Waterfront Renovation

History Stays Alive on the Williamsburg Waterfront

By Alex Padalka

It is likely that few of the hip denizens of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, attending loft parties inside the cruise ship-like hulk of 184 Kent Ave. – a.k.a. the Austin Nichols Warehouse – ever realized that they were walking through history. It wasn’t until building’s DIY tenants started getting evicted in 2005 that the block-wide and avenue-deep (179 by 400 ft) six-story warehouse, constructed between 1912-1915 by Turner Construction, was even deemed a historic. That designation was thanks mostly to the fact that the warehouse was one of three in New York City designed by Cass Gilbert—the Minnesotan architect behind Manhattan’s Woolworth building, the U.S. Customs House at 1 Bowling Green and 90 West Street, the Lower Manhattan mid-rise that was severely damaged during the attacks of Sept.

Originally a six-story, rectangular warehouse at 184 Kent Ave. in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 500 tons of concrete was removed from the center of the existing structure to create a 21,000 sq ft courtyard. (Photo courtesy of MHDevelopment).

In 2005, with the Williamsburg-Greenpoint rezoning fast approaching, the prominent Kestenbaum family, then the owners of the building, applied for variance changes on the site to convert it to luxury condominiums, including multi-story tower additions on the building’s roof. A high-profile landmarking battle involving local elected officials, community organizations and the mayor’s office ensued to prevent the additions or modifications. Eventually, JMH Development of New York took over the building, and the new owners’ take on the former grocery warehouse was different.

“As plans for the nearby buildings were developing, they were all condos,” says Jay Jameson, president of JMH Development and the project executive on 184 Kent. Twenty-plus-story condo towers such as the Edge, Schaefer Landing and the Toll Brothers’ Northside Piers are 184 Kent’s waterfront neighbors, and concerns about a housing bubble already started to emerge. “It became apparent to ownership that economically, and because there was so much competition, it might not be the best move [to go condo]. And we decided to go historic.”

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Powers and Co. of Philadelphia were quickly brought on to guide the project through the state and federal agencies to designate the building as a historic landmark--which provided tax incentives for the developer--and the process that normally takes a year was completed in eight months, according to Jameson, although it was not an easy task.

“I have experience—I was the project executive on the Plaza Hotel [historical restoration],” he says, “I know the process, but it was extremely difficult.”

Construction started in August 2007. The reinforced-concrete building is now being converted into 363 rental units with 11-ft ceilings, a 200-car above-ground parking garage, with possible spaces reserved for ZipCar service and a local car company for dedicated private car service, and 18,000 sq ft of retail space—aimed, according to Jameson, not at the standard big-box stores but rather at something more in tune with the neighborhood, such as organic food chains Garden of Eden and Trader Joe’s. An arcade open to the public will run on the west side of the building, providing limited-hours access to the waterfront. And while the swimming pool from the original plans has been scrapped, the tenants will have a 12,000-sq-ft amenity area, including game rooms, a large-screen viewing room, a library (Wi-Fi throughout all common spaces), and a health club spa complete with the first rock-climbing wall in Williamsburg—unfortunately for the local climbers, only open to residents. Each unit will come with washer and dryer, and each floor will have four additional common-use laundry rooms for those bigger loads.

The hole was created by saw-cutting the perimeter of the highest existing floor and knocking out the beams, knocking the surfaces down to the floor below. (Photo courtesy of JMH Development)

In place of 10-story towers, the roof will now only hold four one-story pods with four to 10 units each, with landscaped open space for all of the tenants. While that presented certain logistical dilemmas, the toughest part for Leviathan Construction, the project’s construction manager, was a far bigger job: cutting a football stadium-sized hole, according to Jameson, for a fully landscaped 20,000-sq-ft courtyard (complete with a waterfall) dropping down to the third floor.

“There were 500 tons of concrete taken out,” says Peter Axtens, project manager with Leviathan. “Twenty dumpsters a day.”

To remove the extra concrete, the team used cranes to place two bobcats and two mini-excavators on the roof, saw-cut the perimeter square foot by square foot, and broke the beams, until the roof was cut and they were dropped to the lower floor to repeat the process. It took three and a half months for demolition alone. Once the courtyard cutting was done, the entire team was split between four quadrants of the building, with an average of about 170 workers on site at a time, although the number will rise to 300 once the roof is in place, according to Axtens.

The flat, white-facaded, box-like design of the warehouse is not a typical Cass Gilbert building, and was a key issue for opponents of its historical designation. However, Robert Laudenschlager, a partner at New York’s SLCE Architects, the project’s architect of record, explains that “by virtue of its architectural history“ the team agreed to remain as true to the original designs as possible. Certain elements, such as the rail tracks running from Kent Ave. to the waterfront, had to be removed; due to zoning designation, the building will now have an arcade cutting into its west side to provide for a public walkway, accessible at certain hours; and the skylights on the top floors had to be replaced for structural reasons.

“Going to work on condos and then on rentals, it’s a challenge to build a marketable and efficient building, especially with the columns,” says Laudenschlager.

The team decided to leave the 13-ft-diameter columns in place as is, and restore them where they were damaged or missing (some areas of the building were open-plan), despite the additional challenge of building residential units around them and the valuable real estate they took up.

“What we found was how precise all these columns are. Understand that it was built in 1912, by hand,” says Axtens. “You have foundation being designed to an inch of the requirements of the loads.”

The entire facade of the building is being brought back to its original stark white glory. Goldstein Associates Consulting Engineers of New York were brought in to carefully assess the water damage.

The exterior facade is now completely restored and repainted, with new historically accurate windows installed. While the Domino Sugar factory conversion just up the street may take some of the spotlight in restoration along the waterfront, due to its prominence and a fought-over decision to keep the “Domino“ sign after all, 184 Kent stands as a quiet but massive reminder that all is not as it seems when developers start tearing up ancient buildings.

“It’s a building unique to Williamsburg,” Jameson says. “The owners took the preservation aspects of it very seriously—they’re not cutting corners.”

Just a hole.

PROJECT TEAM

Owner/Developer: JMH Development, New York
Architect of Record: SLCE Architects, New York
Preservation Architect: Walter B. Melvin Architects, New York
Interior Architect: Slade Architecture, New York
Structural Engineer: WSP Cantor Seinuk, New York
Construction Manager: Leviathan Construction Management Services, New York
Facade Restoration Engineer: Goldstein Associates Consulting Engineers, New York
Historical Consultant: Powers and Co., Philadelphia