For years, the future of the historic Beaux-Arts Ridgewood Masonic Temple in Bushwick has been a mystery. It was put up for sale in 2010 and was quietly sold in 2014, according to the Brooklyn Eagle, but there was little word on what its new owner would do with it. Well, now we know — it’s reportedly going the way all storied buildings seem to go: apartments.
The Brooklyn Eagle reports on the plans:
In January, [owner Yoel] Wertzberger filed a plan with the Buildings Department proposing a horizontal and vertical enlargement of the building to create 28 apartments and turn the existing three-story “public assembly building,” which has a cellar and mezzanine, into a four-story residential building with a cellar and penthouse.
The estimated cost of the work is $1.25 million and the architect of record is Nataliya Donskoy of ND Architecture and Design, the filing indicates.
The project requires the approval of the city Landmarks Preservation Commission, which voted unanimously last July to make the Ridgewood Masonic Temple a landmark.
Furthering the condo theory, Curbed notes that Nataliya Donskoy of ND Architecture has “a track record of conversions, particularly church-to-apartment ones.”
If the end is nigh, let’s hope there are a few secrets that even Donskoy can’t unlock.
(Photo: Matthew X. Kiernan)
