BHA Names New Prexy

By on June 13, 2007 11:01 am in News

Brooklyn Eagle: The Brooklyn Heights Association (BHA) announced yesterday that architect Tom van den Bout has been elected president of its board of governors. He succeeds Mary Pat Thornton, who served two years in the post.

Van den Bout is a principle of NV Architects.  Later in the article he comments on landmark preservation:

He said he considers that “the BHA’s effort to author a comprehensive Historic District designation report will be a vital step in protecting our neighborhood from the rising pressures of development. I look forward to leading this effort as well as the BHA’s continuing advocacy for making Brooklyn Bridge Park the very best park it can be. I love the sense of community in the Heights and am honored to have the opportunity to help make a difference in preserving one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in the city.”

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  • nabeguy

    Hmmmm…based on the website, I’m left wondering as to his stand on historic preservation as it applies to interiors as well as exterior facades. None of the project pictures have the feel of a 19th century townhouse, although it lists reno jobs in the Heights and Slope. Tad too austere for my tastes.

  • ABC

    that site only shows very few pic from few projects done by the whole firm FOR paid clients. I wouldn’t read too much into that

  • steve

    The position of the BHA on the Brooklyn Bridge “Park” has been troubling, and nothing in the article gives me any confidence that BHA do what it should and take a very firm stand against the very notion having private housing in a park. The BBP, in my view, is simply a land grab by greedy developers who want the very prime real estate. In the words of our local Brooklyn Paper, “It’s not a Park!”

  • anonymous

    Oh for heaven’s sake give the whole park or no park thing a rest. If you have a beef take it up with the Empire Development Corporation. They are the ones building, or not building, something down there in the hideous badlands that constitutes our waterfront. The BHA is being totally dissed by the state and city on this. Their influence is zero.
    They are a small neighborhood group working out of a dumpy donated office somewhere. People talk as if the BHA were a combination of the KGB and the Army Corp of Engineers.

  • nabeguy

    If only it were so. Impotent as they may be, the BHA happens to be the sole group that represents itself as an advocate and voice of the neighborhood, hence the residents reliance on their influence, however weak it may be. Unless a louder voice (anonymous perhaps?) steps into the breech, they’re the only game in town

  • anonymous

    Actually the BHA does have money socked away. Of course they would rather open a vein than spend any of it. They give out pitiful little dribs and drabs to the school but they have like a half a million dollars somewhere. two little old ladies working out of a dionated office with half a million dollars that they hold onto for dear life. That’s the BHA.