No One Seems to Like Marty's Dock Street Ideas
When Marty Markowitz voiced his support for Two Trees’ Dock Street proposal last week, he qualified it with a few suggestions of his own to try to make the mixed-use building more respectful of the Brooklyn Bridge’s airspace. Part of that included calling for a taller, narrow structure. Now that concept’s been put into rendering…
When Marty Markowitz voiced his support for Two Trees’ Dock Street proposal last week, he qualified it with a few suggestions of his own to try to make the mixed-use building more respectful of the Brooklyn Bridge’s airspace. Part of that included calling for a taller, narrow structure. Now that concept’s been put into rendering form and, reports the Brooklyn Paper, everyone hates it. And by everyone, we mean those opposed to the project, those in favor of it and the developers themselves. Whoops.
Marty’s Taller Dock Street Tower Unites Everyone — Against It! [BP]
Marty Supports Dock Street…But Has a Few Suggestions [Brownstoner]
CB2 Gives Thumbs Up to Dock Street [Brownstoner]
seems to me this was suggested to save some of the views of the BB from 30 Main/Sweeney, 57 Front and 20 Main condos
Walentas seems to be more community minded than most developers. When they were tearing down the parking garage on Court and putting up the new building there, they were very aware of the big problems caused by Urban Foundation in erecting the new Bklyn Law dorm. They sent their head engineer around to talk to everyone and try to reassure us that they were going to be very careful and do their best to keep things safe. Charlie was a sweetheart and they were true to their word. Whenever they were about to do something like pile driving, they came around and told us first. Unlike the Bklyn Law group who collapsed a building behind us, and did horrible pile driving for days, coming within 10 feet of my old prewar building.
As I understand it, the developer has worked out a deal with the School Construction Authority to include a new middle school in the base of the building. The neighborhood has been pleading for a new middle school for years. Their response now is: “oh, we don’t want a new school here, we want it in Brooklyn Heights”.
To me, the neighborhood associations who have banded together to form a band of no-no-nanettes are being short sighted and reactionary.
I am with Sam. I haven’t been following this particular uproar, but as a long time resident, I’ve observed that most development (new or re-development) eventually happens. It’s the nature of living in a city.
Brooklyn’s developers are being left off the hook for community projects they SHOULD be required to build in tandem with any large project that’s eventually approved – ie, schools, fire and police stations, parks, post offices, grocery stores, and so forth. They profit from our complaints and petty arguments about their projects and they probably encourage them.
We should get off our collective NIMBY asses and demand a little more.
I’m no architect, but the first rendering looks better to me than the second. Marty’s building looks a little like the J tower, which is my least favorite new DUMBO building.
I think the 2 Trees proposal is perfectly good. I’m sure those units will be very desirable and I understand they will set aside a good number of units as “affordable housing”. What more do people want from the developer? A cure for cancer? Why don’t the neighborhood activists focus their attention on the derelict warehouses across the street? Those historic buildings are in a deplorable state of disrepair. In my opinion their dereliction is the real cause for concern in the neighborhood.