Unlike the brownstones of Park Slope and Cobble Hill, the vinyl-sided rowhouses of North Brooklyn have never quite garnered the admiration of borough tastemakers. If anything, most new developments in North Brooklyn seem to make a point of distinguishing themselves from these structures.

But at 139 Meserole Street, a condominium in East Williamsburg, the architect Anthony Morena opted for a zinc shingle facade that recalls the neighborhood’s much-maligned exteriors — an approach that the development blog New York YIMBY called “vinyl revival.”

“For better or worse that is the look and feel of the ‘old’ neighborhood — the vinyl or wood-clad townhomes,” said Mr. Morena, who heads Mortar, a Manhattan-based architecture and development firm. “I liked the concept of using modern materials to mimic the original style and updating it, making it part of the design rather than an afterthought.”

Mr. Morena’s fondness for the architecture of East Williamsburg may owe something to the fact that he grew up there in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when it was a working-class community largely populated by Italian immigrants like his parents.