The Metropolitan Exchange

After Beckett, I leave the theater quickly. I still hope to catch the mysterious meeting of ‘young design and urban professionals’, Metropolitan Exchange, just a few blocks away from the BAM. I received an invitation from Tom with whom I met a few days earlier. He said he couldn’t come – but I should go.

I have no idea what to expect. While looking for the building, scanning the facades for numbers, a lady turns towards me and asks what am I looking for. 33, I answer, 33 Flatbush Avenue. This is where I go, she says, so she took me to the house, and let me in. You’re lucky, she goes on. The doorbells don’t work, you need to call someone’s phone to get in. Helped by her confidence, I do get in. I go up to the 6th floor, and timidely step out of the elevator. I came to a meeting, I start, but I’m some hours late, I turn to the first talking couple. You’ve arrived in the right time, a young woman says, come on in, and have a drink. She sounds german, and I make the connections between Philippe’s greetings and the MEx’s member list. Are you Kaja, I ask. How do you know, she’s surprised.

I engage in the conversation. Her partner in the post-presentation discussion is the owner of the building, I never learn his name. He’s been owning the building for decades, he explains. In the mid-70s, when New York was practically bankrupt, you could buy a square foot for 6 dollars, he tells me. In Midtown, Downtown, anywhere. I was hesitating between a Midtown building and this one, and I bought this one. I regretted many times, but now it’s my turn. I have some ideas how to use the building and what to do about the neighborhood.

The neighborhood is excellent. In the very center of Downtown Brooklyn, a block from the BAM, the Metropolitan Exchange building is located right in the middle of Brooklyn’s emerging cultural district. Why’s the name, I ask. Did you see the sign on the building? Yes, I saw it. It must have been a bank before. Yes, it was a bank, the Chemical Bank, but the signs are left here from a film shooting. They used the building as background setting, and they had to replace the bank’s logo, as it was easily recognizeable. they proposed to change it for something else. I asked them to find out something that I’ll like, so that I can keep it after the shooting. They came up with the ‘Metropolitan exchange’ idea, and I liked it. I think it incorporates perfectly the idea I want to fulfill with this building.

The monthly meeting of ‘young design and urban professionals’ around the round table on the 6th floor of 33 Flatbush Avenue, bears the same name. Everybody seems to be illuminated by the presentations I missed. I am all but disappointed: I am in a city that offers so much to talk about that a new platform is born every week, on every corner.