Bayard Street fronting on McCarren Park in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn is one of the city's most remarkable real estate development stories in recent years.

Four different parcels have been built with four completely different architectural styles. Three of them were designed by Karl Fischer, who has become one of the most prolific architects active in Brooklyn, for developer Issac Hager.

The fourth building and probably the most interesting for its very bold but rather bizarre design is known as the Lotus and its address is 2 Bayard Street and it is also known as 610 Union Avenue. It was developed by 2 Bayard Holdings LLC and designed by Abraham Hertzberg of Hertzberg & Sanchez.

This dark blue-gray-brick, mid-block building at 30 Bayard Street is known as the Aurora. It has 40 residential condominium apartments. It was completed in 2007 when one of its apartments reportedly sold for $3.8 million, then a Brooklyn record.

The building's rear facade has no setbacks and much more glass as well as some balconies on the side that abuts the Ikon at 50 Bayard Street.

The 13-story building is setback at the seventh floor and unlike its 20 Bayard Street neighbor it has a symmetrical facade with numerous balconies on the setback tower including two on the 12th floor that are angled.

The building has a doorman, video security, a garage, a health club, and a roof deck.

Apartments have 9-foot-4-inch to 10-foot ceilings and Brazilian teak flooring.

It has open plan kitchens with SubZero refrigerators, Wolf gas franges, Jenn-Air dishwashers, frosted glass cabinetry and black granite countertops. Bathrooms have Blianco Statuario stone walls with white marble vanity, Toto toilets, European Crystal white quartzite floor and sunken Zuma bathtubs.

McCarren Park is bordered by Bayard, North 12th and Lorimer Streets and Nassau Avenue. It was originally called Greenpoint Park but was renamed in 1909 McCarren

Park after Patrick Henry McCarren (1847-1909), a former New York State Senator.

McCarren Park is a 35-acre public park in New York City, USA. It is located in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn, and is bordered by Nassau Avenue, Bayard Street, Lorimer Street and North 12th Street. It is operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.

The park is used for softball, volleyball, soccer, handball, and other games as well as running and sunbathing and dog-walking.

It has hosted craft fairs and rock concerts.

The McCarren Pool was the eighth of eleven giant pools built by the Works Progress Administration to open during the summer of 1936. With an original capacity for 6800 swimmers, the pool served as the summertime social hub for Greenpoint and Williamsburg. Wikipedia's entry for the park correctly observes that pool's "building's vast scale and dramatic arches, designed by Aymar Embury II, typify the generous and heroic spirit of New Deal architecture."

The pool, however, was closed in 1984. "The reuse and reconstruction of the pool remained a contentious community issue for many years, until the community came to a consensus plan in 2001. The community sought to reconstruct the facility to encompass a skate park, an indoor recreation/performance center, and a smaller pool that could be converted to a seasonal ice rink. The plan was estimated to cost $26 million and had a good chance of receiving public funding, but unfortunately, the budgetary constraints of the City post-9/11 shelved the plan and the pool remained abandoned for the next few years," according to the Wikipedia entry.

As part of the 2005 rezoning of Greenpoint and Williamsburg the City appropriated $1 million in capital budget funds for restoration of the pool as a performance space, and the next year the City Council allocated $300,000 to support the construction of a season rink.

In April, 2007, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that a $50 million reconstruction of the pool was being funded as part of the City's PlaNYC long-term planning initiative. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission approved of the pool's renovation plan on September 9, 2008. Final design renderings were completed in February 2009, and renovation work began in December 2009.