Brooklyn bikers received a treat to the tune of $40 million dollars!
Joshua Rechnitz, a cyclist and the grandson of New York philanthropists, pledged a $40 million dollar gift to the city to build a field house in the Brooklyn Bridge Park, The New York Times reported. Read More
Brooklyn Bridge Park has transformed the borough’s waterfront, replacing derelict warehouses with yuppie-packed lawns and playgrounds. The project would not be possible without the controversial private development surrounding it, a handful of apartment buildings, retail outlets, even a hotel. After all, who wouldn’t want to spend the night in New York overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge?
The developers vying for the right to develop Pier 1, that’s who. Read More
It may be the best new park in the city that’s not the High Line, maybe even better, so whenever there is news of expansion at Brooklyn Bridge Park, it is good news. In this case, the good news comes in threes. Read More
That shutter coursing through Brooklyn Heights today? It was the seismic news that the Jehovah’s Witnesses had finally sold one of their many coveted properties in the neighborhood. This has been the fate the tony townhouse burg has been waiting decades for, and now that it has begun, things don’t seem that bad.
The Read More
As The Observer previously reported, Brooklyn Bridge Park had attracted a swell of high-profile development and design attention to the first new development parcel planned alongside the park. Calling for a hotel and luxury apartments, the competition attracted not only the firms we knew—Two Trees, Toll Brothers, Dermot, Extell and Hamlin—but also Starwood Read More
The sun had not quite broken over the rowhouses and warehouses of Greenpoint Monday morning when The Observer arrived at the new concrete pier jutting out into the East River at India Street. The dock seemed barely finished, its concrete planks not entirely even, the sides of the structure lined with chain-link fencing. Whole sections were torn up and surrounded with orange construction netting.
When the ferry pulled up, ghost decals clinging to the foredeck, the passengers filed on, handing over their $4 tickets, joining the nearly 3,000 New Yorkers who have ridden the ferry each weekday since its launch in mid-June, according to the city—more than double the number officials had expected.
After ordering our locally brewed fair-trade coffee and a pain au chocolat, we turned to see a gay couple smiling across a starboard table, sharing a quiche, a floating picnic. On the port side was a pretty biracial pair staring out the window at Long Island City, its gleaming towers pulling into view. The woman held a breastfeeding baby on her lap.
The subway this was not. Read More
At last week’s opening of Jane’s Carousel, perhaps the only person more excited than the legion of children and Ms. Walentas herself was Adrian Benepe, the city’s Parks Department Commissioner. “I guess it comes with the territory of being a conservator of carousels,” Mr. Benepe told The Observer, finishing off the last of his bag of popcorn. By Mr. Benepe’s count, there are now at least 10, perhaps 12, carousels in the city, depending on how you count them. With the exception of one at Coney Island, all are found in the city’s parks. Read More
Even if the city could be headed for further construction slowdowns, developers are still readying themselves for the (eventual?) recovery. The MoMA Tower, Hudson Yards, East Coast Number 4—all are showing signs of life. And they all have something in common, as well: their developers have their sights set on the first site at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Read More
Video
Just yesterday, The Observer reported that a request for proposals for a third development site at Brooklyn Bridge Park, which was not part of a deal announced the day before to reduce the amount of development in the park, was expected “shortly.” Turns out shortly meant one day. Read More
Something seemed to be missing from the deal to reduce the number of condos at Brooklyn Bridge Park. The Observer distinctly remembered there being three development sites in the original plan, and only two were discussed in yesterday’s announcement. We almost made the mistake of reporting that one had been out-and-out banished from the project, but no. Read More
