From The New York Shitty Inbox, Part II: What’s Up At 400 McGuinness?

April 11, 2012 ·
Filed under: 11222, Bloomblight, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic

Apparently a new floor, per the person who saw fit to copy me on the following email (which included the General Manager of Community Board 1, among others). She writes:

Rebars are being placed on top of 400 McGuiness Blvd. Are they building upward? Does anyone know?

Naturally I was very curious about this, so I did three things:

1. I checked Google Maps so as to ascertain what the roof-line of this complex looked like “pre-rebar”.

I have indicated the work site in question in yellow. As you can see the western part of 400 McGuinness sports an additional floor. The area highlighted does not. Which brings me to…

2. See this for myself.

A new floor has been added and a means of egress/ingress (as highlighted above) leads from the original structure to its new neighbor. In addition, all the entrances save one on Clay Street and one on McGuinness Boulevard have been replaced with windows.

One such former entrance was where this intercom system (which they have inexplicably seen fit not to remove) is located.

And of course here is a shot of the rebar in question— along with a new HVAC unit. Which, in turn, brings me to…

3. Is this legal?

At a cursory search, I honestly cannot tell. Thus I have requested a disinterested party “in the know” about such matters to tender his/her take.

To be continued…

P.S.: On the way to 400 McGuinness Boulevard I noted a few items of interest on Box Street:

The on-going work of art that is 62 Box Street is for sale. Exclusively no less.

And the Box House Hotel is keeping up appearances.

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Now At 77 Box Street: WTF?

August 21, 2011 ·
Filed under: 11222, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic

I suspect some of you have wondered, gentle readers, exactly what the deal is with the inexplicable bit of residential property (as seen above from the stairwell of the Pulaski bridge) perched atop this otherwise industrial building. I know I have. So you can imagine my delight when today— at long last— I got an answer: it is a hotel!

More specifically: it is The Box House Hotel. After I stopped laughing I headed home without delay. I simply had to see this website for myself.

It is truly something to behold. Follows is my favorite passage for your edification and/or amusement:

Not a hotel in your traditional sense, but what we offer are gorgeous designer loft apartments available for rental, either weekly or monthly. Very private. Located in the Industrial chic area of North Greenpoint. Walking distance to the Vernon-Jackson 7 train ( 1 stop from Grand Central station) or The Greenpoint avenue G train.

I have lived in Greenpoint for over 11 years now. I honestly did not know this area (which is a used-condom’s toss from the Newtown Creek Waste Water Treatment Facility) constituted “chic”. Obviously I am way behind the times. Thus desiring to get caught up— and learn what constitutes “Industrial chic”— I pulled up a satellite map via Google. Follows are my findings/conclusions:

“Industrial chic” (as found in north Greenpoint, anyway) is any one/combination of the following:

McGuinness Boulevard
The Pulaski Bridge
A rather large DOT Facility
Continental Auto Parts
McGuinness Power Brake Service
Newtown Creek
Motiva and (albeit some ways down the road)
One very short block away from a 200 bed assessment center for homeless, single men.

View Larger Map

Who knew?!? I certainly didn’t! I suppose it goes without saying that such luxe environs (and accommodations) come at a price. Without further ado, here are the rates. Get your checkbooks ready!

Standard Suite 600sf