245 NORTH 5th STREET, Williamsburg

by Kevin Walsh

CRAZY from the heat, I ambled through Williamsburg on the 4th of July, 2022, and I was even more crazed when I got to Havemeyer and North 5th Streets. Yes, Best Pizza was closed for the holiday, but that wasn’t what infuriated me. It’s what I saw that developers had done to the former Church of the Annunciation school building on the corner…

This is what the school looked like when I walked Metropolitan Avenue back in 2015. While architect Francis J. Himpler, a German immigrant, designed the church itself, the parish house and school were dreamed up by A.J. Berlenbach, Jr. Berlenbach’s school building was one of my favorite buildings in Brooklyn if not NYC. The carven Latin inscription means “Roman Catholic School of the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.” It’s no longer the parish school; it became a community center and the Northside Neighborhood School and is now condo/rentals 245 North 5th Street.

However, in the title card you can see what has become of the place. Gone are the spires and the carved Latin. A foreboding looking bank of windows has been plopped at the roofline. Jeez, Louise.

David Salamon of Salamon Engineering Group is the applicant of record. They have worked on the Williamsburg Hotel at 96 Wythe Street in Williamsburg and a colorful “boutique” hotel located at 1107 DeKalb Avenue in Bed Stuy, as well as multiple projects in Manhattan. [Brownstoner]

Sick transit, Gloria!

As always, “comment…as you see fit.” I earn a small payment when you click on any ad on the site.

7/6/22

5 comments

Kaye Pearse July 7, 2022 - 9:52 am

Gad, that’s ugly. What a shame.

Reply
Richard S. July 7, 2022 - 2:17 pm

As usual, greed, stupidity and bad taste are the calling cards of real estate developers. Brooklyn is infected with these abominations.

Reply
Eric Costello July 7, 2022 - 5:54 pm

I wonder why the additional level. Penthouses?

Reply
chris July 9, 2022 - 1:43 pm

I bet the yups who live there now say to themselves”…and to think that this was all
once wasted on the working poor…”

Reply
Kenneth Buettner July 12, 2022 - 10:05 pm

There are ways of adding floors that compliment an existing structure. This is not one of them.

Reply

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