BooDooPerson

@boodoo

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BooDooPerson @boodoo4/10/2023, 5:51 PM

A Recurring Subject

I am constantly taking pictures of these joined houses because despite the fact you can't tell in the photos, they are so out of place architecturally with their surroundings.

Surrounded by central Brooklyn brownstone and sandstone townhouses, 6-story brick apartment complexes and more recently the glass-and-metal of gentrification chic, their steepled, chimneyed, Dutch(?)ness is completely untethered from its environment.

there is an even more powerfully Dutch-coded building not that far away, but that one's essence is harder to capture in a single frame so I don't have anything of it yet. I should work on figuring that problem out.

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Pim de Groot @mifune4/10/2023, 7:27 PM

Being Dutch, this style is not very common, at least in the low parts. With an abundance of clay it is mostly brickwork and roof tiles you'll see.

There is a chance there are houses like this in Limburg, being closer to slate production in the Ardennes. But to me it has more English or Wales vibes.

I'm wondering what the other building looks like, there still has to be some Dutch influence in the New York area.

BooDooPerson @boodoo4/10/2023, 8:08 PM

well if that isn't a Dutch style then maybe the other one isn't either.

Looking now I see that StreetView link is a building dated ca. 1925, while the smaller group I photographed are just one block away and dated 1930. Unsure how much of their facade is original, though.

Since it's near "Nostrand" (n.b. Noorstrandt) Avenue I make some assumptions about the architectural influence, but now that I know the dates it's a toss-up for me whether this is a different inspiration entirely or if it's just a gesture toward vague European vibes that has no actual connection to any really-existing architectural language.

Plenty of research to do on the next rainy day, I guess!

Pim de Groot @mifune4/10/2023, 9:31 PM

The woodframed stucco work can also be found in Limburg, but is more common in Germany. I mostly know it of all the plastic model railroad buildings German manufacturers produce. Interestingly enough the building on the back of it seems to be a mirrored copy, and doesn't have the wood like facade elements.

The building to the left of it (no. 789) feels much more like a building I can find in Rotterdam, or at least elements of it. But I think it registers more like a 1930's generic warehouse or factory than a typical Dutch building.

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