Category: Uncategorized (Page 6 of 9)

On today’s walking tour, we were shown the many differences in the architecture of the buildings in MetroTech. MetroTech was built from the late 1980s to the early 1990s and shows some modern traits of buildings built today. There windows are plentiful in the buildings. They are built considerably tall for office buildings of today, but during their time period, I’m sure they were considered the tallest office buildings in the area. Each building was designed with different materials – one building was built with stone whereas another building was built with granite. Three buildings incorporated a shielded passageway, which I assume is to protect people from weather – if it rains, people can stay relatively dry.

We also walked Bridge Street and looked at a building that seemed to be from 1821. We compared it to a neighboring high-rise residential building. The older building had attention to detail – its arches, the curved brickwork – compared to the newer high-rise; uniform and repetitive in design all the way up.

In the Commence itself we noticed the different heights of the neighboring buildings and its similar scaling. The ground floors were all retail with the exception of the NYU buildings. The commons allows for open space, however, though there are no obstructions it does limit interaction between the underpasses. Each building in this area had a different designer but we can tell after close observation that they must have been giving a specific guideline as they all have a similar structure and design to compliments one another.

On September 25, 2019, our class took a tour of the MetroTech area, throughout Jay Street and Willoughby. We focused on the Urban layout of MetroTech and its changes between 1924 and its present setup. We engaged in discussions, highlighting how residential areas were moved to create bigger roads, highways, and buildings; A few project buildings were put in place as well. They also downsized recreational spaces to make streets wider and made extensions to connect the bridges too. We were observing the area and its current uses; how it may be beneficial as well as its negative aspects.  

From the map of 1924, we were able to note that this area of Downtown Brooklyn was much more of a residential space versus now where its buildings are mainly mixed use. The change has somewhat improved the area, but it also has its way of separating the surrounding communities. The entrances to the buildings are located within the MetroTech commons area. The back of the buildings faced the projects. For people who want to get into MetroTech, at least from the projects, they would have to walk down Myrtle and into the commons area. The seating in the MetroTech commons area is also unique. The benches face outward to the walking portions. The chairs where people can sit back and take naps, if they wanted to, are scattered under the trees in a random setup. There are also little tables for people to have snacks while shaded by the trees. 

The tour on Wednesday gave me a better chance to understand the streets and the changes between the blocks compared to the map of 1924. Using the two maps for comparison helped me to see what and where is the actual change is. There was some major change to the streets and it was surprising to see how some of street are completely wiped out of the map and some street is now used for another purpose. Professor Montgomery gave the class a very informative tour and leaded the class to all the streets and alley. Some street used to be the front of the street on the 1924 map and now became the service side of the building which is considered to be the back. Some street is now restricted for security and government purposes, enter only with a permit. It was a great observation to see where exactly the changes to the streets and alley are.

Our assignment was to explore the MetroTech District of Brooklyn and do a comparison between 1924 and 2019 to show how the area has transformed over time and how it influenced the existing changes occurring today in Downtown Brooklyn. MetroTech lies between Jay Street and Flatbush Avenue, north of the Fulton Street Mall and south of Tillary Street. Before we started exploring, Professor Montgomery provided us with two maps of the MetroTech District showing both the past and the present from 1924 to 2019. The fact that we were able to have both maps side by side made it very easy to see how the area has changed over time. During our tour around Metrotech District, we have noticed that how gentrification reshaped the whole composition of the neighborhood. Some interesting things that we have discovered was zoning changes that brought high rise buildings, government buildings, communal spaces, green streets, and natural circulation paths that was made by pedestrians and a revamped infrastructure that connected Downtown Brooklyn to major highways and bridges. Throughout our trip, we walked on Myrtle Ave to see how it has changed today and discussed how the development of MetroTech have influenced the development of Flatbush Ave. Overall the changes seem good, the development of this area is an ongoing process and far from being complete.

The tour the class went on Wednesday, we had the chance to better our skills on observations. We got to see the major changes in the Metro Tech area and a little bit of the future changes in the area. The tour to me was really eye-opening especially for someone who is not in an architecture major, I got to fully understand how these changes can affect the people living in a community. I’ve never fully understood how these changes can impact a community but getting a tour from someone who is experienced and able to explain and show the past and the present was very educational. Something that stood out to me was how a street that used to be so important that led directly to Borough Hall was blocked off by a hotel. Changes like these show me that instead of the City making the commute to an important place easier they rather build hotels and places that will put money in their pockets. Overall the tour experience helped me improve my skills in observations as well as making voice memos for our bigger project.

The trip that we had the last Wednesday was similar to the neighborhood analysis presentation.  During the trip we practice the voice memos, taking pictures, mapping etc. This was important because the more we practice, the more we going to improve,  also practicing the voice memos more made me feel more confident.  Throughout the trip we compared two maps of Brooklyn, one from 1994 and the other one from 2019. This was important because we learned how Brooklyn has changed during the past years, I was able to see how  Brooklyn focus more on streets, and cars back in 1994. There I was able to see the lack of public places, there was no place for people to socialize only streets and buildings, but in the 2019 map we see a big difference. There were more public places and more focus on pedestrians, is not perfect, but compared to 1994 is a big improvement. I believe that Brooklyn still need more public places and more focus on pedestrians, for example, the sidewalks in the city tech campus are to narrow.

On the Metro-Tech walking tour, I think we gained a new perspective of the neighborhood. A lot of students pointed out that they didn’t really realize the area when they commute to school they don’t pay attention to all those drastic details that they walk past almost every day. I think it was a great idea for Prof. Montgomery to print out two different maps for the class. It definitely gave us a good reference to keep looking at. We used the map to see exactly where we were and how the same exact place looked back then.  It’s safe to say that the streets have changed almost completely. There were some streets that have been completely wiped off. It brings up questions in mind, like why?  Why did they remove streets that back then were considered important major streets; an after having them wiped them off, why didn’t they make them more pedestrian safe? I wouldn’t consider Metro-Tech a safe walking place for pedestrians, because of all the trucks and wide crossing streets and reckless drivers not considering bikers at all. Also we realized that the walking tour was a good practice for voice recording and taking notice in small details round you that you might not realize when you’re walking normally past.

On the trip we had around the neighborhood near jay street and metro tech we learned how to make better observation. Observations that compared the neighborhood from the 1980s to present day, there we spotted how major changes where made with time. Street were wiped out of the map and housing or residential building were put there. When streets are wiped out of map that would create neighborhood division. So, when one is walking through the streets you could feel the change in neighborhood that could go from quiet to loud from crowded to empty. This is one of many topics we discussed in how to notice the change a neighborhood has gone through.it helps our observation skills to look deeper into why they decided on those changes and if it was the right move for the future of the neighborhood. Looking into that it helps to understand better and to be more aware of our surrounding and appreciate some of the effective changes that happened. – Jennifer Reyes

The walk around of Metro tech on Wednesday gave me a better idea of what changes actually happened in the area of our study. It also gave me a personal experience and practice with the voice recording. As a person that likes to learn visually, this walk around trip helped me further understand and see the actual change and characteristic in the area. Seeing where roads used to be shows how much the area actually have a drastic change. I also like that we all as one group take time and share each other’s findings. Hearing other people’s views and thoughts keeps me engage in looking deeper into the area rather than having a quick glance and saying these disappeared now this appeared. – Rikkie Garcia

Changing tells us the story of the past, improve the present, and create the future; it happens all the time and the entire world. From this tour, we are observing the change of the surrounding area of Metrotech center which located in downtown Brooklyn from 1924 to the current view. From the map of 1924, we can determine that downtown Brooklyn is a high-density residential area at that moment. Tillary Street expands to two-way traffic road from the small street which only for one way running street by occupying McLaughlin Park area. Later, we try to find the street adjacent to polytech high school, and we realize that the loading dock of MetroTech was truncate the street at Johnson Street. The tiny houses which located of eastern Flatbush avenue become modern high-level building since the zoning changes. In the east of Flatbush Avenue, most buildings built of steel, and most buildings in the west of Flatbush avenue built of brick. Also when we walk in the Flatbush avenue, there is much traffic because it connects to Manhattan bridge.
Moreover, the city tries to create more greening on the road. We saw a small rest park and chairs in the middle of the road. We do not think that is a good idea because many cars are running on the road, and it is dangerous. Maybe it could not make people enjoy the rest. While we walk forward to Willoughby street, there are new structures under construction. When we look through the west, we can reach the location of the borough hall, and the east is the location of the Prison Ship Martyrs’ Monument.
As a conclusion, changing is a way to let us improve, tell us the achievable about our world. Also, we are glad to see there are few landmark buildings still exist in Metrotech center areas, Like Brooklyn Church Bridge, the Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn, or the interior of a restaurant. Changing also makes us think about how the historical still exist, how to relate to or connect to new modern building and the environment. We would not stop change, but try getting better in the future.

In the neighborhood assignment I had a chance to learn how to look deeper into my neighborhood. I noticed many new things in my neighborhood, discovering new things creates an eye-opening moment. I was raised in Bushwick and then I moved to East New York were I currently live for about 10 years. The reason we left the neighborhood I was raised in is because my parent wanted a different environment and the one, we moved into is very diverse. My neighborhood is big, but I almost never go out of the comfort zone I have created with four major blocks.

While living in this neighborhood I would just walk to the train station and do some shopping on the main street, never really looked passed it. While having this assignment I got the chance to look deeper into the history of my current neighborhood how the streets used to look like in the 1800s. what I found interesting is that the train station and railroads have been there for many years now. Fulton street which is the main street has always been the commercial area where people go to buy their everyday needs. The church was a historical part I enjoy researching saw images of how it started off compared on how it changed into today. After the project I appreciate the amount of history facts I gathered from the research and images.

Then we had to record our observation while taking a voice note. That was the helpful part because later on I could rehear it and realize thing I have missed in the specific spot and that I didn’t notice before.