Schermerhorn (in Boerum Hill, BK)
The Schermerhorn Condo project was purchased in distress as a pre-package zoning envelope. The team’s strong desire to connect the building to Brooklyn and its craft movement leads them to pursue handmade brick as construction material. Budget constraints ultimately make using handmade bricks impossible, but the designers are set on creating something other than the cookie-cutter brick box, ubiquitous throughout Brooklyn. Machine-made brick is eventually employed but with an innovative installation, inspired by classic bricklaying techniques in which batched stacks of bricks are varied across different brick styles. The façade then takes on a handmade quality which, combined with irregular pattern of window organization, creates a more organic theme. In keeping with the Brooklyn craft movement, heavy reclaimed timber, evocative of the loft beam structures, is used to create privacy screening at the balconies, and a single, suspended plate of steel, honed black granite acts as the entry canopy.
The Schermerhorn Condominium is located at 319 Schermerhorn Street in Brooklyn, NY and contains 65 units. The building is 220’ in height with a lot width and length of 49’11” and 96’ 0” respectively. The interior measures 66,505 square feet, with 10,654 square feet committed to communal space and 55,851 square feet committed to residential space. One bedroom apartments average 650 square feet. Two bedrooms average 845 square feet. Three bedrooms average 1,195 square feet. The penthouse averages 1,553 square feet.