PHOTOS: A long last look at the Coignet building before its big makeover
Get a good last look at Little Red.
The iconic red-hued Coignet Building next door to the Whole Foods on Third Avenue and 3rd Street in Gowanus is going to be completely covered in scaffolding and black netting soon, construction workers told the Brooklyn Eagle.
And then they are going to strip the fake brick finish off the real facade, which is made of ghostly white concrete shaped to look like stones, to do a historically correct renovation of the 19th Century city landmark.
So far, the scaffolding and netting has only been put up on the side walls of the vacant landmark, which are just inches from the newly built Whole Foods store.
The giant grocery chain is responsible for footing the bill for the exterior makeover – which will cost an estimated $1.3 million, according to a city Buildings Department permit issued in February. Lifelong Gowanus resident Lorraine Muczyn, for one, is thrilled Whole Foods has started the rehab work.
She loved the building when she was a kid and it showed its white concrete face to the world. To her, it looked like the kind of place where Wendy from “Peter Pan” would live.
“When I was a child, I told my mother it would make a wonderful house,” she said. “My mother explained it was always a commercial building.”
