A Guide to Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn
The next two blocks, from Nevins Street to 3rd Avenue, include Pardes Restaurant, serving kosher French food under the direction of Moshe Wendel, formerly the sous-chef to Jean-Michelle Dumas at Manon Restaurant. On the retail side is thrift store Out of the Closet–which offers free HIV testing and a pharmacy–and artisanal children’s store Gumbo. Gumbo also offers fun music classes for kids like “Baby DJ School,” and “Preschool of Rock”, along with puppetry, creative writing, and sewing lessons for adults.
From Nevins Street to Flatbush Avenue, we’re technically still in Boerum Hill but it feels more like Downtown Brooklyn. The transitional nature of this section is reflected in the contrast between business types and building aesthetics from one side of the street to another. The southern side is densely packed with Islamic bookstores, clothing shops, travel agencies and Halal groceries.
The northern side, with its brightly painted facades, is seeing an influx of gentrified shops like the Flagship Nunu Chocolates shop, Twisted Lemonade Factory, and M.O.B. Brooklyn, by the founder of the Phillipe Starck-designed Mama Shelter hotels.
Interestingly, the local U.S. post office currently shares its space with the Islamic store House of Knowledge. It’s been reported on Brownstoner that the building is going to be sold and replaced with a seven-story hotel, though no permits have been issued yet.
At 4th Avenue, Atlantic Avenue reaches Atlantic Avenue Terminal. Big box stores like Target, Best Buy, and Burlington Coat Factory predominate, but there’s a lot of historical architecture to be found in this area. The gorgeous lobby of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank, just around the corner, has been used for as diverse activities as the Brooklyn Flea, film shoots and weddings, while the upper floors have been converted into condos. (Williamsburgh has an “h” at the end of the word here because the bank dates back to a time before the “h” was dropped, sometime before the consolidation of the five boroughs.)
- The Williamsburgh Savings Bank, behind The Atlantic Center
If you look down 4th Avenue, about where New York Marathon runners would be getting ready for the 8-mile mark, is the Pacific Branch of the New York Public Library, the first Andrew Carnegie library built in Brooklyn. It narrowly escaped being sold off by the NYPL last year.
In the center of the Atlantic-Flatbush-4th Avenue intersection, across from the Atlantic Center mall, is the original Atlantic Avenue subway entrance, one of the 28 control houses built by Heins & LaFarge for the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, the first subway system in New York.
- Atlantic Avenue control house by Heins & LeFarge
From here, we can see the striking Barclays Center, home of the Brooklyn Nets and, starting in 2015, the New York Islanders. Built atop former LIRR rail yards, Barclays Center is the first part of the controversial Atlantic Yards project. A crane marks the construction of residential buildings just behind the stadium, to be completed by the end of this year. The building, known as B2, will be the tallest modular building in the world.
Barclays Center and B2 were designed by the cutting edge architecture firm SHoP Architects, also responsible for the forthcoming Domino Sugar Refinery redevelopment. Each piece of Barclays Center exterior was put through an accelerated rusting process. No piece is exactly the same, and will age differently over time. Standing in front of Barclays Center is a flagpole that stood at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field until its demolition in 1960.
It’s hard to imagine that this two-block stretch at the edge of Park Slope will remain in this transitionary state for long. The Municipal Art Society awarded Barclays Center for being a “Neighborhood Catalyst,” while Curbed has been mapping the changes that have happened and are on the way. Whether residents like it or not, change is coming in a big way with the continuation of the Atlantic Yards project.
Whether you’re looking for home decor, specialty foods, or wedding dresses, Atlantic Avenue has a lot to offer. Old and new meet as the traditional Middle Eastern groceries and antiques shops mix with trendy upstarts, and Brooklyn Bridge Park and Barclays Center make fitting bookends to a Brooklyn in transformation. You could spend days on Atlantic Avenue, whether you’re a resident or just a visitor immersing yourself in these neighborhoods.
For more local Brooklyn flavor, check out A Guide to Smith Street and A Guide to Bedford Ave.
[sponsored_by action_blurb=”Presented By” name=”Douglas Elliman” url=”http://www.elliman.com/new-york-city/brooklyn” logo=”https://www.bkmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/DE_logo_1XStack_120x60_Blue+Gray.jpg” attribution_action_blurb=”Created By” attribution_name=”BlankSlate” attribution_url=”http://blankslate.com/advertisers/”]The only way to truly understand Brooklyn is to walk its streets, see its homes, meet its people, and understand its ebb and flow. Never before has looking for a home in Brooklyn been this exciting.
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