Brooklyn's Other Museum of Brooklyn (BOMB) invites you to a 2-day celebration for "the longevity of Admiral's Row."

Party at BOMB, 102 Steuben Street. BYOB; brownie taste-off (bring your best!); music by Terrible Eagle.

Saturday, March 29th, 7-11p and Sunday, March 30th, 2-6p

Show up, or email scott.witter@yahoo.com for further detail.

The Myrtle Avenue Revitalization Project was awarded $200,000 in the fourth round of New York Main Street (NYMS) program funding from the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR). This is the third time MARP has been awarded a NYMS contract, having been awarded $105,000 in 2005 for the first round of NYMS funding, and $195,000 in 2006 for the third round of funding. The NYMS program allocates funds to organizations working to improve historic commercial corridors in order for them to distribute matching incentive grants to owners of mixed-use buildings looking to restore their properties.

The NYMS Program is funded by the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) and its Housing Trust Fund Corporation (HTFC). The program aims to strengthen local economic development throughout New York State by rebuilding downtowns and main streets by providing matching grants for façade and interior building renovations, as well as streetscape enhancements such as improving lighting, landscaping, signage, street furniture.

To date, MARP has rehabilitated five building facades, with before and after photos viewable on our site's Program & Projects area. This work restored historic elements such as cornices, masonry, cast-iron details, doors, windows, storefronts, and brownstone. We also enhanced the streetscape by expanding 97 tree pits to make them all consistently sized 8 feet long by 5 feet wide, 40 square feet in size. Before the expansion, they were much smaller and inconsistently sized. The tree pit expansion project removed over 1600 square feet of concrete to give the trees more access air, water, and nutrients, and the tree pits were lined with Belgian blocks to give them an ornamented edge.

Having completed five building rehabilitations and streetscape enhancements from the first award, we are making significant progress toward rehabilitating Myrtle’s historic character. The additional funds from this fourth round of funding will allow us to continue providing financial resources to help property owners to renovate their buildings and restore historic detailing, thereby improving Myrtle Avenue's building stock, making it more beautiful and better for business.

As a result of the NYMS program, by the end of 2007 we will have brought about façade improvements to seven buildings and improved the street's tree pits, totaling over $230,000 in private and public investment.

The next façade rehabilitations that are just starting work are located at 413 and 478 Myrtle Avenue.

If you are a property owner of a mixed-use building on Myrtle Avenue between Flatbush and Classon and are interested in making restorations to your building, please contact us.

Come hear about the proposed expansion of the Clinton Hill Historic District at the Society for Clinton Hill monthly meeting this Thursday. All are welcome to attend to celebrate the recent contextual rezoning and 1) to get an update on the Atlantic Yards legal challenges and 2) to see a slide show and presentation by Andrew Dolkart on the proposed additions to the Clinton Hill Historic District.

All who attend will get a map of the proposed changes.

The meeting is taking place on Thursday, September 20 from 7-9 pm at St. Luke’s Parish House, 259 Washington Ave (DeKalb/Willoughby). To read more, go to the Society for Clinton Hill’s website.

When fixing up a historic building, it can be tricky knowing what the thing looked like 50-100 years ago, especially if it's been significantly altered. An historic photograph can help.

In the 1930s, the municipality of NYC took photos of all its buildings as a way to track properties for taxation. These photos were archived and are available for purchase at the Municipal Archives for $30. The building pictured here is 469 Myrtle (Washington/Hall), which is currently undergoing a rehabilitation with our support through the New York Main Street (NYMS) grant program.

We order these photos to help guide our facade improvements. Landlords really like them, too. Some are framed and on display in stores.

If you're thinking about making changes to your building, you may want to see your own building's historic photograph because it can reveal a detail that you previously didn't even know existed. Check it out.

Do you have a historic building that's been painted over? Restoring the original condition can reveal beautiful bricks, which is what we're doing at 469 Myrtle Avenue.

Wondering what the white paper on the facade is about? The product is called Peel Away 1, it's an environmentally-friendly paint removal product that's used for historic restoration projects.

Peel Away 1 allows for the paint to be kept damp. When the product is removed, the paint doesn't get all over the street; rather, it sticks to the paper for easy disposal.

You may have noticed the sidewalk bridge at 469 Myrtle Avenue (it was put up on Friday, June 22nd). The owners of the building have decided to undertake a facade rehabilitation. We're supporting this project with funding through the New York Main Street (NYMS) grant program, which provides us with resources to promote historic improvements on the avenue in order to maintain the rich building stock and to strengthen the economic vitality of traditional "Main Streets" throughout New York State.

Work will include the following:

Re-pointing
Rehabilitation of cornices
Restoration of cast-iron columns
Removing paint from bricks
New brownstone sills and lintels

The project should be complete in about a month. Once it's finished, we'll begin work on the storefront to expand the front part of the store and to give the building a consistent, fresh look.

On the ground floor is Move with Grace, an exciting place where you or your family can do yoga or take all kinds of dance lessons. Visit the website here.

Come experience the beauty and history of one of Brooklyn’s premier landmark neighborhoods this coming Sunday, May 6th, for the 30th Anniversary Clinton Hill House Tour. Stroll along the tree-lined streets to see a stunning variety of architectural styles and take advantage of the rare opportunity to see the interiors and private gardens of 12 beautifully restored houses and buildings.

A number of specials and discounts will be available from participating Myrtle Avenue merchants on the day of the tour as well. Check out the ads in the House Tour Guide that will be distributed at St. Luke's Church on the day of the tour for details.

PayPal Tickets for the house tour may be purchased by visiting The Society for Clinton Hill website.

Advance tickets are also for sale at the following locations:
Pillow Café, 505 Myrtle Avenue between Ryerson & Grand
Outpost Café, 1014 Fulton Street near Grand
Sister’s Hardware, 902 Fulton Street @ Washington Avenue
Tillie’s Coffee Bar, 248 DeKalb Avenue @ Vanderbilt Avenue
Yu Interiors, 15 Greene Avenue @ Cumberland Street

House Tour Details:
Sunday, May 6th, 12 noon – 5pm, rain or shine.
Advance Ticket sales — $20; Day of Tour ticket — $25
Tour starts at St. Luke’s Church, 259 Washington Avenue (between Lafayette and DeKalb Avenues) Directions by Subway:
A or C trains to Hoyt-Schermerhorn, then G train to Clinton/Washington; or C train to Washington/Clinton Stop.

From the Society for Clinton Hill:
Tucked cozily off downtown Brooklyn, residential Clinton Hill was built in the 19th century as the borough’s “gold Coast”. It is uniquely saturated with free-standing mansions erected by such distinguished and prominent industrialists of their time as the Pratts (oil), the Underwoods (typewriters), the Singers (sewing machines), and the Bristols and Pfizers (pharmaceuticals). The neighborhood’s architectural styles include Italianate brownstones, Neo-Georgian, Queen Anne, Romanesque and Greek Revival houses which all rub shoulders with Beaux-Arts apartments and hotels. Clinton Hill also has what may be the largest number of carriage houses in the city.

The fantastic houses and buildings on the Clinton Hill House Tour provide significant insight for all those interested in historic homes and their renovations. The tour engages visitors by providing a glimpse of the past and a snapshot of the neighborhood’s vibrant diverse community. Pratt Institute and St. Joseph’s College impart the feeling of a small university town while its many grand churches (still among the tallest structures here) give one the feeling of traveling back in time. Two of the original Pratt mansions and Pratt Institute’s Library with the interior designed by Tiffany Studios will be part of this year’s tour.

The Society for Clinton Hill House Tour is the primary fund-raiser for this not-for-profit organization, a neighborhood group celebrating its 30th anniversary. Proceeds from the tour help sponsor a variety of educational, historical preservation, social programs within the community. Most importantly it provides a public forum where neighbors can gather to discuss important issues concerning their community.

Yesterday (Monday, April 24), the NYC Dept of City Planning (DCP) certified the proposed Fort Greene / Clinton Hill Rezoning, which has been in the works for years. This rezoning is called a "contextual rezoning" because it strives to ensure that future development will be built in a form that is consistent with the surrounding historic neighborhoods. According to DCP, this type of rezoning normally takes about seven months, starting yesterday.

As part of the rezoning, DCP is proposing to:

• Protect the brownstone neighborhoods by rezoning 85% of the area to R6B (2.0 FAR)
• Preserve 10 blocks in the Wallabout area to protect pre-Civil War homes; this area would be rezoned to R5B (1.35 FAR)
• Provide modest additional density along commercial corridors by rezoning Myrtle, Fulton, and Atlantic to R7A (3.45 FAR without the inclusionary bonus)
• Convert existing commercial overlay zones to C2-4 and reduce their depth to 100 feet. (C2-4 maintains a 2.0 FAR)
• Promote affordable housing along the higher density commercial corridors by giving a 33% density bonus (4.6 FAR) for projects that provide at least 20% affordable units.

To read more, visit DCP's website here.

HDC's 13th Annual Preservation Conference, Preserving the Past, Planning for the Future, will be taking place this weekend, March 9 to March 11.

This year's conference will focus on how preservation relates to other urban environmental concerns such as green architecture, smart growth, and urban planning in New York City. The conference weekend consists of an opening night reception on Friday at the Children's Aid Society's Greenwich Village Center, a day of panels and other educational sessions on Saturday, and walking tours throughout the boroughs on Sunday. The main conference program will be held at Hunter College School of Social Work.

For information on this year's conference events, please visit the HDC website at www.hdc.org. You may register directly online, or call HDC at 212-614-9107.

There are many things that give a building character. One of them is the cornice, the molding or decorative ledge that ornaments a building's upper edges.

Here are photos from two blocks on Myrtle. It's striking to see the difference when the cornices are removed.

To read more about how to take care of your historic building properly, you can check out the National Parks Service Standards for Preservation to give you some ideas.