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Brooklyn Bridge Park unveils 14 tower designs amid community debate

Brooklyn Bridge Park unveils 14 tower designs amid community debate

All the top names in New York City architecture are vying for a piece of Brooklyn Bridge Park, but whether any of their designs will be realized still remains to be seen. As community groups try to block Mayor de Blasio’s controversial plans to bring affordable housing to Michael Van Valkenburgh‘s celebrated park, the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation has unveiled 14 design proposals for two coveted development sites on Pier 6. Those proposals were unveiled just hours before a Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation meeting that was packed with community members voicing their strong opposition to any new development in the park.

The RFP that the corporation issued in May called for two towers—one 315 feet and the other 155—that are 30 percent affordable. This plan has been met with plenty of opposition, and even a lawsuit, from local groups who claim the towers will block views, eat up green space, and not provide appropriate funding for the park. Under a Bloomberg-era deal, revenue from private development at the park is intended to cover its upkeep and maintenance costs. At the meeting, local residents asked the corporation to reevaluate that plan and pursue other forms of funding. Most were adamantly opposed to new residential towers at the 85-acre park.

“This is about developer’s greed,” shouted one woman during the meeting who was quickly met with applause. There were two individuals with signs that read “Parks for All / Not Condo$ for a Few” and even kids stationed right in front of the corporation’s members with homemade signs that read “Save Our Park” and “We Love Our Park.” Ultimately, the corporation voted 10-3 not to revisit the funding plan. It will, however, complete a new environmental review of the site.

As the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, if the lawsuit can be resolved, a decision on the site should be made by the end of the year and construction could start about year after that.

The proposals for the pier, which were barely mentioned at the meeting, came from architects including Morris AdjmiPelli Clarke Pelli,Bjarke IngelsDavis Brody Bond, and Selldorf Architects, among others. You can check out all 14 proposals in the slideshow below, which reveal a wide variety of tower aesthetics rendered with most of the standbys we’ve come to expect in modern visualizations—hot air balloons, regular balloons, and plenty of birds. Surprisingly, not a single kayak.

 

 

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