Marty and Mayor Deal Death Blow to B'kln History
Selling the public a giant shovel-ful of b.s., Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corp. President and CEO Andrew Kimball yesterday claimed that he has”no option” but to tear down the ten historic residences for naval officers that line Flushing Avenue at the Southwest corner of the yard. The buildings, which were built between 1858 and 1901,…
Selling the public a giant shovel-ful of b.s., Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corp. President and CEO Andrew Kimball yesterday claimed that he has”no option” but to tear down the ten historic residences for naval officers that line Flushing Avenue at the Southwest corner of the yard. The buildings, which were built between 1858 and 1901, will be replaced by a 60,000-square-foot supermarket and a 300-car parking garage. Not everyone agrees with Kimball’s analysis. “[Preserving Admirals Row] is definitely doable and worth doing,” said New York Landmarks Conservancy official Alex Herrera. “They’re really a part of Brooklyn and Brooklyn’s history.” In another betrayal of Brooklyn’s heritage, Marty Markowitz joined Mayor Bloomberg in hailing the forces of progress: “A crucial community resource must take priority over preservation at Admirals Row.” Marty better hope he just won a lot of new votes from residents of the Farragut Houses (the most likely patrons of the supermarket) because he sure as hell just lost a lot of support among Brooklynites who care about preserving the borough’s history.
Addendum: Marty’s office contacted us to clarify that Navy Yard officials make all decisions regarding Admirals Row, and that he was simply stating his priorities in the Daily News article. He also pointed out his efforts to restore the historic Loew’s Kings theater in Flatbush and to preserve the character of Coney Island, including the Parachute Jump, as it is revitalized.
Admirals Row Sunk [NY Daily News]
Brooklyn Navy Yard Expansion Begins [NY Times]
Admirals Row [Historic Fort Greene]
Photo by D.K. Holland
the feds let these fine buildings fall apart over decades of neglect, not the city. the navy yd has a solid record on historical preservation and this story might have had a different ending had the yard fallen into possession of adm row, which it still does not own to this day. the local councilwoman takes preservation seriously and has come to the conclusion that the supermarket is the way to go. she has expressed concern about diet/nutrition problems among pub hsg residents. navy yd has been tlaking w her and other communtiy reps for years about disposition of site and a communtiy consensus has largely formed around the supermarket plan, as i understand it. estimated price tag of restoration runs from $30-50M. high!! local land values prohibit supermarket development anywhere near these public housing developments. it is essential that preservationists not be dismissive of the legitimate issue of local nutritional needs. there is nowhere to buy fresh produce in a neighborhood facing challenges and social problems. I have been surprised to see that there have been adm row preservationist quotes that have been highly disdainful of the local need for fresh food. this reflects a cultural/social blind spot and steers toward a cultural elitism that is unbecoming of the spirit of preservation and honoring our communities. some of these comments reflect a weird kind of snobbery and coldness to communtiy realities. I believe we must bear in mind that preservation is not an abstract absolute pristine principle — but rather a principle that must stand in the context of local community/social interests and objective facts. i exhort activists to exercise wisdom and discretion in this matter. i hope all will eschew kneejerk unconsidered activism that seems to be driven by a cursory reading of headlines — rather than a full examination of local circumstances. thus I urge: be objective about admirals row
The Navy Yard has been working on this plan for the better part of 4 years. All of you haters have been thinking about this issue for 4 minutes.
In the process of working on this plan, the Navy Yard has done alot of reserach, incuding long conversations with officials at City Hall, discussion with the NYPD (about moving the tow pound). They’ve conducted alot of indepth research icluding hiring one of the regions leading real estate market research firms, and one of the regions leading urban design/site planning firms. They’ve consulted with several preservationists, including hiring a preservation architect to analyze what it would take to renovate these houses and what it would cost. They’ve also had in-depth conversatins with both the city’s landmark preservation commission, and the state historic preservatin office. The’ve also opened their doors and invited several of the neighbrohood activists into thier office and listened to their concerns. They have reached out to all the local elected officials, including the local council people and the community board and have held several open houses for neighborhood residents, including the residents of the neighborhing projects to come in and hear about the plans, and to ask questions. FInally, they’ve hired an arborist to analyze the condition of the trees on the site to see if any of the beautiful trees on the site could be saved, they’ve had discussions with the brooklyn waterfron greenway about running the greenway through the site, and have hired a repsected cultural resource consultant to prepare an in-depth documentation of the buildings on the site.
You all have read a three paragraph posting on brownstoner, and maybe have even read the official press release. DO you really think that you’re gonna think of something off the top of your head that they haven’t considered and dismissed for reasons that you’re not aware of? You’ve got to be willing to accept the fact that there are peices of this story that you dont know, since you know so little about it.
when making your proposals, would you please also post your curriculum vitae and a pro forma, just so we can see how much real world training/experience you have and we can analyze the financial viabilty? thanks; this ought to kick up the quality a notch or two.
This is what you do: Save what you can of the old buildings….create a museum devoted to the history of the navy yard based in those old bdlgs.
Then build around them with new construction scaled to match exactly what was saved…have retail in those new bdlgs. to help cover the costs of running the museum….and place the big parking garage and supermarket in one of the old hanger/boat bdlgs that sit empty as we speak.
Develop the areas within the navy yeard that now sit with bdlgs/sq. footage unused.
part of the impound lot will also be redeveloped as part of the seven-building — show of hands; how many of you pontificators actually read the press release? — project
agreed, what the heck is an ugly impound lot doing on such valuable real estate, or if you prefer, why does the city put an ugly impound lot right next to the projects?
Excuse me, but isn’t there a sprawling NYPD impound lot just a block north of Admiral’s Row in the Navy Yard? That site is actually more centrally located to the Farragut Houses than Admiral’s Row–at Sands and Navy Sts.–and from google earth it looks like it contains more land, too. Why doesn’t the city get the developer of a supermarket to build a several-story impound garage for the police department in exchange for the land to build a supermarket and supermarket-parking garage on the site? Then that wall on Navy St. could come down, that stretch of Navy St. wouldn’t be nearly as desolate, and they could build a fence around the back of the site to keep the Navy Yard self-contained. Wouldn’t that solve everything?
This is just another example of the “progress” that we are all forced to endure in Brooklyn under the guise of it being “good for the community”. Yes, the community does need a supermarket, so if you say you’re against it, then you are branded as being against people in the neighborhood. If you say that you’re against Atlantic yards, you are branded as a selfish yuppie who is against housing for the poor. But like everything, like AY and Brooklyn Bridge Park and everything else going on, it’s all about money, who’s got and who doesn’t and who stands to make it. None of these people involved, not Bloomberg or Markowitz or the developers give a crap about the community or history or anything else. It’s all about the almighty dollar. And we can all blog about it until the cows come home, but as long as we keep electing the Bloombergs and Markowitzes of the world, it’s going to go on and on as it always has.
why not knock down the projects instead. The people who don’t live there don’t like them, the people who live there don’t like them either. Get rid of them. And why not knock down the Commandant’s house too and put up a boxy Holiday Inn.