A 420-foot tower is officially headed to 188 Duffield Street in Downtown Brooklyn, and the long-fought row of 19th-century Duffield Street Houses will stay standing at its feet.
The Landmarks Preservation Commission has signed off on a revised mixed-use plan that keeps the quartet of landmarked houses at the base of the project. The updated design tucks a slender beige-brick tower toward the rear of the lot while converting 188 Duffield into the main entrance and ground-floor retail, with the remaining houses reused at townhouse scale.
The vote came at an LPC public meeting on June 9, where commissioners approved a package of design tweaks that trims the tower and reshapes its bulk. According to presentation materials from the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the revised scheme tops out at roughly 420 feet in height, about 30 feet less than earlier iterations.
Hill West Architects and Acheson Doyle Partners are leading the design. Renderings show a restrained beige-brick facade with punched windows grouped in two- and three-story vertical modules, as reported by Brownstoner. The presentation also depicts a largely blank southern lot-line wall and a triple-height lobby routed through 188 Duffield into a shared courtyard behind the landmarked fronts.
Design revisions and preservation
According to the latest presentation set from the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the development team reworked the tower’s massing to sit more comfortably alongside the low-rise streetscape. The updated plans enlarge the interior courtyard and refine the window layout to reduce visual competition with the historic rowhouses out front.
The slides list the project at roughly 10 FAR. They show 182 through 186 Duffield Street developed as townhouse-scale residences, while 188 Duffield is repurposed as the primary entrance for the tower with retail at the ground floor.
Neighbors and preservationists push back
The road to this approval has been bumpy. Earlier versions that would have gutted the historic houses drew unanimous criticism and a formal rebuke from the LPC, while local preservation groups and nearby residents publicly pushed back on proposals that altered interiors or removed porches.
Brooklyn Paper reported that both commissioners and community advocates warned those earlier plans would have “diminished severely” the landmarked row and urged the design team to rethink the project so that it highlights, rather than overwhelms, the houses.
Permits, unit count and next steps
Permits filed in 2024 outlined a 30-story, roughly 323-foot building with about 115 residential units, according to earlier reporting by Brownstoner. The latest LPC submission does not spell out a revised unit count, New York YIMBY notes, so the final number will only be clear once updated plans hit the Department of Buildings.
Even with landmark approval secured, the developer still has to lock down building permits, financing and any remaining city sign-offs before construction can start. Nearby residents and preservation advocates say they will keep a close eye on the project as it moves through the next rounds of review.
