Recently re-elected sugar daddy Mayor Michael Bloomberg may have pissed off the masses with his $90-million ad campaign and personalized term limits calendar, but he did at least one thing right over the last 8 years: appoint British architect David Burney to commissioner of the Dept. of Design and Construction.

During his time in office, Burney has been hiring high-end architecture firms to design municipal buildings, such as police stations and libraries, and as a result, he has brought snazzy new buildings to neighborhoods otherwise unlikely to get them — including Bushwick. His fight for aesthetics was recently reviewed in a New York magazine article, and one of the buildings on the list is the Engine Company 277 firehouse on Knickerbocker Avenue.

An alien spaceship when compared to its dreary surroundings, the station was designed by STV Inc. and received the “prestigious award for excellence in design from the Art Commission of the City of New York” before opening in 2007.

The article also highlights the stylish Saratoga Avenue Community Center just across Broadway in Bed-Stuy. As noted by the reporter: “The building has an aura of protective dignity — nearly a year after completion, the high outside wall remains free of the graffiti that has metastasized across the street.”

Maybe… people respect nice things? Keep ‘em coming!

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