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Columbia Street Waterfront District, Brooklyn: Twenty-Two Blocks by the Bay

Columbia Street Waterfront District, New York

Columbia Street in evening light
— The lorax, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Columbia Street Waterfront District sits on Upper New York Bay between Cobble Hill and Red Hook, about twenty-two blocks between the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and the waterfront, from Atlantic Avenue to the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel. It was established in 1957, when the newly constructed expressway effectively separated Columbia Street from Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill. A 1975 accident during a sewer-line repair caused the death of a construction worker, emptied the district further of tenants, and was followed by the demolition of 33 buildings. By 1984 an urban renewal project was completed, as well as a brand-new street, houses along which sold out quickly. It is one of Brooklyn's smallest neighborhoods, and is sometimes characterised as an extension of Carroll Gardens or Cobble Hill rather than a distinct entity.

A corridor rebuilt

The rebuilding that followed the 1975 demolitions arrived in phases. Also in 1984, the first phase of Columbia Terrace was completed: a seventeen-building low-rise project on President Street with 51 one-, two- and three-bedroom condominium units. Phases two through four added 129 more apartments on President and Carroll Streets.

Industrial buildings were converted rather than replaced. In 1986 a former Louis Comfort Tiffany factory building on the cobblestone street named Tiffany Place became condominiums. In 2010 a former pasta manufacturing facility at 25 Carroll Street was converted into 17 loft condominiums.

Through the 2000s the district saw a wave of new bakeries, restaurants and small businesses open along Columbia Street, and several of them are still trading. Because sources fold the district into Carroll Gardens or Cobble Hill as often as they treat it separately, no boundary line here should be read as settled.

Getting there

No subway station sits inside the district, so the bus is the direct answer. The B61 runs along Columbia Street through the neighborhood, travelling north via Van Brunt Street from Red Hook, then Columbia Street, then Atlantic Avenue through Boerum Hill and Cobble Hill into Downtown Brooklyn, terminating at Smith Street and Livingston Street just south of the Fulton Mall and the Jay Street-MetroTech subway station.

Three subway stations sit outside the district in neighbouring areas. Carroll Street, on the F and G, is in Carroll Gardens at Carroll and Smith Streets, with no entrance directly on Carroll Street. Bergen Street, also on the F and G, is at the intersection of Bergen Street and Smith Street on the border of Cobble Hill and Boerum Hill. Smith-Ninth Streets, on the same lines, is over the Gowanus Canal near Smith and Ninth Streets, in Gowanus.

What's here

  • Van Voorhees Playground

    The district's own park, 5.25 acres of courts and playground under trees that have stood since before the expressway reshaped the block.

  • Jalopy Theatre and School of Music

    A nonprofit folk venue and music school on Columbia Street, running since 2006.

  • Tiffany Place

    A cobblestone street with a former Louis Comfort Tiffany factory on it, converted to condominiums in 1986.

  • Alma

    Three floors of Mexican cooking on Columbia Street, open since 2002, with a rooftop Sky Lounge at the top.

  • Mazzat

    Grilled meats, kebabs, hummus and falafel on Columbia Street, open seven days.

Questions

How do I get to the Columbia Street Waterfront District?

By the B61 bus, which runs along Columbia Street through the district between Red Hook and Downtown Brooklyn. There is no subway station in the district itself; the nearest are Carroll Street on the F and G, in Carroll Gardens, and Bergen Street on the F and G, on the Cobble Hill and Boerum Hill border.

Is this really a separate neighborhood?

Sources disagree. Wikipedia calls it one of Brooklyn's smallest neighborhoods but notes it is sometimes characterised as an extension of Carroll Gardens or Cobble Hill rather than a distinct entity. It became identifiable at all in 1957, when the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway cut Columbia Street off from both.

What is Tiffany Place?

A cobblestone street named for the former Louis Comfort Tiffany factory building that stands on it. The building was converted into condominiums in 1986. It is private housing, so the street and its industrial-era fabric are what a visitor sees.

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