20 Bayard Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 20 Bayard Street by Carter Horsley

This prominent, 17-story, 64-unit building at 20 Bayard Street is the tallest on a block fronting on an edge of McCarren Park in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn and it has the most impressive entrance with a “grand double staircase."

It was one of three buildings on the block designed by Karl Fischer for developer Issac Hager.

Andres Escobar & Associates was in charge of interior design for the building that is also known as 17 and 27-35 Richardson Street.

Bottom Line

This impressive residential condominium tower with a dramatic entrance overlooks McCarren Park, whose large pool reopened in 2012.

Description

The red-brick building has some setbacks and some curved balconies and double-height angled windows on the top floor.

It also has many large bay windows at the sides of its frontage on Bayard Street and a very dramatic, multi-step-up entrance.

The mid-block building's façade is symmetrical except for a large curved window in its center near the top of the building.

Amenities

The building has a doorman, a fitness center, a garage, a children's playroom, a roof deck, a pet spa, a garden and cold storage.

Apartments

Apartments have maple plank floors, 9-foot-5-inch ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows and kitchens have Sub-Zero refrigerators.

 Apartment 14E is a one-bedroom unit with an entrance foyer adjacent to the 7-foot-long home office alcove and a 160-foot-long living/dining room with an open 9-foot-long kitchen with an island.  The apartment also has a curved, 38-square-foot balcony.

Apartment 15A has an 11-foot-long entrance foyer that opens onto a 16-foot-long living room and a 9-foot-long dining area with an open 9-foot-long kitchen.  The three-bedroom unit has a very large terrace and a small curved balcony. 

Apartment 15B has a 19-foot-long entrance foyer that leads to a 15-foot-long living room and a 9-foot-long dining area that share a curved window wall with an entrance to a 410-square-foot terrace that faces north over McCarren Park.  The three-bedroom unit also has a curved 70-square-foot balcony in the master bedroom. 

Penthouse A is a duplex unit that has a 16-foot-long living room and a double-height, 21-foot-long dining room flanking a 15-foot-long open kitchen with two bedrooms on the upper level.  The lower level has a 16-foot-long master bedroom and two large terraces.

Location

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 6,800 swimmers, the pool served as the summertime social hub for Greenpoint and Williamsburg.

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.