A Little Brompton Envy, Maybe?
Much has been made of various white-brickers recently, with talk of potential landmark designation in at least a couple of cases. However, I still find the white brick genre thoroughly uninspired and downright hideous. The problem is that they are usually built in a plain box shape with a few recessed terraced layers at the top -- snooze! And white doesn't work in New York! All of these buildings eventually turn into dirty-looking soot-samplers.
With that in mind, I was delighted to see on a recent stroll around the 'hood that 201 East 84th Street, a 19-story co-op on the corner of Third, has decided to go from dirty white/grey/soot brick to a much more desirable red brick. Sure, this move may have been inspired by Robert A.M. Stern's modern condo masterpiece, The Brompton, in their faces a few blocks away, and there may have been just the slightest touch of envy involved, but I do applaud the owners of 200 East 84th for going from blight to right.
There is another building at 71st and 3rd doing the same thing. I think the red brick is much nicer and it will be great for the area. The east 80's has enough ugly white brick buildings!
ReplyDeleteForget the white brick, I am just glad that building got a humongous Duane Reade. I was so sick of having to walk 2 blocks to another larger one. Now if there was just a bank in that building......
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