Curbed finally confirmed the existence of one of the most startling and slightly unbelievable things I’ve ever seen in Brooklyn — the building known as “Broken Angel”:
My first jaw-dropping gaze at this thing was at a party down in a part of Bed-Stuy I’d never seen before; I found myself on a roof just a few doors down from it on Downing Street. The apartment where the party was held was amazing in its own right, as was the huge smokestack right next door, the only remnant of an old - I wanna say brick? - factory. (Weird part of town - architecturally at least!) And I found myself face to face with the Broken Angel again a few weeks ago as we were trying to donate some old stuff from 79 Lorimer St to a Salvation Army that turned out to be right down the street from it.
Sez Curbed:
Conversely, apparently everybody cares that 4 Downing St. in Bed-Stuy/Clinton Hill is Broken Angel, in-progress work of art and residence of Arthur Wood, Best Urban Folly of 2001, site of a Dave Chapelle block party.
Who knew? But the thing is quite a sight/site to behold. This page from Brownstoner has another view, and some interesting info about the sculptor, Arthur Wood.
Can Google Maps see this thing? Just barely:
June 19th, 2006 at 5:25 pm
How do they owners get a permit to continue adding on to this place? I saw the insides and interview with the two owners on Chappell’s BLOCK PARTY - Do you know any interesting things about this place? The owners said they have been in the place since the late 60’s ?? Looks like a half hearted attempt at a FACTORY - via Warhol.
October 15th, 2006 at 2:27 am
My parents, Arthur and Cynthia Wood have been living in fear of the building department after a threat this week to throw them out on to the street without even their family possessions or artwork, and destroy their home of 30 years “Broken Angel”. Last night someone placed a broken angel statue in front of my parent’s door at 4 Downing Street. http://www.flickr.com/photos/onebadapple Thank you to the anyonomus donor, it meant the world to me and my parents as it gave us a spark of hope.
Many of you wonder what the hell my parents are doing with that building. They always were building an outline of a dream, a building that was different from the usual architecture of today. They did this while never having enough money to complete their dream. But that didn’t stop them for using found or discarded objects that we throw away ever day like the glass bottles that they used to create a stained glass windows. http://www.flickr.com/photos/onebadapple/sets This is the interior and exterior of Broken Angel. My name is Christopher Wood, I have worked for B&H Art in Architecture (web site here http://www.bandhartinarch.com/) for the past 4 years. I am a stone carver and have restored such landmarks such as the Cloisters Museum , Metropolitan Museum of Art , and Grace Church in Manhattan.
My parents and I would love to give back to the community of Brooklyn and turn Broken Angel into a nonprofit foundation for music and the arts which would include a school and museum. There are also complete building plans drawn up by my father in which the first page can viewed at http://www.flickr.com/photos/onebadapple/168044712/in/set-127493 But we need help from you, the residents of New York City.
All of your comments and ideas are welcome
Donations can be sent to Arthur Wood at
4 Downing street Brooklyn, New York 11238
I am at work on a web site with friends of Broken Angel to accept paypal donations
October 29th, 2006 at 6:47 pm
Update Broken Angel 10/29/06
On 10/10/06 Broken Angel suffered minimal damage from a fire at the top of the structure. The cause of the fire is unknown and still under investigation. Broken Angel has been an active project of construction by my family beginning in 1979. Major construction was finished in 2002, and all work done thereafter has been for the purpose of maintaining the building. The fire brought the attention of the Department of Buildings (DOB), previous interactions had occurred in 1986, and 2002 with no action taken against the building. During the course of building and maintaining the structure there have been no accidents or complaints. Compared with most modern construction projects, such as the Time Warner building in NYC, this is an excellent record. It raises questions as to why large developers are allowed to continue construction when they pose a risk to the community, whereas Broken Angel, which has no history of construction problems, has been singled out as a danger. My mother and father, the legal guardians and owners of Broken Angel were threatened with eviction for 6 days. On the 7th day they were vacated by the police without a court order or engineer’s report. We question the necessity and the humanity of this action. They were told that this was done for their safety; however action was taken prior to any inspection of the interior of the building by an engineer. Furthermore, we were told that the building would be demolished in 3 weeks if an architect did not submit plans to bring it to code. We have been compliant with this request. We are thankful to the firm of Jordan Parnass Digital Architecture http://www.jpda.net/news.html for all of their help and support. On Thursday (10/26/06) an engineer from the DOB toured the structure, and the next day the DOB released a different story. A DOB spokesperson recently commented to the Daily News (10/27/06) that any demolition orders, if warranted will take approximately 3 months to begin.
January 14th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
Time for an update on Broken Angel! A contract has been signed by Arthur Wood to renovate the building (as of yesterday at 4:30). Excellent news for Arthur and Cynthia Wood and their family.