Landmarks approves updated design for new build on historic Bed-Stuy block * Brooklyn Paper

"The site at 164 Hancock Street is one of two adjacent parcels being redeveloped by 164 Hancock Development LLC. Together, the pair of similar looking 50-foot-tall brick and brownstone buildings will occupy what was once the private garden of 168 Hancock Street, a grand 1880s Neo-Grec townhouse with a mansard roof and side bays. The developer purchased the landmarked property and its large garden in 2021 for $4.55 million, later dividing it into separate tax lots, city records show."

"At the meeting on Tuesday, September 16, architect Ana Maria Torres of AT Architects and preservation consultant Jacqueline Peu-Duvallon presented updated plans in which the cellar and basement would retain their full footprint, but the middle floors were reduced by 14 feet, the third floor pushed back 28 feet, and the top floor and penthouse aligned more closely with the rear wall of 168 Hancock Street. The reworked rear facade also swapped the previously proposed modern windows for more traditional openings and fewer terraces."

"In October 2024, commissioners reviewed the plans for 164 Hancock and signaled support for the front facade design, but flagged concerns about its rear massing. They said the building's depth was out of scale with the typical row house footprints on the block and encroached too heavily into the green space at the center of the block's "donut." Community members at the meeting expressed similar concerns."

The Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously approved a modified five-story building at 164 Hancock Street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant Historic District. The redevelopment covers two adjacent 50-foot brick and brownstone buildings sited on what was the private garden of landmarked 168 Hancock Street. The developer purchased the property in 2021 for $4.55 million and subdivided it. Commissioners previously supported the front façade but raised concerns about rear massing and depth encroaching into the block's central green space. Revised plans keep the cellar and basement footprints, reduce middle floors by 14 feet, push the third floor back 28 feet, align upper floors with 168's rear wall, and replace modern windows with traditional openings and fewer terraces.

Read at Brooklyn Paper