Architect Gene Kaufman is making his first foray into Brooklyn with a mixed-use, mixed-income project along McGuinness Boulevard, between Calyer Street and Greenpoint Avenue. It recently broke ground, and renderings were released this week. The developer, Stellar Management, razed five smaller buildings to make way for the project.

It will be one large building (eight stories and 210k SF, with 350 feet of frontage on McGuinness) but its design will make it look like “nine modestly sized individual buildings” to “suggest a typical Greenpoint streetscape,” according to the architect. There will be 197 studios and one- and two-bedroom units, with 20% of the total marked off as affordable housing. The residential component will be 160k SF, and it will be complemented by 18,300 SF of ground-floor retail, 175k of common space, 112 parking spots at cellar level and (this being Brooklyn) 101 bike storage spaces.

The common space includes a 20k SF roof deck with a pool. GKA is handling all of the design and engineering, right down to the project expediting. “This project offered an unparalleled opportunity to design a major project on one of the most important streets in Brooklyn,” Gene Kaufman says. “By sectioning the façade, we’ve ensured that, despite its size, the building will fit the scale and historic character of the neighborhood.”