The proposal by Jed Walentas of DUMBO's Two Trees Managment to build a 325-unit tower on Dock Street has a lot of people up in arms. Block the Brooklyn view of the Brooklyn Bridge?
You gotta be nuts to do that.
Local community groups oppose it. Even The National Trust for Historic Preservation has spoken out. But this week, the City Planning Commision, under the leadership of Commisioner Amanda Burden, still voted to go ahead with the plan — with a few minor cuts. The 10-story wing of the building would lose two to three stories.
That's the part that's closest to the bridge and the side most likely
to obscure views.
Two to three stories? That's it?
Shirley McRae, the Brooklyn representative to the City Planning Commission and the former chair of DUMBO's Commuity Board 2, told the Brooklyn Paper
that even with the cuts in height the building is TOO TALL. “The tower would still loom over the bridge and significantly obscure views,” she is quoted as saying.
Author David McCullough, who wrote The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972), has a column in this week's Newsweek, and had this to say.
The most long lasting of great American works, the structure
destined "to convey some knowledge of us to remote posterity," said a
New York writer long ago, was "not a shrine, not a fortress, not a
palace, but a bridge." That was in the spring of 1883, 126 years
past, when the completed Brooklyn Bridge
opened to the most exuberant public celebration of the era, complete
with the president of the United States, Chester A. Arthur, leading the
grand parade on foot from New York to Brooklyn over the bridge high above the East River.
"The
Great Bridge" was news everywhere. It was the moon shot of its time, a
brave, surpassing technical triumph, and more. For it was besides a
great work of art and a thrilling overture to the high-rise city in
America. Its giant granite towers stood taller by far than anything on
the New York skyline, taller indeed than any structure in all of North
America then. Over the years it has been photographed more than
anything ever built by Americans. It has been the inspiration for
songs, poems, paintings, no end of personal reminiscences and
thesetting for scenes in movies. It has remained New York's most
famous, best-loved landmark…
…In the years since, its importance has seldom ever been doubted or
seriously challenged. The sanctity of its own space has been unviolated
by and large. Until lately. Now, alas, plans are proceeding to build an
18-story luxury apartment building within a hundred feet of the bridge
on the Brooklyn side. (A vote in the process is expected this week.)
The building, as proposed by the Two Trees Management Co., would stand
184 feet high and just about ruin the view of the bridge from on shore,
as well as the view from the bridge looking toward Brooklyn—in other
words, the view for just about everyone except those living in the
apartments. To permit such a project so close to the bridge would be a
shameful, inexcusable mistake. There is no other way to say it.
Would
we wish to see an 18-story building go up beside the Statue of Liberty,
or next to Independence Hall in Philadelphia, or beside the Washington
Monument? Of course not.
I agree with McCullough 100%. Why should views of the bridge just belong to people rich enough to afford an expensive condo? That bridge belongs to the world and blocking views of it to citizens on the Brooklyn side is a crime.
Hopefully this Newsweek piece will further convince the politicians and powers that be that this project should not go ahead as planned. David McCullough is set to meet with Borough President Marty Markowtiz. Brooklyn booster Markowitz of all people must understand the historical, emotional and spiritual power of that bridge. To block it is to block Brooklyn's place in the public imagination.
Down with Dock Street. Down. Down. Down.
Thank you for the support.
The DUMBO Neighborhood Association, the Brooklyn Heights Association, the Fulton Ferry Landing Association, the Vinegar Hill Association, the Cobble Hill Association, the Boerum Hill Association and the Fort Greene Association are all fighting against this development rising any higher than the bridge roadway (approx 80′). City Planning merely reduced the tower from 184′ to 170′, and a fraction of the Water Street wing from 96′ to 75′. The experience walking over the Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan would still be compromised, as you would be confronted by a 17-story 55×200 building a mere 96′ away “in your face.”
On Tuesday April 28th at 12:30 PM, a press conference will be held on the steps of City Hall to address the recent approval of the controversial Dock Street project by City Planning.
Speakers will include Pulitzer Prize winning author and historian David McCullough, New York City Council Members David Yassky, Tony Avella and Bill de Blasio, representatives from DUMBO Neighborhood Alliance (DNA), Fulton Ferry Landing Association (FFLA) and other neighborhood associations, DUMBO residents and actors Skipp Sudduth (“Third Watch”, “Law and Order”) and Terry Kinney (“The Unusuals” and director of Broadway play “Reasons to Be Pretty”), as well as preservation groups such as The Municipal Art Society, The Historic Districts Council, and The National Trust for Historic Preservation.
This event will act as the platform to address the truths and myths behind the project and the direct impact it will have on citizens of New York and around the world.
It is notable that, according to the New York Post, “officials for the company (Two Trees) — including the Walentases — have dished out $29,700 in campaign donations over this period to Councilwoman Melinda Katz and another $19,800 to Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Katz, a local Democrat running for City Comptroller, heads the council’s land use committee, which must eventually decide whether to put Two Trees’ request for a necessary zoning change before the full council for final approval.”
Please write, email or call Council Speaker Christine Quinn to express your opposition.
Christine Quinn
224 West 30th St (Suite 1206)
New York, NY 10001
(212) 788-7210
email: cquinn@council.nyc.gov
I think this pars with the “Alter of Liberty” in Greenwood, only because it’s part of our Heritage, but also we want to :protect it.
Your post is eloquent and well-stated. “To block it is to block Brooklyn’s place in the public imagination.” Dock Street’s proximity to the Brooklyn Bridge, along with its height, make it a big problem. In many cases, developers get their way, and sometimes that is just the way it is. Sometimes there is little we can do to block such plans, but as one who lives near Eighth Avenue in Manhattan, I’m tired of seeing dull, tall, and boxey “luxury” towers rob a segment of the Theater District and Hell’s Kitchen of their unique, cherished character.
And particularly in certain special cases such as this one involving a national treasure, there is NO WAY a developer should be able to proceed to debase something so clearly important to so many in the public, to the city, and to the nation.
I Twittered this link to help keep getting the word out. Please keep up your passionate and important opposition to this condo tower!
Susan