110 Livingston News & Blog

The Belltel Lofts building at 365 Bridge Street is a designated landmark and one of Downtown Brooklyn’s architectural jewels–it was built by renowned architect Ralph Walker, a pioneer in Art Deco skyscraper design whose other works including the imposing Barclay-Vesey Building and the elegant One Wall Street. The tower first served as the headquarters for operations of the New York Telephone Co. on Long Island. The building has been converted from office space for Verizon into luxury residential condominiums, which are currently on sale.

A tipster sent us the below shots of some of the details inside Belltel Lofts–many of the original fixtures appear still untouched.

It remains to be seen what the final plans are for the lobby–hopefully most of this character can be preserved. More photos (including the cool retro “cloak room” door) after the jump. Any Belltel residents out there know more about the plans for this space?

Update: after we originally posted this on March 16 the Times did a Streetscapes feature on Belltel and its neighbor–the landmark NY telephone building at 81 Willoughby (which we’ve had on our to-write-about list for a while). The Times calls Belltel “a mesmerizing tower with facted planes of orange brick.” Inspired by that sentiment we added the above photo and a few more shots of the building’s interior metalwork–see them after the jump.

• Belltel Lofts blog
• Belltel Lofts (developer’s site)

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You want it, you got it. News this morning that a Hampton Inn is planned for Downtown Brooklyn at Flatbush and Tillary streets, adding yet another option for staying in the area (in the future). It will likely be around 10 stories, up to 140 rooms, and will replace the Pepper & Potter car dealership which has been there since 1946.

Above, the top floors of the modern and slick Karl Fischer-designed hotel planned for 237 Duffield Street. Nice. Across the street from there of course is the Sheraton/Aloft currently under construction. They keep on coming.

• Downtown Brooklyn Gets Yet Another Hotel (Belltel Lofts)

Great news out of City Planning for spring — new zoning regulations require a street tree every 25 feet for new developments.

What about places which need trees but are already developed? Just fill out a tree request form from the Parks Department — they will plant it based on your suggestion.

• Request a Street Tree (Parks Dept.)
  
• Street Tree Planting Text Amendment (City Planning)

Photo courtesy MaO

• Sundance at BAM (General Greene)
• Bike Rack Design Competition (Bklyn Ramblings)
• DUMBO video art on Manhattan Bridge (Dumbo NYC)
• Downtown Brooklyn architecture getting a modern addition on Flatbush (Brownstoner)
• A good sign at Regio bakery (Lost City)

Our new gov supports it, but the City Council is still split on congestion pricing, and many Brooklyn pols haven’t made up their minds yet. What to do while the debate rages on? Streetsblog suggests letter-writing to your elected official to get your voice heard. Brooklyn residents want to implement a parking permit system in neighborhoods around the bridges to prevent these areas from becoming de facto commuter parking lots.

As the summer approaches, you can also sign up for air quality action alerts from Clean Air NY–a cool idea so you get an email when there’s an air quality advisory, like ozone, and you know not to go for a run by the highway. Still want more to do? Green Brooklyn has more information and petitions you can sign to support congestion pricing.

• Clean Air NY Air Quality Action Alert Signup
  
• Congestion Pricing (Transportation Alternatives)

Brooklyn judges are using portions of Columbus Park as a personal parking lot, according to local groups and the Brooklyn Paper (and the photo above). If that sounds odd, just wait. The Parks Department is planning on taking away some of their spaces, and what is the judges’ response? They’re planning on suing the city for the right to park, in a park, according to the paper. Who will serve as the judge on the case? Unclear.

Apparently there is a parking lot for the judges that isn’t a public park, but it’s two blocks away. Transportation Alternatives staged a protest yesterday which produced a couple striking photos. One to watch.

• Parks Dept. info on Columbus Park
• Bklyn Papers coverage: Judges fighting for free parking, Judges Out of Line

Photo courtesy Streetsblog