The Standish, 171 Columbia Heights: Review and Ratings

Review of 171 Columbia Heights by Carter Horsley

This very handsome, Beaux Arts-style, 12-story building at 171 Columbia Heights between Clark and Pierrepont Streets in Brooklyn Heights was erected in 1903 as the Standish Arms Hotel with 122 rooms. It was originally designed by Frank S. Lowe.

It was acquired in 1981 by Jehovah’s Witnesses who sold it for $50 million in 2007 to Taurus Investment Holdings, who converted it into 90 rental apartments.

In 2015, it was acquired for $60 million by DDG and Westbrook Partners who are planning to convert it into 29 condominium apartments by 2017.  It is the first conversion project for DDG, which is headed by Joseph A. McMillan Jr., and its first outside Manhattan where it recently gained fame for its elegant use of blue-gray bricks at 41 Bond Street.

Bottom Line

A very impressive renovation of one of Brooklyn’s most stately mid-rise buildings, this conversion will replace 122 original hotel rooms with only 29 apartments.

Description

This building has a very elegant, symmetrical façade with a one-story rusticated limestone base with architect windows beneath three dark bay-window piers and two cornices, both supported by brackets, and a crenellated roofline.  The bottom of the piers have balustraded balconies.

The building has a five-step-up entrance beneath a marquee.

According to a September 4, 2016 article in The New York Times by Kaya Laterman, “the building has a brick façade that will be stripped and recoated to mimic its original ivory hue…as will the marble fire staircase with cast-iron railings near the middle of the building.”

Amenities

The building will have 24-hour doorman and concierge services, a rooftop terrace, a fitness center, a children’s playroom, storage and a bicycle room.

Apartments

In the renovation, apartments will range from one to five bedrooms and will have wide-plank Austrian white oak floors.

Kitchen cabinetry is Shaker-style and the kitchens will have Bertrazzoni-Italia and Bosch appliances.

Bathrooms have rain-showers and Fahtini brass fixtures.

Apartment 1206 is a one-bedroom unit with a long entry foyer that leads to a living room with a bay window and an enclosed kitchen.

Apartment 403 is a one-bedroom unit with an entry foyer that leads to a living room with an open kitchen and a bay window.

A maisonette duplex unit with a yard will have 12-foot ceilings.

Apartment 101 is a studio unit with an open kitchen.

History

“According to a June 1903 article in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle,” the Times article noted, “Eliza Matilda Chandler was the owner of the land that was bundled and sole for about $75,000 to the company that built the Standish Arms Hotel.  She was known as Mrs. S. V. White, the wife of Stephen Van Culen White, a former congressman and a prominent Wall Street broker; she was also a descendant of Myles Standish, an English officer who came over on the Mayflower and served as a military adviser to the Pilgrims.”

“The building has an impressive fictional history, too.  Comic book fans may remember Clark Kent living in apartment 5H at the Standish Arms Hotel in Metropolis, while those of Arthur Miller, might recognize it as the name of the hotel where Willy Loman, the central character in “Death of a Salesman,” has an affair,” the article continued.