ARCHITECTURE: A NEW LOOK ON UPPER FDB

An old tenement building under construction has finished up on upper FDB by 132nd Street and appears to have transformed into something new.  The overall look is not offensive but one wonders if just restoring the original would have been the better route. Upper 7th and 8th Avenue already have quite a few new residential additions built in the mid century and no longer look so fresh these days.

Most would be surprised to hear that when housing projects were built over 50 years ago, they were viewed to be modern designs and thus somehow better than the older buildings with more history.  The problem with moderate, modern aesthetics is that they quickly look outdated so we always advise on restoring an existing building in a more accurate way.  When one talks about the beauty of Harlem's historic blocks, these newer additions are always left out for obvious reasons.