(Photo by epc)

The following are selected links from this past week on blogs and websites with discussion about Dumbo (and its neighboring areas):

• Dumbo Moves Up in Real-Estate Ranks, 10Feb2012, WSJ
• Romantic Spots in Brooklyn, 11Feb2012, BK Paper
• P.S. 8 Middle School Approved, 10Feb2012, BHB
• Marty: Dumbo Is Leading New York Into The 21St Century, 02Feb2012, DID
• True Love In Pictures in Dumbo, 07Feb2012, Adventurista
• bring NYU applied-sciences school to Brooklyn, 08Feb2012, NYP
• Inside the New One Girl Cookies in Dumbo, 09Feb2012, Brownstoner
• 20 Henry Street Condos Officially Hit the Market, 08Feb2012, Brownstoner
• Apartment into Loft in Brooklyn Heights, 07Feb2012, Brownstoner
• Colonie Chef Brad McDonald Now Opening Two Restaurants in Dumbo, Including Mexican, 09Feb2012, NYMag

(Photo from DUMBO Improvement District)

The DUMBO Improvement District announced today that 30 new “Hoop” racks have been installed in Dumbo this week. The DUMBO Improvement District applied to NYCDOT’s Cityracks program for the new racks last fall.

From DUMBO Improvement District:

The Hoop design was developed for NYC Cityracks by Danish designers Ian Mahaffy and Maarten De Greeve (Bettlelab) after the duo won a bike rack design competition (judged by DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, Sarah Coffin & Matilda McQuaid from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, and even well known cyclist and Talking Head, David Byrne.) Hoop is a round rack and horizontal crossbar that DOT says evokes an abstracted bicycle tire.

Alexandria Sica, Executive Director of the DUMBO BID and avid bike commuter, said of the new racks, “Biking is a major mode of transportation for so many of us and a key part of the DUMBO culture. Our racks have been overflowing for some time, so we’re thrilled DOT worked with us to bring more to the neighborhood. And, they look great to match your Surly.”

More detail: DUMBO Improvement District

There’s a new commercial building offering office space at 231 Front Street (between Bridge and Gold Streets). A 70,000 square feet office property, 231 Front Street is an Early 20th Century commercial style factory building, designed by William B. Tubby, and built in 1908.

At this point, the first floor is built out with 25 office spaces with rents ranging $950-1,300 per month. These are single room offices (no food or retail) similar to GreenDesk in Dumbo. Two larger spaces, for $2,200 and $2,500 have already been leased out. For further details, contact Creative Real Estate Group, who is handling the leasing (Frank DeCarlo 917.882.2185 or francisdecarlo@gmail.com.

{LPC Reviews 30 Henry and 231 Front Street, 10Jan2012}

There is a trunk show at Ehvonnae in Dumbo by Freshly Given. Freshly Given hand makes limited edition accessories from repurposed leather. Her style is elegant, classic, vintage, and retro. To view some items, go to shop.freshlygiven.com.

Who | What: Freshly Given | Trunk Show NYC
When: Thursday, February 16, 2012 | 6-10pm
Where: Ehvonnae 145 Front Street, Unit B, Brooklyn, NY 11201 718.310.3686

For those interested in typography, check out photos from McMillian + Furlow, a design firm based in Brooklyn. They created photos (using Hipstamatic) of Brooklyn’s neighborhoods matched with fonts from Lost Type. Very cool.

Here’s what they had to say about Dumbo: “This slab-serif display font fully represents DUMBO in all it’s glory. With it’s waterfront parks, expensive apartments and breathtaking views, DUMBO is home to many digital agencies, creative groups, art galleries and non-profit organizations.”

Join Jam On DUMBO this Sunday as part of their 2012 Winter Concert Series, held at Superfine restaurant, 126 Front Street, Brooklyn.

For each of the two (remaining) concerts, doors open at 4 pm, and the bands will play from 4:30-5:30 pm. Tickets are $20 per family, available at the door (cash only). Superfine will be providing a special kids menu before and after the concerts, and there will be free face-painting and balloons for the kids!

TWO CONCERTS LEFT:
Here’s the lineup:

• Sunday, February 12, 2012: Still Saffire
• Sunday, March 11, 2012: Shine and the Moonbeams

This year’s concert series will raise money for their free Summer Family Music Festival in 2012, as well as our 2012 community outreach projects, including Music Week at P.S. 307 (for more details on that project, check out our website, www.jamondumbo.com).

3rd Seminar: Wednesday February 15, 2012 at 12.00 EST / 17.00 GMT

“War, Politics, Fashion”

Dumbo based VII Photo and Blue Barn Pictures have teamed up to create free web seminar series in which VII photographers talk about their expansion into new areas of creative and commercial work. The third seminar (of five) is by photographer Christopher Morris who has embraced conflict photography, political coverage, portraiture and fashion during his career. Christopher will lead the workshop through the process of working in several platforms. He will demonstrate his assignment process, which typically includes shooting stills in color while simultaneously shooting mono video from which he can subsequently edit stills for additional markets.

From VII:

CHRISTOPHER MORRIS, one of the founding members of VII, will lead the third of VII’s Visual Journey seminars, in which he will talk about his process of working in several platforms simultaneously and learning to see afresh in each. He will demonstrate his assignment process, which typically includes shooting stills in color while simultaneously shooting video from which he subsequently edits stills for additional markets.

Christopher Morris’ first career was established as a conflict photographer responsible for some of the seminal images of the 1990’s; his second career was made in Washington where he developed a new and insightful style of political coverage. And since 2009 he has forged yet another career in fashion. He has worked for leading fashion magazines in Europe, been commissioned directly by fashion houses, most recently Robert Cavalli and won the “The Look” award for editorial fashion photography.

To register, go to viiphoto.com/news/the-visual-journeys-seminars.

Previously:
{VII and Blue Barn Pictures Visual Journey Seminars}

The following are selected links from this past week on blogs and websites with discussion about Dumbo (and its neighboring areas):

• Cultivate Brooklyn’s talent w/ @NYUPOLY’s proposal, 03Feb2012, NYDN
• Vinegar Hill House’s Caesar salad, 02Feb2012, BK Paper
• Dumbo-Based SocialGuide, a TV Guide for the Twitter Era, 30Jan2012, Betabeat
• Downtown Brooklyn’s Growth, 02Feb2012, Metro
• Would You Like a Beer With That Movie?, 02Feb2012, WSJ
• 50 Bridge win settlement from notorious developer Joshua Guttman, 01Feb2012, TRD
• Invstors See Opportunity in Brooklyn, 02Feb2012, REWeekly
• Tech Boom Upgrades Expectations in Brooklyn, 03Feb2012, NY1
• 220 Water St Apartments Now Renting, 03Feb2012, Brownstoner
• Recasting a Brooklyn Warehouse, 30Jan2012, WSJ
• End of a (Short) Era: Morton’s Closes in Downtown BK, 02Feb2012, Brownstoner
• Settlement in Lawsuit Over Defects at 50 Bridge Street, 01Feb2012, Brownstoner

Writer Kay S. Hymowitz’s article titled How Brooklyn Got Its Groove Back on City Journal is a fascinating read into what changes took place in the past few decades that brought Brooklyn to the forefront of the creative-class in NYC. Ms. Hymowitz asks, “How did the Brooklyn of the Lehanes and crack houses turn into what it is today—home to celebrities like Maggie Gyllenhaal and Adrian Grenier, to Michelin-starred chefs, and to more writers per square foot than any place outside Yaddo? How did the borough become a destination for tour buses showing off some of the most desirable real estate in the city, even the country?”

She answers them by showing how Brooklyn neighborhoods, including Dumbo, grew from being an industrial area into a creative-class gentrified neighborhood and “one of the wealthiest and fastest-growing neighborhoods in Brooklyn”.

In 1981, though, developer David Walentas took a look at the brick warehouses and factories (most dating from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries) and, taking a cue from his recent development successes in another former industrial area, Soho, bought 11 of them—almost an entire neighborhood. Or what he hoped might someday become a neighborhood: like Red Hook, Dumbo was still zoned solely for manufacturing, despite manufacturers’ indifference to the area. Walentas had to wait 17 years for the city to pronounce Dumbo “mixed-use” and for the area to come alive.

Walentas’s prescience—and patience—put him in an unusual position. Like many successful developers, he was able to make a lot of money: space in the buildings he bought for $6 per square foot now sometimes sells for $1,000 per square foot. But unlike other developers, Walentas owned so much of a neighborhood that he could play God. Also, since he was making so much money from the properties overall, he could give rent breaks to commercial tenants that he viewed as desirable—for instance, upscale retailers like West Elm, the modern-furniture outlet, and Jacques Torres, a high-end chocolatier—while refusing chains like Duane Reade, which, he felt, set the wrong, down-market tone.

Read the article for more about Dumbo’s digital-media marketing and startup firms, Williamsburg’s gentrification, and Park Slope’s literary center.

Looks like the viral marketing group at thinkmodo have done it again. They’ve created a marketing campaign for a new movie, Chronicle that’s gone viral. Three human shaped RC planes were launched around Dumbo Brooklyn to make it look like real people were flying.

According to Techcrunch, Michael Krivicka from Thinkmodo explains “Since the three main characters of the movie have the ability to fly, we came up with the idea of staging a few “flying people” sightings around NYC. We achieved that illusion by having 3 custom-made aircraft (which were shaped like human beings) fly above designated areas in NYC and NJ.”

Thanks to the many people who have sent this video to us.