Residents will soon bring new life to the halls of a 19th century Catholic college in Brooklyn that stood empty and in ruins for over a decade.
The building, now known as The Hartby, at 788 Willoughby Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, started leasing units this week. With 54 unique floor plans, many of the apartment units nod to the building’s past.
In 1869, the cornerstone was laid for what would become the College of St. John the Baptist, and later St. John’s University. The architect was Patrick C. Keely, who had designed hundreds of churches in the United States and Europe.
The plans called for the first floor to be used as a study hall, with separate desks for each student; the second floor was to house dormitories and reception rooms; and the upper floor would have a large furnished lecture hall and more reception rooms, according to The Brooklyn Daily Eagle on July 26, 1869.
The college’s name changed a couple times before becoming St. John’s University, New York, in 1954. Then classes started at its current campus in Queens in 1955. The original building deteriorated over the years.
Matthew Linde, the principal and chief executive of Property Resources Corporation, the developer, said: “When it rained, it would rain inside the building as much as it was raining outside the building.”
Property Resources Corporation co-developed The Hartby with Avenue Realty Capital, collaborating with Woods Bagot, an architecture firm, and Alchemy Studio, an interior design firm. M.N.S. Real Estate NYC is handling leasing. The building’s name is a portmanteau of its two streets, Hart Street and Willoughby Avenue.
It was “really scary and depressing to walk around it when we first got in,” Mr. Linde said. “And now, it’s really fun to walk around and see what it’s ultimately become.”
Two out of the four original buildings were demolished as the building started its conversion into rentals. A gymnasium is now part of the open courtyard in the center of the building. A seven-story apartment building takes the place of the Willoughby Avenue wing.
Residential units at The Hartby range from studios, starting at $3,150, to two bedrooms, projected to start at $4,600. Amenities include parking, a gym and a tenant lounge with a private event room. Of the 205 units, 62 are designated as affordable at 130 percent of the area median income, which is defined each year by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Before development began, St. John The Baptist Roman Catholic Church requested that its new neighbor be consistent with the church — architecturally. The property is under a long-term ground lease from the church to the developer, according to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn. A breezeway was built to connect The Hartby and the church.
Part of the original building on Hart Street was extended into the interior courtyard, bringing flourishes from the old exterior inside to some apartments, along with a little more space. An arched brick wall is now part of a bedroom in one of the first-floor apartments. A third floor, two-bedroom rental has a circular window that used to be in a chapel. A studio apartment has a winding staircase that leads to an original cupola, a dome-like structure that juts out of the roof.
“Not only is the exterior of this building historic,” Mr. Linde said, “but it gave us a chance to incorporate the historic facade on the interior of the units.”
The interviews below have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Mr. Linde on building The Hartby
Why did this project stand out?
You look at the city, and you look at some of these limestone buildings. It never makes sense to build like that anymore unless you’re building a really, really high-end condo building for the 1 percent of the 1 percent, where the cost of selling the condos justifies the really high costs to build a project with a really ornate facade. You don’t get an opportunity to take a 150-year-old structure, with such a rich history and such a beautiful architectural design, and make it work for modern living.
James Hickerson, A principal at Woods Bagot
How did you approach the restoration?
The developer, Property Resources Corporation, wanted to keep the building. It’s a collaboration of like minds in that sense. That was their kind of push, to say: ‘We would like this to stay a part of the fabric of the community. We don’t want to come in here and kind of blow up what’s already there. We want to be more surgical. We want to maintain the character of the building and the surrounding neighborhood. And we want to be good stewards that way.’
Stephanie Schroeder, principal at Alchemy Studio
How did you think about the design?
In these buildings, I almost think of it as like a story that we’re telling. What’s the facade saying? Is it something modern or in a neighborhood that’s a little bit industrial? For our building, is it something from time past that we have to pay homage to and need to mold that with some new contemporary design?
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19th-Century College Is Turned Into Luxury Rentals appeared first on New York Times.
