Vacant Lot At Gates and Grand Avenues Will Be Replaced With A Four-Story House

A new three-story house (plus basement) will eventually be built at 145 Gates Avenue, at the corner of Grand Avenue, inside the Clinton Hill Historic District, thanks to the approval of the plans by the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) at their August meeting.

As first reported by New York YIMBY, the building will replace a vacant lot that had previously housed a similar-sized house before demolition (prior to the historic district designation).

The new house will have four bedrooms “in the Italianate style,” a double door entrance, cornices which duplicate the look of those at neighboring properties at 135 and 139 Gates Avenue, a partially sunken rear yard, and a curb cut. The design comes from the architectural firm headed by one Gerald J. Caliendo.

However, the design will also be worked on with guidance from LPC in order to improve certain aspects, such as a bay window proposed for the side facing Grand Avenue, which LPC Commissioner Michael Devonshire called “kinda wimpy” and Historic Districts Council member Barbara Zay stated “should be square, rather than angled” in order to be more historically accurate.

YIMBY notes that Zay also noted that “while HDC does not object to the choice of a historic style for this new building, we do find that if this is the chosen route, more rigorous study of the details is needed,” and that “the cornice should line up with that of its neighbor, whose corbelled brick details and lintel and sill design should also be replicated or referenced here.”