Life’s a beach for bougie bolshy Brooklyn transplant Gustavo Gordillo.
The local community board in Bed-Stuy slammed the plans for an expansive renovation of the $1.5 million house that Gordillo’s parents bought for the NYC Democratic Socialists of America leader — but the project ended up getting the green light anyway.
The community board said the upgrades were “not in alignment” with the historically black neighborhood, which has been taken over by hoards of gentrifying lefties.
One commissioner with the Landmarks Preservation Commission said during a hearing he thought the house is going to look more like a “Hampton’s beach house” than a Bedford-Stuyvesant row house.
Several other commissioners of the Landmarks Preservation Commission also panned the design for the massive renovation proposed by the co-chairman Gordillo, a 38-year-old Yale grad from South Florida who moonlighted as an electrician before convincing the New York City chapter of the DSA to give him a full-time job to be co-chair.
“The proposed building alteration will significantly impact the district’s form and character and is not in alignment with the nearby row houses. Therefore, Brooklyn Community Board 3 resolves to not support the proposed extension to the existing building,” Evelyn Collier, chair of Board 3’s landmarks committee, said during an April 25, 2023, LPC hearing.
Collier has championed Bed-Stuy’s historic district.
During her testimony, Collier said the “window and door sizes” planned for Gordillo’s row house on Decatur Street “are too large and do not relate to the adjacent buildings.”
Commissioner Everado Johnson criticized the “thinness” of the front facade “that won’t fit in with the rest of the block.”
“It’s going to feel like it’s a beach house in the Hamptons in the 1960s and 1970s,” Johnson said.
Commissioners spoke highly of the rooftop renovations but questioned whether other aspects of the “modern interpretation” of the historic row house worked.
Since a vote was not taken following that hearing, the commissioners asked Gordillo’s architects to come up with revisions before submitting a final design for a vote.
The LPC later approved the Gordillo permit in August 2023 for a huge overhaul of the $1.4 million row house.
But the approval of the permit came with conditions — including that the windows be made smaller, that the cornice be changed.
The board also told the architects to study ways to provide irrigation and drainage for the proposed planters and also take another look at the columns on the board and fascia board under the roof.
“Please note that all drawings, including amendments which are to be filed at the Department of Buildings, must be approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.”
The city Buildings Department issued a stop work order on Gordillo’s alterations last week for not getting proper permits for interior and facade work.
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