit that has a 17-foot-long living/dining room with an open kitchen.

Apartment 4F is a one-bedroom unit with an entry foyer that leads into a 19-foot-long living/dining room with an open kitchen.

History

According to a March 14, 2004 “Streetscapes” column in The New York Times by Christopher Gray, “Around 1904, Gair met the engineers Deforest H. Dion and Henry C. Turner, who had just formed the Turner Construction Company and saw possibilities in the use of concrete.”

Gair eventually erected a network “of at least 10 structures or additions including a stable, a powerhouse and a pier all connected by a network of railway lines, underground tunnels and, at a later point, aerial bridges,” the article continued.