Work at 360 Smith Starts with a Boo Boo

One gets the feeling that very little is going to happen at the 360 Smith development that will not be noticed. Over the weekend, we got an email that said “Work went on at 360 without the MTA knowing. The arrangement is that the MTA is ALWAYS supposed to know when work happens at 360.” The development, which recently got building permits as well as an updated design, adjoins the Carroll Street subway station and the tunnels that carry the F and G lines. The details, as we got them, are that the developer has arranged for someone from the MTA to be on the site when work is being done, until the foundation (and the possibility of damaging the station or tunnel) is completed. “That person was not informed this week when work was being done on the site,” our neighborhood source reports. “Some MTA workers saw the work and called someone at the MTA. Someone was sent out to inspect the job and, as far as I know, the work was stopped.” Given that people in the neighborhood are watching the development closely, work at the former Heavy Metal Building site is likely to be interesting.

UPDATE: Council Member Bill de Blasio‘s District Director Tom Gray contradicts the report from residents, emailing to say, “The developer was just doing a test pit for his project. MTA had appropriate supervision there to observe.”

The Jake Walk: Interesting Name on Smith Street

This is the Smith Street bar that used to be called Quench. It is coming back to life as “The Jake Walk,” from the owners of Stinky and Smith & Vine. Its transition was noted yesterday by Brownstoner along with the coming Clover Club next to Rocket Ship. Our Carroll Gardens Correspondent came upon the sign and sent along these photos, writing:

The people who own the cheese shop with the unfortunate name of Stinky and the wine store with the equally silly name of Smith & Vine have taken over the the painted blue brick corner bar, Quench. Three’s a charm with names. The Jake Walk has been painted pale yellow and windows have been punched out of the side and a wood paneled door installed. An improvement over the slinky meat market style of Quench.

As it turns out, “The Jake Walk” is a name with a rather macabre history, referring to people who were poisoned by bootleg alcohol and left with physical disabilities. Jake was a Jamaican ginger extract with high alcohol content that was used to skirt laws banning alcohol. In 1930, manufacturers decided to add an industrial chemical to dilute Jake that turned out to be highly toxic. Victims were partly paralyzed and the resulting walk was known as “the Jake Walk.” Here’s a bit we found online about it, although we had no idea when we went looking:

Jake is actually Jamacian ginger extract, marketed and sold as a medicinal tonic for any number of ills. It was available in the United States since about the time of the Civil War, and Americans quickly realized that the nearly 70% alcohol content made “the jake” a way to skirt local or federal laws banning the consumption of liquor…Jake sold between 1920 and 1930 caused no health problems. In the spring of 1930, however, the manufacturers of jake decided to add a new ingredient, an industrial chemical called tri-ortho-cresyl phosphate.

The new ingredient was added to help adulter, or water down, the jake. It was tasteless, soluble with alcohol, and cheap. It also turned out to be highly toxic, particularly to the spinal cord…It is estimated that some 50,000 people were crippled with partial paralysis, mostly in their legs, as a result of drinking “jake”. In some cases the paralysis proved to be temporary, but nearly all victims were forced to walk with in high-stepping, foot-slapping style that quickly became known as the “jake walk” or the “jake leg”

There are many songs about the Jake Walk Blues. So, that’s the story behind the name on Smith Street. Cheery.

Return to the Democracy Wall: Artist Puts Up New Message During Asbestos Scare

The Carroll Gardens community activist message board we nicknamed the Democracy Wall acquired some new artwork on Saturday night about the 360 Smith Street development, work on which will likely be starting soon, given that building permits were issued on February 22. The artist named Art Dog, who has created the big murals, said the asbestos removal that was going on this weekend in the Carroll Street station could not stop the art: “A little asbestos never hurt anyone did it? I think the wind blew it down the street.”

Controversial 360 Smith Street Building Gets the Green Light

Permits were issued on Friday for the controversial Carroll Gardens condo that will be going up at 360 Smith Street. Documents on the Department of Buildings website, to which GL was directed by a neighborhood source, show an okay for a seven-story, 70-foot-tall structure with 44 units with a total of 65,203 square feet. The architect of record on all the documents is Robert Scarano, although developer Billy Stein revealed that Mr. Scarano has been replaced by Armand Quadrini, who produced the latest renderings of what we originally called the Heavy Metal Building last May after Mr. Scarano’s original design. The 360 Smith building was one of the major factors behind the founding of the CORD group and the push to downzone Carroll Gardens to prevent new development of similar density. The 360 Smith building is being developed “as of right,” meaning that it is permitted by current zoning. The DOB’s website shows that five separate permits were issued on Friday. Some core sampling and other work had already taken place on the site.

New Look 360 Smith Continues Making an Impression

The redesign of 360 Smith Street unveiled last week at a Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association meeting by the developer, Billy Stein, continues to elicit reaction from residents. The CORD group, which was formed after original renderings or the Robert Scarano-designed “Heavy Metal” building were posted last May, offered up a photoshopped view of Second Place as it might look with the new building as well as a rendering that included blue sky in order to make the building stand out more. Of the view from Second Place, CORD writes on its blog: “It is clear how large the mass is from the surrounding architecture…second place and smith street are dwarfed by this bulk.”

Scarano Booted from Heavy Metal Job on Smith Street

The big news to come out of developer Billy Stein’s appearance at the Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association meeting last night wasn’t even fresh: architect Robert Scarano has been off the job at 360 Smith Street since December. Mr. Scarano, who had designed the early versions of the 360 Smith Street structure that we named the Heavy Metal Building, had become a lightening rod for criticism of the building. He has been replaced by Armand S. Quadrini of KSQ Architects, who also replaced Mr. Scarano on a job at Carroll Street and Fourth Avenue in Park Slope. The working name of the project, which will still rise to 70 feet, is Oliver House. According to a GL Correspondent, Mr. Stein told a large group that included a significant number of reporters, that the change had been a costly one to make. (Mr. Scarano had produced a number of versions of the design for the building as recently as the fall.)

Local blogger Pardon Me for Asking wrote of the new design, which includes a glass tower at the entrance to the Carroll Street subway station that:

last night’s meeting actually felt like the community was speaking with one voice. And this is what we all seemed to agree on: Mr. Stein’s redesigned building for 360 Smith Street looks better, much better. But there is quite a lot of room for improvement.

One resident we spoke with said that “the proportions are mega sized for these narrow streets” and called it “a monster-sized facade on Smith Street.” Elements of the building would actually rise higher than 70 feet with mechanical equipment on the roof. (One architect estimated up to 85 feet.) A building of that height is allowed under current zoning because of an arcane definition of some very narrow streets as being “wide.” Construction is slated to start very soon, both to avoid any zoning changes that might occur and to allow the building to qualify for a 421-a tax abatement before changes in that program take place in June.

Upcoming: Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association Meeting

The Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association is having its monthly meeting tonight (2/11). 360 Smith developer Billy Stein is expected to be there and, presumably, will offer updated renderings of the structure that we once nicknamed the Heavy Metal Building. The meeting will run from 7:30PM-9:00PM. Anyone that’s been should know that the meetings are no longer at the Scotto Funeral Home, depriving attendees of the unique pleasure of walking into a wake by accident rather than the CGNA meeting. (Yes, we did this once and, yes, it was an odd feeling.) The new location is the St Mary’s Residence, which is located at 41 First Street (between Hoyt and Bond). Other topics including a Carroll Gardens downzoning and expansion of the tiny local landmark district will be discussed.

Latest 360 Smith Street Development: Boring

We started getting emails yesterday afternoon about boring machines drilling test holes at the future site of the controversial 360 Smith Street building in Carroll Gardens. It would indicate that the project is getting closer to getting underway. Speaking of which, we understand that 360 Smith developer Billy Stein will be appearing at the Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association meeting on Monday (2/11) at 7:30 PM. The meeting will take place at St. Mary Star of the Sea Residence at 41 First Street, between Hoyt and Bond Streets, which is a new location. “Should be interesting,” in the words of one of our Carroll Gardens sources. The last time Mr. Stein appeared at a CGNA meeting he fielded many questions from residents about the building he is planning to develop and showed updated renderings, but declined to allow them to be photographed.

Another Message Near the Carroll Gardens Democracy Wall

We got an email with a photo off the latest art work posted in Carroll Gardens about the development at 360 Smith Street. This one isn’t posted on the Democracy Wall, but rather, is nearby because it’s aimed at parents of the Hannah School. “I wonder how much the parents are of about the coming project?” our emails says. “The school just opened last fall and many people are probably still ‘settling,’ but the children all play outdoors within feet of what will be a very active construction site for many, many months.”

Upcoming: "New Voices on the Gowanus"

Here’s a reminder about the forum taking place tonight (2/4) about Public Place that will feature professors and students from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Civil Engineering and Architecture that have been looking at the Public Place site. It’s called New Voices on the Gowanus: Focus on the Public Place. It takes place at 6:30PM at the PS 58 Auditorium, which is located at 330 Smith Street (entrance on Carroll Street). We posted about it a couple of weeks ago, but here’s a refresher:

Hear new voices and up to now missing points of view “that of academic and scientific scholars,” the Professors and students from Columbia University Graduate Schools of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Planning & Preservation who have been studying our Gowanus for over two years have just published a book (147 pages in full color) with their complete research, findings, theories, ideas and recommendations.

Public Place is the gravely polluted site between Smith Street and the Gowanus Canal that has attracted proposals from five developers.