Fort Greene

The Ashland is the new queen of Fulton Street in Fort Greene

Eye On Real Estate

September 22, 2015 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle
The tallest of the towers (center) is the Ashland. Mark Morris Dance Center is the low-rise building with the mural painted on it (left) and Polonsky Shakespeare Center is the small black building (right). Eagle photos by Lore Croghan
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Behold the new queen of the Fulton Street scene in Fort Greene.

The Ashland is soaring skywards towards its full 52-story height at the corner of Fulton Street and Ashland Place.

The tower we’re hailing is being constructed by the Gotham Organization at 250 Ashland Place, next door to that nifty new theater, the Polonsky Shakespeare Center.

The new residential development will have 586 rental apartments, nearly half of them affordable units, plus 10,800 square feet of retail space and 8,000 square feet of office space for cultural institutions.

The tower will be completed in 2016, according to project designer FXFOWLE Architects’ website.

We’ve been publishing pictures of the Ashland site since the tower was just a concept on FXFOWLE’s drawing board. The address initially used for the project was 598 Fulton St.

When we last offered photos of the Brooklyn Cultural District apartment-tower project six months ago, the skeleton of the building stood a scant few stories above the construction fence.

Now the windows on around 20 floors of the tower have glass in them and the façade on those floors is yellowish and plum-colored brick.

When seen at a distance, the brick colors look pretty much like Daniel Kaplan, senior partner of FXFOWLE, had said they would during a project presentation at an October 2013 Community Board 2 meeting. He spoke of “limestone,” a cool gray hue, and “brownstone,” a warm rosy-brown sandstone tone. The colors were inspired by nearby sights such as Fort Greene rowhouses, Barclays Center and the landmarked Brooklyn Academy of Music, he’d said.  

The Ashland is an eye-catching addition to the upscale stretch of Fulton Street that runs through Fort Greene. The tower looms large, blocks and blocks away.

The Gotham Organization’s project, on land formerly owned by the city, is part of a wide-scale redevelopment effort in the BAM Cultural District, as the Brooklyn Cultural District was called until recently.

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