Major changes are in store for the banks of the Gowanus. An eco-friendly Whole Foods and two hefty rental buildings are just the tip of the neighborhood’s contaminated iceberg. Navigating through the echelons of city government is a sweeping rezoning that will allow greater density, permit housing development, improve infrastructure, and grow the neighborhood’s economic and cultural resources.
One property owner is not waiting for the rezoning to act, however. In 2015, Tribeca-based pediatrician Michel Cohen filed an application to build a seven-floor manufacturing building at 454 Carroll Street. The vacant site is just 450 feet east of the canal and behind the former Brooklyn Rapid Transit powerhouse, affectionately known as the Bat Cave. Curbed reported in 2013 that Cohen controls a "mini-fiefdom" along Carroll Street and completed a charming modern renovation of a townhouse across the street at 463. In 2011, Cohen told New York Magazine the street reminds him of the Tribeca he knew twenty years ago—“like a little village.”
Rehabbed row of townhouses across from 454 Carroll, Cohen's 463 centered (CityRealty)
View to Downtown Brooklyn fro the Carroll Street Bridge
Up-and-coming Brooklyn design firm OPerA Studio are listed as the architects and the first renderings of the scheme have surfaced on their website. OPerA explains the building will be initially built for mixed-use light manufacturing but it is designed to be converted to residential use after the Gowanus area zoning change.
(Opera Studio)
(Opera Studio)
Renderings and diagrams show high design aspirations are in the works which include sun-shading mechanisms, a wood veneer façade, and LED lights inserted along the lot line wall. Annotations suggest that the client, presumably Cohen, will occupy the building’s penthouse which will enjoy clear views of the city.
Building permits have still not been approved and new applications submitted in September have also been turned down. The Department of City Planning aims to release a detailed planning framework for Gowanus’ rezoning in early 2018. Perhaps the team will just wait until then.
454 Carroll Street (Opera Studio)
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