nyc - brooklyn DDSO 1 - a photo on Flickriver

            Former Brooklyn Developmental Center, East New York (architect unknown, circa 1973).  This was a large-scale, low-rise project, organized as a fractal-like set of pavilions, with major courtyards in between the buildings and minor courtyards within them. There were originally four clusters of three to four residential blocks each, plus a larger block meeting the entrance along Fountain Avenue and presumably containing administrative and communal functions.  As part of a larger long-term process of deinstitutionalization, the state under Governor Andrew Cuomo opted to relocate residents to group-home settings and redevelop the site.  The replacement development,  sometimes called "The Fountains" and sometimes "Alafia," is master-planned by Dattner with landscape by SCAPE, and apparently consists largely of officially-defined 'affordable' housing units, with 192 set aside for individuals with developmental disabilities.

The housing clusters were all torn down from 2022 to 2023, and I imagine the administrative block will follow soon if it hasn't already.  So there's no chance I'll ever get closer views of the Team 10-esque constellation of volumes, or the bridging connectors between the blocks.  These through-the-fence shots are from 2020, and I'm seeing some indications that the facility officially closed in 2015, explaining the rather weedy conditions here.  

In hindsight probably should have just jumped the fence and risked arrest (and some tick bites) for the sake of architecture, since there is essentially no documentation of this project anywhere that I can find.  I'd be shocked if it weren't included at least in some building-type roundup section of one of the major architectural magazines, but if so, it's not popping up in the Avery Index.

Taken on: September 19, 2020

Tags:

Brooklyn Developmental Center

1973

Developmental Disabilities Service Organization Nursing Facility

DDSO

developmental center

East New York

architecture

modernist

Brutalist

Brutalism

bldgtext

NYC

New York City

Brooklyn

overgrown

derelict « less

Sets appears in: • ! Rolling Current Backup ! • Jul - Sep 20 more » • Architecture: NYC: Brooklyn « less

Camera: Fujifilm X100F, f/8.0, 1/1000 sec, 23mm, ISO 400 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Fujifilm X100F
Aperture:	f/8.0
Exposure Time:	0.001 sec (1/1000)
Focal Length:	23mm
ISO:	400
Exposure Bias:	-0.33 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Shutter speed priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Sharpness:	Hard
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 6.14 (Windows)
Show full info

Stats: 235 views

go back

close tools panel

Badge creator

Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.

You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.

Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page

Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.

Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:

Embed on your Web site

To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:

Black background (preview):

White background (preview):

Firefox and Chrome addons

Adds a 'Flickriver' button to your browser. While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on this button to open the same view on Flickriver.

Install in Firefox
Install in Chrome

Search plugin

Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Install search plugin

"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script

A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.

Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.

Install "View on Flickriver" script

Bookmarklet

While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on the bookmarklet to open the same view on Flickriver.

To install: drag and drop the following link to your Bookmarks toolbar.
IE users - add the link to your Favorites under the Links folder