461 Dean

When it was completed in 2016, 461 Dean was the tallest modular building in the world, a 32-story tower assembled from roughly 930 steel-framed modules built in a factory at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. SHoP Architects designed it and Forest City Ratner built it as part of the Pacific Park development around Barclays Center, and Brookfield Properties is the manager on record. Years of delays, problems with leaks and alignment, and a dispute between Forest City Ratner and its construction partner Skanska made the project a cautionary tale for modular high-rise construction. Today it lives like a conventional rental tower, and half of its 363 apartments were set aside as income-restricted housing, in keeping with the affordable housing commitments that came with the Atlantic Yards approvals.

The tower stands at 461 Dean Street, at the corner of Flatbush Avenue directly behind Barclays Center in Prospect Heights. Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Museum are a walk southeast, and the Fort Greene and Park Slope brownstone blocks are close by.

That location puts it at one of the best-connected subway hubs in Brooklyn: the 2, 3, 4, 5, B, D, N, Q and R stop at Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center, the LIRR runs from Atlantic Terminal, and the B and Q stop at 7th Avenue.