[log in to unmask] writes (about witnessing the original
"restoration" of Brooklyn Borough Hall:

> So was goddam near every Pinhead except Sharpshooter.

To: Ralph
From:  Poetry-in-motion

Hey buster, get a load of the byline on this sucker:

The New York Times,  June  7, 1987, Sunday, Late City Final Edition

HEADLINE: Streetscapes: Brooklyn Borough Hall;
A Greek Revival Temple Fronts an 1848 City Hall

BYLINE: By  CHRISTOPHER GRAY

   BROOKLYN BOROUGH HALL has aroused debate from the start, so the recent
controversy over its prolonged restoration is perhaps in context. But if all
goes well, it will be in service by early 1988 as borough offices, and as a
reminder of Brooklyn's glory days before it became part of New York City in
1898.

   The term ''Borough Hall'' is something that a real Brooklyn booster may
bridle at, or correct. For it was built as City Hall when Brooklyn was still
its
own master. Brooklyn was incorporated as a city in April 1834, and its new
Council began discussions of a fitting seat of government three months later.

   In 1835, a triangular plot bounded by Fulton, Joralemon and Court Streets
was
acquired, and an architectural competition followed. But construction did not
begin until 1845, after a decade of false starts, switching architects,
lawsuits
and near bankruptcy for the fledging city.

   Finally, Gamaliel King, a local architect and builder, came up with an
acceptable design for a severe Greek Revival, four-story building with a
temple
front. Wisely, he used the light-gray Tuckahoe marble cut for an earlier
design;
the contractor had been suing for years for payment.

   The main facade faced north onto the the triangle, with a giant stairway
leading up to an Ionic-style portico with six free-standing columns. Exterior
decoration was reduced to a minimum - even the modest egg and dart detailing
at
the second floor was restricted to the area under the portico. The entire
structure was taut, attenuated.

   Except for the projecting temple front, the completed City Hall was
rectangular in plan, although two wings projected slightly from the back.
Instead of a dome - a standard feature in government buildings of the period
-King had a wooden cupola, with a clock, that doubled as a fire lookout and a
bell tower. A figure of Justice was placed on the top.

   Although first occupied in late 1848, some rooms in the City Hall were not
finished until the 1860's. It had a relatively straightforward plan - an
east-west corridor running down the middle of a series of unexceptional rooms
except for a double-height courtroom and a columned, double-height central
gallery.
   Unlike other government buildings, which were either built for the ages or
operated by agencies too cheap to alter them, the new City Hall saw regular
and
successive changes. The completion of the interior took 20 years. And then
there
were water problems, for the basement floors were set on sand fill.
Apparently,
there also were problems with King's interior stairs, and they were replaced.
Long before the present restoration effort, all of the original stone flooring
had been removed - an unusual change for such a durable material - and only
one
original door survived intact. The ''restored'' stairs are largely
conjectural,
since only traces of the originals survived.

   In 1895, two years after a fire watch had ended, a midday fire destroyed
the
cupola, sending the bell and the statue of Justice crashing through the roof.
A
new cast-iron cupola went up in 1898, the same year the city became a borough.

   Gradually, the area around Borough Hall became a civic center, attracting
courts and municipal buildings, but Borough Hall remained the focus, perched
on
a small, green rise. The construction of an elevated rail line in the 1880's
and
later street widenings undercut its presence, however. In the 50's, the
building
of a civic center complex led to the demolition of all the buildings on one
side
of the triangle across from Borough Hall. With the demolition, the park lost
its
its sense of enclosure, and Fulton Street was cut off short of it,
compromising
the centrality of Borough Hall.

   The aim of the master plan was to leave Borough Hall at the end of a long
swath of park running all the way to the Brooklyn Bridge, a conceit that would
have worked only with a building the size of the Capitol. THE idea of
restoring
Borough Hall came in the early 70's, but it was not until 1982 that the
Department of General Services let a contract for the project to the
architectural firm of Conklin & Rossant. Since 1983 the building has been
closed
as work proceeded - overbudget and overdue. In 1983, completion was scheduled
for 1985.

   On schedule or not, the project is now in the home stretch. The exterior
is a
spotty, light-and-dark gray from test patches made before a final cleaning.
The
interior is almost entirely new, since there was nearly nothing original left
to
restore. Thus the building is a peculiar amalgam - an antique facade seemingly
applied to a modern interior. All in all, there is something a little
unsettling, a restlessness, to Borough Hall, as if the city inside the borough
is still trying to break out.

GRAPHIC: Photo of Fulton Street el, Court Street and Brooklyn Borough Hall in
1908