68 Richardson Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 68 Richardson Street by Carter Horsley

This 7-story, rental apartment building at 68 Richardson street between Lorimer and Leonard streets in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn was built originally in 1920 and recently enlarged.

The mid-block building has 25 apartments.

It was acquired in 2014 by the Kalikow Group, Massey Knakal and River Oak Investment Corp. from Dabby Investments for $17.5 million.

Charles Diehl was the architect for the enlargement.

Bottom Line

After a lot of surgery, this mid-block building is alive and “kicking” with a wild mélange of building parts and colors.  

Description

One end of the building has a three-story, tan brick base with a stoop entrance and dark stringcourses and arched windows on most of the highest floor. 

The other end of the building has a four-story, bright orange brick base with a stoop entrance and dark stirngcourses but instead of arched windows on most of the top floor it has protruding piers descending almost fully downwards between windows on its fourth floor whose top is bright pink.

These two sections are joined by a center section only two windows wide and painted light blue beneath a slightly broader dark stringcourse and partially obscured by long center fire-escapes that extend across a window into each side but also rise to the sixth floor reduced in width considerably.  The building’s top is painted the same light blue as the narrow “joining” in the middle but its top level is setback on both sides the center section.

It’s not an unbalanced composition and it certainly is distinctive and energetic, all anchored by the bottom dark half-story base with its almost double-height glass entrance.  One could say, perhaps, that this is a full-on, full-dress downplaying of the fire-escapes - If you can’t cover them up, blind them with bright pink, remembering the "Think Pink!" battle-cry of Kay Thompson in the Audrey Hepburn/Fred Astaire movie, “Funny Face,” which seems apropos given this building’s wild and crazy presentation.

Amenities

The building has a courtyard and a roof deck.

Apartments

Some of the units have red-brick walls and sprinkler piping.

Apartment 101 is a four-bedroom duplex with a stoop entrance on the ground floor opening into the 15-foot-long living room that leads to a 14-foot-wide open kitchen with an island.

Apartment 102 is a two-bedroom unit with a three-step entry into the 14-foot-long dinette that leads to a 10-foot-long open kitchen and the 22-foot-long living room and one of the bedrooms. And stairs down to 1 17-foot-long accessory storage page and the second bedroom.

Apartment 401 is a three-bedroom unit with an entry foyer next to a 13-foot-long, open, pass-through kitchen and a 17-foot-long living/dining room.

Apartment 602 is a two-bedroom unit with an entry foyer that leads past an 11-foot-long pass-through and skylit kitchen to a 16-footlong living/dining room that has a 16-foot-long terrace also accessed by one of the bedrooms.