Local Entrepreneurs Sell Replicas of City Water Towers

Brooklyn is known for its brownstone, its Dutch beginnings and its verse-worthy bridge. And according to local Fort Greene resident David Shulman, the borough’s also known for it’s wooden water towers.

This month Shulman and his business partner Terence Arjo launched Boundless Brooklyn, an online venture which sells their models of the city’s waterlogged vessels. Just under 11-inches tall and packaged as laser cut pieces of recycled chipboard that can be assembled at home, the small water tower sells for $16.46 — the year Brooklyn was founded by the Dutch West Indies Company.

Shulman hopes the scaled-down model, which he said takes three minutes to put together, will decorate tables in Brooklyn neighborhoods and outside the borough.

“It’s just a little design element that you could put on a nightstand, a desk or a table,” said Shulman, who has lived in Fort Greene for the past 12 years. “It’s that iconic image of Brooklyn and New York.”

According to Gerard T. Koeppel, journalist and author of “Water for Gotham,” water towers starting going up in New York City after the Civil War, just as city builders began constructing taller and taller buildings.

“You only need water tanks in New York City for buildings that are higher than five or six stories because of the natural pressure in the water pumps,” Koeppel said. In this way, water gets to tenants by the force of gravity, flowing down from the roofs on which they sit. Water in buildings with fewer than five or six stories, he said, rises by the force of natural water pressure.

Crafting the towers from wood is specific to the city, as well, Koeppel said.

“Water in a wood vessel maintains a more even temperature,” Koeppel said. Because New York City has cold winters and hot summers, were the water supply for the city’s buildings housed in steel, water would most likely freeze in the winter and be near boiling hot in the summer months.

According to The New York Times, the number of water towers is declining in other cities, where newer infrastructure allows for electric pumps to shuttle water to the top floors of the tallest buildings. Because of New York City’s foundation of shallow bedrock, the water pressure is too low for this to happen. So the wooden water tower prevails, and Shulman and Boundless Brooklyn said they plan to capitalize.

“We’re hoping to appeal to Brooklynites who want a little design sense and representation of Brooklyn in their homes and offices,” Shulman said. “We hope we can get into museum shops for people who have come to Brooklyn as tourists. Really, it’s for anyone who loves Brooklyn and wants to show that they love Brooklyn in a small, desk-friendly size.”