Photos from the Top of Brooklyn Point, the Tallest Building in Brooklyn

The iconic cloud piercing skyline of New York City takes its shape from Manhattan’s soaring skyscrapers, but just across the East River, buildings in Brooklyn are reaching new heights. This week, the tallest building in the borough, Brooklyn Point, topped out at sixty-eight floors and 720 feet. The Downtown Brooklyn building, which is part of City Point, will add 60,000 square feet of retail space to the growing neighborhood and feature luxury residential apartments with views that stretch from Manhattan to the Atlantic Ocean.

At the topping out event on Tuesday, Untapped Cities got to take in all of the views from the 63rd floor of the new structure designed by KPF Architects. Ari Alowan Goldstein, Senior Vice President of Development at Extell, pointed out features of the new building and landmarks you can see from the upper floors. To the north, there is a sweeping view of the Manhattan skyline from the Queensboro Bridge down to the World Trade Center. You can clearly see iconic structures including the East River crossings of the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg Bridges, the Empire State Building, Hudson Yards, and One World Trade Center, as well as 1 Manhattan Square, another Extell property which stands directly across the Manhattan Bridge. To the south, the views stretch to the Verrazzano Bridge and beyond, all the way out to the Atlantic Ocean. To the west there are views of New York Harbor, the Statue of Liberty and Governor’s Island, and looking east you can see clear to Fort Greene Park.

KPF Director Bruce Fisher pointed out that all three towers at City Point have a distinct style and were all purposefully designed by different architects. For Brooklyn Point, KPF wanted a “bold expression.” To accomplish this, they covered the exterior of the building with aluminum panels to create a sculptural facade. Rather than outlining each specific floor, the panels stretch two stories and serve to frame the views as seen from the interior. The panels are coated in a custom made white paint that mimics a ceramic look and up close has specks of different colors to capture and reflect the light. The play of light and dark is something that KPF wanted to emphasize in the design. The block like look of the outside was also influenced by the street grid below. The base of the building on the more heavily trafficked Flatbush Avenue facing side has a busier feel than the more calm and subdued residential entrance on Willoughby Street. The pinnacle of the building comes to a point at the top, really emphasizing the building’s height and making a statement that can be seen from afar.

Aside from the views, one of the coolest features of the building is its rooftop infinity pool which will be the highest residential infinity pool in the Western Hemisphere. The pool is made of steel and will be hoisted to the top of the building early this summer in two parts. The heated pool will be blocked from wind by the sloping design of the rooftop which also serves to frame the views of Manhattan.

Image Courtesy of Williams New York

Originally a civic and commercial center of the borough, over recent years Downtown Brooklyn has seen a rise in the construction of residential buildings like Brooklyn Point, and many former office spaces have turned into condos and apartments. This is largely due to zoning changes which came about in 2004 with the Downtown Brooklyn Plan which allowed development projects like City Point to be built. City Point is now the largest food, shopping and entertainment destination in Brooklyn which boasts stores, a movie theater, and Dekalb Market, a food hall that started as a collection of vendors selling their goods out of shipping containers. Other cultural attractions in the area include the recently opened Center for Fiction, a library, bookstore, writer’s studio, cafe and bar all rolled into one (which relocated from its Manhattan location where it was founded as the Mercantile Library in 1820), and BAM, a performing arts center.

Brooklyn Point is the third and final tower to be developed at City Point, but not the last to be built in Downtown Brooklyn.  Brooklyn Point will hold the title of Brooklyn’s tallest tower until a new 1,066-foot tall skyscraper designed by SHoP architects tops out at 9 DeKalb Avenue, rising above the landmarked Dime Saving Bank. Check out more photos of Brooklyn Point below:

Image Courtesy of Williams New York

Image Courtesy of Extell Development Company

Image Courtesy of Extell Development Company

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