Gallery

COOKFOX Architects, Rendering by Miha Brezavscek, Background Photo by Rob Cleary

At Pacific Park, our work is focused on transitions between scales in a dense urban environment. We are focused on a context based approach of how these two buildings meet the street and the park. The adjacent streetscape is a place of masonry, textures, light and shadow, and dappled sunlight across sidewalks. The direction of our design for 535 Carlton and 550 Vanderbilt is to translate bricks and mortar into a building that creates an extension of the vibrant surrounding neighborhood of Prospect Heights.

The two buildings at Carlton and at Vanderbilt are designed around a vision of weaving new development into the existing neighborhood with a restrained approach to its planning, massing, and height. Utilizing the opportunities provided by the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) Design Guidelines, the two building forms are articulated as a careful composition of masonry and well-proportioned windowed volumes that gradually setback from a 60’ high street wall on Dean Street. Through a series of terraces, the buildings create a transition from the sidewalk and pedestrian scale of Prospect Heights to appropriate “bookends” that frame the new public park and surrounding future buildings along Atlantic Avenue.

The design aesthetic for 535 Carlton and 550 Vanderbilt is a reflection of our pursuit of minimal, elegant detailing that will establish a high level of quality for all the buildings to be built around Pacific Park. The façade expression of both the condominium and affordable residential buildings celebrate the craft and workmanship of masonry construction, and evoke a sincere respect for the human scale, proportion, and texture that is characteristic of the neighborhood.

Utilizing masonry walls with distinct and varied window compositions, the detailing of the buildings incorporate depth and articulation of the façades to encourage light and shadow to play over their surfaces. On both buildings, we will incorporate articulated expressions of brick and masonry, screening elements with forms inspired by nature, and the warmth of wood details at moments where residents and neighbors will touch the buildings reflect the intimate and residential nature of their design.
Views to the public park and natural daylight are prioritized. On each floor, daylit elevator vestibules provide every single resident direct views of Pacific Park. At the street, residential entries are designed to be welcoming and connected to nature - providing open vistas through the lobbies and allowing visual connections from the street to the public space of the park beyond.

Incorporating ideas of biophilia and the related themes of health and wellness, significant landscaped space is planned to be distributed throughout the “fifth façade” of rooftops, terraces, and setbacks, on both buildings. The ability to have nature at multiple levels and multiple scales will provide people the opportunity to get their “hands in the dirt.” Urban agriculture and residential gardens are fundamental elements that we are incorporating as integral parts of the design—it is an important aspect that reflects how we see people living and interacting with their neighbors in the building. Landscaped terraces will provide residents with expansive vistas of Brooklyn, Prospect Park, and even the harbor beyond. Combined with the eight acres of park at ground level, the terraced massing allow for varied scales of nature and for physical and visual connections to the neighborhood beyond.