Construction on Underhill near Prospect

That newish brick building on Underhill just below Prospect has construction fencing up and some kind of demolition is going on. Anyone have the scoop?

If you play with google maps and figure out the street address, I will play with the DOB site and tell you what permits are in play.

I think it's 114 Underhill. I didn't see any permits on the fence.

This is 114 Underhill: http://www.propertyshark.com/mason/Property/148927/114-Underhill-Ave-Brooklyn-NY-11238/

It does not have any permit activity:
http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/PropertyProfileOverviewServlet?boro=3&houseno=114&street=underhill+avenue&go2=+GO+&requestid=0

However, the newish thing next door is 112 Underhill:
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/112-Underhill-Ave_Brooklyn_NY_11238_M30935-34800



I am pretty sure it is what you are talking about. It is going to get another story added to it, and as a result, needs to have sprinklers installed:
http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/JobsQueryByLocationServlet?allbin=3398468&allinquirytype=BXS4PRA3&rqidpriortop=y&rqidpriortop=y&alljobtype=PLSIGN&stcodekey=PL&allborough=Y&requestid=1

The gate was open today, and a large pile of torn up drywall was visible in the yard. My best guess is that it had a water problem and needed to be gutted. Pure speculation, of course.

Oops, I should have read Whynot's post. Another story? How odd. If it's sprinklers, though, then I was right about it being a water problem, at least.

They also filed for a cellar addition, so expect to see some dirt.

I asked one of the workers and he said it was being converted to a single family home. He also told me all the work is legal, in case anyone's wondering. Thanks for the info, whynot.

Those buildings are so frigging ugly. How do some people who put up buildings have no aesthetic sense whatsoever?!

Love how a three story, two-family building needs a fourth floor and a cellar addition to become a reasonable single-family home.

I suspect it will get a new facade as well.

Those windows and the through the wall AC units probably won't match the means and preferences of the family that will move in.

I pray it gets a new facade. It's a great location but such a ghastly looking building. Some of the new builds in Brooklyn are gonna be teardowns in less than 20 years.

I just saw the rendering on the fence. It's hard to believe, but it looks like it's going to be even uglier - some sort of black facing, didn't even look like brick. What a disaster.

For best results, take a photo in landscape mode. Then upload it by pressing the weird blue icon to the top left of the comment box.

Did it work?

yup.

BTW, back when Brownstoner had more personality, it referred to the present house as
"Sh#!tbox on Underhill"

http://www.brownstoner.com/blog/2009/11/development-wat-517/

They were not wrong.

It's going to be even worse now!

It looks like it was completed in abut 2010.

This aerial view shows that weird step thing already happens on the rightside of the building.

http://goo.gl/maps/DSgiu

The somewhat-traditional fenestration helps the look a little, though there's a reason that windows of increasing heights isn't part of the architectural tradition.

Obviously the building will need to be clad in something given the ugly brickwork. Some modern facade materals look nice, and I hope that whoever is putting a big pile of money into this building will pay for decent materials.

Something like this could be alright, though I'm sure traditionalists will hate anything other than bricks or brownstone:

It is now clad in a sort of a blue brick façade.    It doesn't really match the surrounding buildings, but I can't say I mind it.

It is better looking than the prior version. 

Funky!