Opinions Brooklyn Boro

OPINION: A New York evolution, iconic building changes with the times

November 2, 2017 By Efstathios Valiotis For Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Efstathios Valiotis. Courtesy of Alma Realty
Efstathios Valiotis. Courtesy of Alma Realty
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As the 19th century drew to a close, New York’s population, particularly its many newly arrived immigrants, were in transition. One of the city’s fastest growing immigrant groups was European Jews, who for decades had lived mostly on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

In an echo of the kind of movement we see among all kinds of New Yorkers today, many of them left Manhattan for slightly roomier, more affordable homes in the rising neighborhoods across the East River in Brooklyn, which in 1898 was officially incorporated into the City of New York.

Recognizing the need for medical services, especially among the poor, Abraham Abraham, one of the era’s most prominent citizens, merchants and philanthropists, founded Brooklyn Jewish Hospital in a two-story building on Johnson Street in 1895.

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The son of Bavarian immigrants, Abraham, the hospital’s first president, founded the dry goods company Abraham & Straus, which became a major department store and one of New York’s most recognizable brands. His partnership with Isidor and Nathan Straus, the founders of Macy’s, who died on the Titanic, eventually led to A&S merging into Macy’s and Stern’s.

 

Building a Hospital for its Era

After the hospital outgrew its original home, famed local architect George Morse designed a new, larger building on Classon Avenue and Prospect Place in a neighborhood then called Crow Hill. It was dedicated in 1906. Three years later, Morse was once again called in to design the Nursing School, which thrived for decades. 

Abraham’s legacy would live on through the hospital for 70 years, as the hospital steadily grew, the site of the births and deaths of generations of Brooklynites. The dedication to public service would live on in the family, as Abraham’s daughter Edith married Percy Straus and their son, Donald Straus, became a prominent educator and health care advocate, eventually serving as executive vice president of the Health Insurance Plan of Greater New York, chair of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and a trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Institute for Advanced Study. 

In addition to the thousands born there and the lives saved by its dedicated staff, it is this history that makes the Brooklyn Jewish Hospital complex so unique.

 

Changing Times

When Alma Realty purchased this property in 2000, it was not to bulldoze the then-vacant eyesore and put up high-rises, but to further weave these historic buildings into the ever-evolving life of the borough, preserving its historic significance while providing quality, affordable housing. 

When it was announced this summer that all 700 units at this residential complex will become rent regulated, it was another chapter in the story: New generations of New Yorkers now walk its Renaissance Revival halls, preserving history while giving it a new life.

That is the story of New York City. Populations ebb and flow and older buildings have to be modernized, repurposed and reimagined for new people and new uses.

If we are to continue to thrive and provide homes for everyone we can, transformations like the one that was accomplished at Brooklyn Jewish Hospital, turning vacant and abandoned buildings into homes for 700 families, are going to have to become even more common.

 

Major capital investment

Alma invested $35 million over 10 years turning a group of imposing, abandoned buildings, which still the bore the inscriptions of their original uses into the modern apartment complex it is now. While facades were preserved, the guts of the buildings had to be completely overhauled to accommodate modern amenities, conform to current standards and provide efficiency and environmentally friendly energy systems.

Tenants there boast of the large apartments, friendly courtyards where neighbors can meet each other and children can play.

This is a process that is repeated throughout the five boroughs, from Upper Manhattan and the Bronx to Queens, where yesterday’s industrial, medical, warehouse and manufacturing space must be converted to meet the needs of the surging and reinvented neighborhoods of today. 

As with many of these neighborhoods, however, it is important that we invest not just in buildings but in people. That is why the affordability agreement that was reached by ownership with the city is so essential. New York is a story of constantly changing populations, but we need to ensure that people can afford to remain in their neighborhoods even as revitalization occurs all around them. 

In turn, the residents of today’s Brooklyn Jewish Hospital complex have helped spur economic activity in the surrounding streets, with new stores, cafes, restaurants and other vital amenities popping up each month.

Just as a critical mass of people moving into the old Crow Hill neighborhood necessitated a new hospital more than a hundred years ago, the decision to reinvest in these important vintage buildings has created a crucial stock of quality affordable housing that will bring this neighborhood well into the 21st century.   

Efstathios Valiotis is the principal of Alma Realty, which manages 15,000 residential units in New York and New Jersey.

 


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