Facade Material Field Trip

Last week Tim, Alden and I went on a Contractor/Architect/Client field trip to check out some other houses in Brooklyn with interesting facades.  We are still trying to figure out how to do the asymmetrical bay facade with two interesting and contrasting materials while also keeping costs down.  When we are done figuring out how to do this I am sure we'll move onto curing cancer.  That might even be easier. 

First stop was right here in Williamsburg to revisit the house on Power's street (and for Tim to see it for the first time)  We happened to run into the owner coming back from walking his extremely cute dog.  The owner told us he had used standing roof shingles made of zinc for this facade.  Tim left his card to get the number of the guy who did the installation.  Zinc would oxidize with a slight blue, instead of the way cooper oxidizes green.  I don't necessarily like the look of this over such a large area, but it might be interesting if it was installed vertically for just the bay area.  Maybe it is the tiny windows that are making me averse to this design.  Tiny windows = bad.  But the material is definitely cool.  Not sure how expensive zinc is now though. 

Then we went to Greenpoint to see a new condo development about a block off of McCarren Park with metal panels on the facade.  The overall looks was okay, a bit too corporate for me is such large chunks, but again it could work for just one section with another material contrasting it.

Upon closer inspection, these panels might not even be metal.  The might be plastic.  Also, we saw some pretty shoddy seam-work when we looked close enough. 

Next we braved the Brooklyn Queens Expressway right before rush hour to get to downtown Brooklyn.  We saw these new condos going up and we able to talk to the guys working on them.  I love the look of copper, even after it oxidizes.  No one seems to know how much this type of copper work would cost though. 

Then it was onto Prospect Heights to see a house done in the cement board we've been thinking about using somewhere.  They even used the color we like--it looks like slate, a dark blue-ish gray.  Very nice.  It even looks nice contrasted with the red brick.  But again with the tiny, tiny windows.  WTF?

Earlier on the field trip my camera battery died with no warning whatsoever.  I usually get some notice when it's about to die.  Still I was able to shut it down and power it up every so often to get just one shot before it died again.  Well after the cement board shot it died for real, so I was forced to resort to the crappy camera phone.  Luckily we only had one more stop. 

Last stop was Carroll Garden's to show Tim another townhouse Alden had worked with a big Plexiglas wall.  Eric and I saw this house back when we first started talking to Alden and it's layout and design was so close to what we were looking for, it seemed obvious to us to hire him.  Still it was nice to see it again, now that we are much further along in our renovation process. 

Unfortunately it's really hard to see the color and the majesty with this damn crappy camera phone, but you get the point. 

Okay maybe you don't get the point.  Here's a much better photo from Alden's site--you can see much better pictures of this house there. 

Ah, that's much better. 

Comments

[Tim]

Shame the pictures of the first building don't really do justice to the zinc. The application of a standing-seam roof system to a facade is very clever and it'll only look better as it the patina forms over time. Also the base is a beautiful tile finish that doesn't read well in the photo.

[Ariel]

Well, that makes sense.
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