Parks
May 8, 2008
Waterfalls Project Rising in Brooklyn Bridge Park
A couple of readers today emailed us photos of the New York City Waterfalls project coming along between Piers 4 and 5 in Brooklyn Bridge Park. This is one of four such installations designed by Danish artist Olafur Eliasson; the other three are being constructed under the Brooklyn Bridge, on Governers Island and at Pier 35 in Manhattan.
Waterfall Art Project Coming to Life Under the Bridge [Brownstoner]
Top photo by Joe Flix; photo on the jump by Whitbo.
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April 29, 2008
Jehovah's Witnesses Volunteers Try Their Hands At City Park
The Watchtower Bible Tract Society, one of the Jehovah's Witnesses' legal entities, is nearing the design phase for Bridge Park 2 in Dumbo, a two-acre, city-owned park the Society agreed to restore in exchange for favorable zoning at 85 Jay Street. Back in 2004, the city approved a zoning variance for the Society to build on its large parking lot an 800,000-square-foot building with a 1,600-seat cafeteria, 2,500-seat assembly hall, 1,100-space public parking garage and 1,000 apartments. Of course that was before the Society began divesting its Brooklyn properties, so far selling nearly 300 apartments in four buildings and 360 Furman Street (now One Brooklyn Bridge Park) for a total of $195.1 million, according to city property records. Another 263 apartments in six buildings are on the market, including the Hotel Bossert, which one broker predicted would sell for at least $100 million.
Tucker Reed, head of the Dumbo Business Improvement District, was at a "listening session" held last week to solicit ideas for the new park. He said the Parks Department and Society have taken this long to reach an agreement on park construction. The Parks Department is used to getting a check from developers; the Jehovah's Witnesses do everything possible in-house through their world-wide network of volunteers. "We're an all-volunteer organization and we function on funds that are voluntarily donated by people, and so we want to make the best use of our resources," said Watchtower spokesman Richard Devine. Volunteers would do everything from designing to constructing the park, he said, sometimes flying in "from all over the country" if someone local doesn't have the expertise for the job. And since they believe in the Doctrine of Cleanliness, at least we know it will look perfect.
The proposed renovations in the original agreement included rehabilitation of a baseball field with artificial turf, an existing playground, seating area, landscaping and reopening the comfort station. "I think the community is looking at this to be a more active park than the Brooklyn Bridge Park, which is more walking and sitting and beautiful scenery," said Devine.
So does that mean the Watchtower Society is going to get started on its massive four-tower building? "We're not going to move forward in the near future but I wouldn't say we're never going to build," said Devine. Brooklyn Heights will still be the Jehovah's Witnesses' world headquarters as the hub of its editorial and administrative staff, he said. But, as has been well-reported, the Society moved its printing and shipping operations upstate and overseas, along with many of its support services (The headquarters is nearly a self-sustaining society. Volunteers support each other by proving everything from cleaning, cooking, laundry, window washing, electrical work and drape making). Devine said after they sold 360 Furman, they stopped making their own ink for the millions of publications and bibles they print in several languages. "We are consolidating quite a bit. In fact, the rezoning of 85 Jay really gave us the confidence to go ahead and move forward with consolidation," he said.
The only thing is, if 85 Jay Street is built as planned, with nearly double the apartments sold or on the market, the Society would be expanding its operations in the Heights, not consolidating, unless it sells off nearly all of its remaining residential properties. But alas, that's all we get for now from Devine, who must also believe in the Doctrine of Suspense. As usual, never a dull moment over at the Watchtower!
Watchtower Divestment Continues: The Bossert on the Block [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn’s Fabled Hotel Bossert on Market [Brooklyn Eagle]
Watchtower to Sell 6 Brooklyn Heights Properties [Brooklyn Eagle]
April 28, 2008
Court OKs Housing at Brooklyn Bridge Park
Last week the State Supreme Court ruled against the Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund, according to an article in the Brooklyn Paper, striking down a lawsuit that sought to halt the creation of the 85-acre park because of the condos and hotel planned for the site. Private development is slated to take up 10 percent of the park and include "approximately 1,210 units of housing, 225 hotel rooms, 151,200 square feet of retail uses, 86,400 square feet of restaurants, cafes and other eateries, 30,000 of meeting space, 36,000 square feet of offices, 128,400 square feet for research and development or education uses, and 1,283 parking spaces," according to the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy. In response to the main thrust of the lawsuit, which claimed that the private housing will violate the “Public Trust Doctrine,” which disallows private encroachment on public spaces, the justices who heard the case wrote that "the public trust doctrine does not prohibit residential uses that are merely adjacent to public parkland." "They're missing the truth," said Judi Francis, the president of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund. “The condos are up against places where people normally would have been sunbathing or playing ball or listening to the radios. They're missing the forest, if you will, for the condos."
Brooklyn Bridge Park Goes Forward [Brooklyn Paper]
Myer Has 'Hope' for Brooklyn Bridge Park [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn Bridge Park Demo Begins [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn Bridge Park: It’s a Go! [Brownstoner]
Rendering of a section of the future park from the BBP Conservancy.
April 25, 2008
Dirty Dog Run Making Pooches Sick
The conditions at the Park Slope dog run have gotten downright unsanitary, according to dog owners who regularly visit the run, and things are only bound to get worse as the weather warms. Dog owners charge that, in addition to the general unpleasantness, the urine-soaked wood chips are to blame for giving their furry friends parasites and diarrhea. The Parks Department confirms that all is not as it should be. J.J. Byrne Park manager Eric Greene said they haven't been changed since November. "I don't want to change them at all because it's all going to be under construction," he said, referring to the new park Boymelgreen has promised to start building next month because part of the old one was used as a staging area to construct The Novo. Nevertheless, Greene said compaints have prompted the Parks Department to drop off wood chips beside the park within two weeks. This time volunteers are supposed to change them. (Normally, he said, the department does most of the work, removing the fence and lugging out special equipment to change the paw padding. "It's very time-consuming.") Tony Chiappelloni, president of FIDO, an off-leash advocacy group for Prospect Park, said, "Personally I think small dog runs are basically unhealthy."
Extreme Makeover Planned for J.J. Byrne Park [Brownstoner]
April 24, 2008
'Lakeside Center' Plans Revealed
Here's an idea of where that $75 million is going: A Year in the Park has an in-depth report on the first public showing of plans for Prospect Park's new Lakeside Center. Last night the Parks Dept. made a presentation about the recreation center, which is slated to replace the current Wollman Rink and include a hockey rink (that's the main, enclosed structure shown above), an outdoor rink and water features during the summer. Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, who designed Manhattan's American Folk Art Museum, are the architects. A Year in the Park notes that plans for Lakeside Center, which is supposed to be complete in 2011, are far from set in stone, and that public input on the proposal is still being welcomed.
Go Down, Moses [A Year in the Park]
Prospect Park Rink Plans Getting Pricier [Brownstoner]
Photos of renderings from A Year in the Park.
April 23, 2008
Prospect Park Rink Plans Getting Pricier
The cost of Prospect Park's new Lakeside Center has risen to $75 million, according to an article in the Daily News. The project will involve replacing the current Wollman Rink, pictured above, with two new rinks, a roller rink for summer months, water features, new roadwork and a parking lot. Last year the cost of the new recreation center was pegged at $50 million, but the president of the Prospect Park Alliance says the project has become more expensive as new details, like the parking lot, have been added. The proposal has been allocated $22.5 million in taxpayer dollars by Mayor Bloomberg, Borough President Marty Markowitz and the City Council, and park officials expect to get more funding from the city as well as through private donations. The whole shebang needs to be approved by the Parks Dept. and LPC before moving forward, and a Prospect Park spokesperson said that he's confident funding will be in place by the time all the necessary approvals are granted. At present, construction on Lakeside Center is supposed to start in 2010 and be completed the following year.
Prospect Park Rink Redo Price Tag Spins Up to $75M [NY Daily News]
Photo by paulie~.
April 21, 2008
New Plans Revealed for Windsor Terrace Playground
Last month the Prospect Park Alliance showed off its new design ideas for the revamp of the Vanderbilt Playground at a meeting that the Windsor Terrace Alliance has extensively recounted. The park alliance hopes to finish design work on the project by the end of this summer and start working on a year-long renovation in fall '09. There's a lot of cool stuff planned for the playground, which has an entrance at Vanderbilt and Prospect Park Southwest, including a wooden climbing structure with a continuous running area for older kids, multiple water features, and an enclosed area for tots.
Vanderbilt Playground meeting with the PPA [Windsor Terrace Alliance]
A New Look for the Vanderbilt Playground [Brownstoner] GMAP
Rendering from the WTA.
April 18, 2008
Gravesend Park Not So Grave Anymore
Only last year "filled with glass and dog feces," according to a Daily News article, Gravesend Park this week unveiled its $5 million renovation—including $2 million to fix-up the comfort station! The park reconstruction funded by Councilman Simcha Felder includes a new playground with adventure play equipment, a play mountain, swings and a spray shower; cafe tables and benches for senior citizens; and landscaping, according to a Parks Department release. "The park's ballfields were also restored in-house by the borough's maintenance and operations crews. They sifted through 1,800 cubic yards of soil to remove debris, added another 450 yards of topsoil, brought in 60 cubic yards of clay for the infields, and seeded, watered and groomed the fields for their opening this summer." Bloomberg funded the comfort station. We've never been in there, but it must be massive, have been in pretty sorry shape, or super luxe now that it cost two-thirds as much to fix-up as the rest of the park! Starbucks may not be the city's premiere public restroom anymore.
FDR football team has nothing to fear, but field itself [Daily News]
April 16, 2008
Gowanus Group Proposes 'Sponge Park' to Soak Run-Off
The Gowanus Canal Conservancy unveiled a rendering of its proposed esplanade along the canal, adorably dubbed "Sponge Park" (you know, because it will absorb runoff that contributes to the sewage overflow problem). The above rendering, by local landscape architecture firm dlandstudio, is a view from Third Street looking north. The project assumes a 40-foot easement alongside the canal, consistent with waterfront access requirements elsewhere in the city. Like Williamsburg and Greenpoint, any rezoning of Gowanus would likely require public waterfront access and design standards so, for example, the street lamps and park benches are consistent along the entire esplanade. Gowanus presents a unique challenge because its crumbling bulkheads are expensive to replace and obtaining a waterfront permit is a complicated venture that has been one of many vexing issues for Whole Foods. The dlandstudio plan is interesting because, judging from the fast-moving slide show on their website, the waterfront is lined with retention basins and filtration systems that would prevent some runoff from pouring directly into the canal—although the main source of oily runoff is the Gowanus Expressway that looms above, creating grotesquely beautiful swirls of color the day after a long-awaited rain. Yum. The Conservancy will be hosting its public presentation April 21, 6:30 p.m. at P.S.58, 330 Smith Street at the corner of Carroll Street.
Gowanus Photo Gallery [Brownstoner]
DOB Puts Partial SWO on Whole Foods Site [Brownstoner]
April 10, 2008
Parks Dept. Reveals Plans for Bushwick Inlet Park
Gowanus Lounge and Curbed have published renderings of the planned Bushwick Inlet Park on the Williamsburg-Greenpoint waterfront, which the Parks Dept. says it's going to start working on this fall. The drawings are for the first phase of the project, between North 9th and 10th streets, which will involve a multi-purpose athletic field that Parks wants to finish by next summer and a maintenance building/community space that the city is looking to get done by summer 2010. When complete, the entire park is supposed to stretch over 28 acres between the Bushwick Inlet and North 9th, from Kent Avenue to the water.
Fall Start for Work on First Part of Bushwick Inlet Park [Gowanus Lounge]
Inlet Park Work Coming, Greenway Advances [Curbed]
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