Orthodox Jewish Group Digging Gothic Architecture
Back in 1940, the Orthodox Lubavitchers in Crown Heights bought the building at 770 Eastern Parkway for the Rebbe at the time. As the group spread its word throughout the world, the design of 770 caught on to such an extent that there have been a dozen attempts to emulate it. The photographers Andrea Robbins…
Back in 1940, the Orthodox Lubavitchers in Crown Heights bought the building at 770 Eastern Parkway for the Rebbe at the time. As the group spread its word throughout the world, the design of 770 caught on to such an extent that there have been a dozen attempts to emulate it. The photographers Andrea Robbins and Max Becher decided to capture all 12 on film. Most don’t even come close, in our opinion, but that’s not really the point. Check them out on the jump.
770 Eastern Parkway [Robbins Becher via Kottke]
I am flabbergasted.
anon 10:43 fair response and you didnt insult an entire group of people like that pig from flatbush.
anon 11:54 – Name me one group in brooklyn that doesn’t “run red lights, drive dangerously and flaunt the fact that their above the law”? Brooklyn is the only place i have been to where people HONK at you for NOT running a red light!!!! My point is its not the lubavitch its EVERYONE in brooklyn.
The Wmsburg branch of the Hasidim are called the Satmar, Anon@5:47; the ones in Borough Park are the Bobov and, I think, the Pupa. And yes, the schoolbuses are notorious. (My daughter’s pediatrician, who is in the heart of Boro Park, despairs of the kids every getting any exercise–they get bussed around the corner to yeshiva.) Of all the sects, only the Lubavitchers in Crown Heights have a reputation for outreach and proseletyzing to non-Hasidic Jews; the other folks are extremely insular (or, as a Reformed Jewish friend observed tartly, “they think we’re already damned.”) The Boro Park folks are also responsible for a wave of pretty atrocious build-outs and tear-downs to accommodate their large families; they are committed to staying in close geographic proximity to their rebbes so there’s no “moving to the ‘burbs” unless, like Kiryas Joel in upstate NY, they all move in a group colony.
All religions are cults, for my money (or perhaps more precisely they’re political parties these days), but I say you gotta hand it to them for at least trying to build something cool-ish. They don’t get all the proportions right, true, but they’re not half bad. Indeed, I wish more buildings like this would go up in bklyn–in addition to some fab contemporaries.
What a great piece, Mr. B.! I love it. The cute Gothic structure became identified with the nurturing community; this building reproduced in all of its incongruous locations became a metaphor for a group which is small and quite distinct from its neighbors. I love the fact that the houses don’t fit in and assert themselves in their quirky way. How about the one in Sao Paulo! I so dig it! I also like the fact that it is a little piece of Brooklyn spread far and wide.
Mitvah Mobile is nothing compared to Williamsburg Hasidic schoolbuses. Watch out!!! I wish the Somner (Satner?) group could be more like the Crown Heights Jews.
Talk about a cult.
“kool aid quaffing”
What a cheap shot by a cheap ass. And by the way I have your bonafide right here for you whenever you’re ready.
Who designed this website for 770? You have to scroll to the right to see all the photos.
What’s wrong with a scroll down the page, so you can see several at once and do a compare?
*shakes head in confusion*