Das Bunker Rising on Bond Street

We don't frequently wade into the territory of ugly ass interesting looking Brooklyn buildings, but in a recent photo walk around Gowanus, we happened to focus on 340-352 Bond Street, which is a block from the Carroll Street Bridge. We'd shot photos of it before at various stages of construction, but it didn't dawn on us exactly how awful different this building truly is with its prison-like residentially-isolated and secure exterior and the dumbfounding lack of windows uplifting abundance of wall space. Truly a building in which you can feel safe.

The site on which Das Bunker is rising has a bit of a history. It replaces a 19th-century stable house that was demolished to make way for it. Brownstoner chronicled the demolition back in May '05 when GL was still a twinkle in our eyes.

In any case, the building is a creation of Scarano Architects, one of the more prolific and controversial Brooklyn firms. We look forward to Das Bunker's continued progress toward completion and will simply say that if you are window phobic or if you desperately crave that retro East Berlin 1979 Look, this building is for you. (There are also some old gun emplacements and concrete observation bunkers in Montauk of which this building reminds us.) Look at the bright side, however: Less pesky window cleaning. We all know how daunting that can be on an upper floor in an urban setting where they get dirtier faster.