The building was constructed in 1888, using the then typical post-and-beam method of construction. The massive beams most likely came down the Hudson from the Adirondacks, which were then being stripped to provide lumber for such construction. So devastating was the environmental impact that New York state created Adirondack State Park to stop the practice. When steel I-beams took the place of the wooden members, an historical clause was placed around post-and-beam construction.
The building's outer brick walls are self-supporting, the floors are supported by the post-and-beam members. A total of sixteen stacks of posts carries the building's load down to sixteen footings. Originally, these were tied together with struts. They were removed in the 1980s, but their notches can still be seen on the beams. Four immense steel columns were added to hold heavy machinery and are still a part of the basement spaces.
The building was used as a factory and went through several reincarnations. At some point, the neighboring firehouse was purchased to serve as an office and a ramp was built to connect the second floors of both buildings. It still exists and runs across the front of the parking lot. At another point, an additional room was added below the parking lot and made to serve as the building's boiler room, providing it with steam heat.
The building became derelict in the 1970s and was purchased by an architect. She converted it into industrial condominiums and began selling spaces in 1983. She made two spaces on the first floor and four spaces each on the second, third, and fourth floors for a total of fourteen spaces. Sketches for two basement spaces were added, bringing the building up to sixteen spaces. Finally, she planned a penthouse for herself, giving the completed building a total of seventeen legal spaces.
The neighborhood was something of an industrial slum when the condominium opened for business in the 1980s. Nearly all the area's buildings were used for warehouses, with a few housing small manufacturing facilities. Adjoining the NAICA building at 12th and Berry was an old wooden feather warehouse, stuffed with bales of feathers. It's now a construction site. Bedford Avenue was for the most part boarded up, with Kasha's and the next-door pizza shop being the only restaurants in the neighborhood. A New York Times could not be purchased for love or money, and few artists could be found. The neighborhood first began gentrifying in the 1990s, with Brooklyn Brewery emerging from nowhere as a start-up. It has not stopped since.
Over nearly thirty years, the NAICA board has had only five presidents, but in fact the key officer was the a treasurer who served for more than twenty years. During these three decades, the building experienced the growing pains typical of many New York City condominiums and coops, but it survived them nicely and grew in the process. In the meantime our neighborhood increasingly finds itself at the center of a cultural universe, attracting not just Europeans but also East Asians. Who would have thought it thirty years ago!
Trebor Navillus
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