The Astral Apartments is a historic apartment building located in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York, New York.The Astral was built in 1885–1886 as affordable housing for employees of Charles Pratt's Astral Oil Works. It is a massive brick and terra cotta building in the Queen Anne style. It features a central projecting section with a deep, three-story-high round arch recess. The roof features inward-looking decorative gargoyles.Originally, a branch of the Pratt Institute Free Library operated from the ground floor of the Astral.The building was designed to echo red-brick apartments built for workers by George Peabody in London. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 and designated a City Landmark in 1983.In popular cultureThe building is the fictional setting for Kate Christensen's 2011 novel The Astral: A Novel.