Morris Adjmi Architects

Relating 465 Pacific to its context was complicated, in part because there are actually two contexts: the frontage on Pacific—a quiet, one-way residential street, and the frontage on Atlantic—one of Brooklyn’s primary commercial thoroughfares. Rather than respond to these distinct conditions individually, the new multifamily building strikes a balance between the two contrasting contexts.

Located just outside Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill Historic District, 465 Pacific’s lower brick volume draws inspiration from the historic architecture of the neighborhood, known for nineteenth-century brick townhouses. Along Atlantic Avenue, the wide façade and unbroken procession of windows fit in among the array of larger buildings that punctuate the sawtooth streetscape. At street level, metal-clad storefronts fill a gap in the commercial corridor. On Pacific Street, a narrower façade gives the building a more residential scale.

The stepped-back upper floors are clad in charcoal-colored metal paneling that introduces a contemporary design language but also nods to both the ironworkers who once lived in the neighborhood and the detailed iron railings fronting many local townhouses.