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NY Water Taxi calls Red Hook in Brooklyn home. Erie Basin in Red Hook, alongside the O’Connell organization’s German American Stores building, is the home of NY Water Taxi. This is the home base from which the company operates sighteseeing, charter, and ferry operations. The popular IKEA ferry landing is nearby, which carries passengers …

An unexpected find in the Liberty Warehouse. If you spend enough time around New York Harbor and the older sections of Brooklyn, you’ll start to get a bit jaded by the historic tableau. The Merchant Stores building at Pier 41 was built in 1873 but she’s still got a lot of surprises. As the …

Iconic features at the Red Hook waterfront. Iron door shutters are found on all of the O’Connell properties here in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The arched casements and doors are typical of the era in which these properties were built, just before and after the American Civil War in the 1860’s. The arches provide strength, …

  When the O’Connell Organization first came to Red Hook, it set out to preserve and protect the history of the South Brooklyn waterfront.   Over the past 45 years, the organization has rehabilitated dozens of residential and commercial properties in the Red Hook, Columbia Street Waterfront, Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill areas of …

Charles Flickinger began his career as a stained glass designer and craftsman. Early on, he worked for several leading glass studios in New York City including Rambusch Decorating and Ernest Porcelli Art Glass Studio. After helping to restore the Statue of Liberty’s bent glass torch in 1984, he began a series of apprenticeships with …

Classic signage on the exterior of the Liberty Warehouse.

Take a look at the iron work of Oleg Shyshkin. Toronto’s Wrought Iron Art LTD. maintains a workshop at the O’Connell Organization’s German American Stores in Red Hook, Brooklyn. In 1996, Oleg Shyshkin, an architect by profession, opened a creative studio in Toronto, Canada, for the design and artistic forging of wrought iron. “Iron is …