Twitter to Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pierhouse: Thanks for Blocking Our View

By on July 15, 2014 8:42 pm in brooklyn bridge park

Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pierhouse, soon to be home to a portion of the 1% and wealthy foreign nationals is totally going to block our view of the Brooklyn Bridge. Anyone who has been following the development of the site pretty much knew that already, but now that it has begun to rise folks are getting a little annoyed. Case in point, this Twitter exchange:

So – what do you think?

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  • SMO

    Two no name random people “complain” on Twitter and “folks are getting a little annoyed”?

    What slow news day?

    Can we please stop treating twitter accounts from ordinary citizens like gospel?

  • Karl Junkersfeld

    The building in the picture is not Pierhouse (Toll Brothers) but rather Hotel1 (Starwood Capital). Pierhouse is still in the foundation stage of development. Secondly, the National Cold Storage Facility also blocked the view of the Bridge when one walked on the northern end of the promenade and it was much uglier that this attractive hotel. Lastly, there is no park without this development. Remember, the park had to be self sustaining. Get over it and thank goodness that the BBP was able to attract multiple bidders for this space enabling them to select superstar companies like Starwood and Toll Brothers to develop the space.

  • Teresa

    It’s a horror. Whether it’s necessary, whether the park is worth it, whether the neighborhood can sustain it — all debatable, fine, reasonable people can disagree. But simply on its own, it’s a horror, ineluctably altering both the aesthetics and the feeling of the neighborhood.

  • Jorale-man

    What bothers me about the Pierhouse is just the sheer size of the footprint. This isn’t just a simple building on a corner lot in the park, it’s the size of a large strip mall with 2 or 3 big box stores included. And once there are hundreds of people packed in there, it’s really going to transform this part of the “park.”

  • Karl Junkersfeld

    Jorale-man, a legitimate concern especially when you add Water Street’s Empire Stores Development, Two Trees Condo’s across the street and St. Ann’s Theater. Furman, Old Fulton and Water are undergoing radical change. Shack Shake should do a brisk business.

  • End of Henry

    Wake up people. Far worse will happen if we don’t mobilize with pier 6. When the 32 story tower gets built including mechanicals you will feel like you are living in queens. The BHA has turned a blind eye. They and everyone else will rue the day. Fight now. Bit.ly/savepier6.

  • David on Middagh

    What with the rising waters and collapsing BQE, if this building lasts 50 years I’ll claw my way out of my coffin like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, borrow Junkerfeld’s hat, and eat it.

  • Heights Observer

    The time to complain about the height of the new construction was years ago. The plans for the buildings always showed the view in a crafty way so as not to appear to block the bridge view.

    I am so tired of hearing that the park needs the development because it has to be “self sustaining” and everyone seems to accept that as God-given fact. Why could it not be like any other city park? It could have been done without housing, no question of that.

    The fact is that the developers wanted only luxury housing there and no park at all. The park was placed there so that the housing could be built with less opposition.

    I also have to disagree with Karl. The National Cold Storage building was not as large as the current construction and there was general rejoicing when it was taken down. I don’t think it’s true that nobody went to the northern end of the Promenade.

    Be careful what you wish for, Karl because this park has the potential of changing the Heights for the worse. I think it already has. There was the chance that this could have been done right, but it is too late now. Like Jane’s Carousel ruining the view of the Brooklyn Bridge because she wanted to see it from her bedroom window, the billionaire developers always seem to win. Remember it is their world and we just live in it.

  • Henry’s End

    Also worth noting the pierhouse was a giveaway to developers in hindsight. Park revenue is much higher than forecast. The bbpdc is not transparent for a good reason – being transparent would result in no new towers. Where is the BHA?

  • Roberto

    The Berlin Wall was thrown up on in the middle of the night on August 13, 1961 and came down on November 9, 1989. For 28 years, it blocked East Germans from fleeing to the West. Are the luxury hotel and the townhouses in Brooklyn Bridge Park our upscale takes on the Berlin Wall?These structures have the uncanny appearance of walls, don’t they? In this case, is the park a refuge for the !% and “foreign nationals” who are fleeing their wretched quarters to be near Grimaldi’s and Jane’s Carousel? This might be a veiled attempt to replicate the Trump “walls” along the Hudson River and the West Side Highway. But, really, isn’t the Brooklyn Bridge Park a perfect place for views of the magnificent port of New York?

  • heights res

    Heights Observer – I agree completely. PUBLIC parks should never be “self sustaining”

  • Barbara Brookhart

    The BHA will never complain
    because they advocated for the use of luxury high-rise housing to self-finance
    the park. This tragedy of forever blocking historic and protected iconic view plains will totally
    invalidate their credibility – if they still have any? Didn’t Otis
    say that the hotel was going to be just fine in response to the community’s study
    on how the hotel would look from the Promenade!

    This should be a major point as to why to fight the Pier 6 towers. The
    Corporation, its Board; the BHA; and the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy can’t be
    trusted when they say, “It’s needed to self finance the park, The view planes will be protected, and everything will be just fine” (“traffic at Pier 6 will be
    fine, just needs minor tweaking,” “schools won’t be overcrowded”).

  • Oy

    OH MY GOD!!! An apartment building and hotel is going to partially black the bridge — ahhhhhhhhhhhh! What is wrong with you people. This is NYC. My view of the Manhattan bridge has been completley blocked becuase of a building going up in DUMBO. So what, it happens. My cousin’s bedroom window was BRICKED OVER in manhattan because of a building going up next door. IT HAPPENS. THIS IS A CITY. It’s not Yellowstone national park. BBP was a discusting place before. Now it is amazing. Yep – there is a building there. ooooh scary…

  • OnTheNYCWaterfront

    I completely agree with your dislike for the new buildings, and that the time to defeat this was years ago. I will point out that the difference between parks like Brooklyn Bridge Park and say, Prospect Park, is that the former is primarily pier-based. As such, portions at or beyond the bulkhead are in a permanent mode of decay. Under the worst of circumstances, left unfunded beyond normal park maint, Prospect Park would continue to exist. Were the same to happen in Brooklyn Bridge Park (or Hudson River Park), its pier-based park space would collapse into the river. These newer waterfront parks are great and much appreciated, but EVERYTHING about them is more difficult to maintain ($$$). This doesn’t justify over-development, however it does keep these newer waterfront parks in a different category than say, Riverside or Battery Parks (that are within the bulkhead).

  • David G.

    Has anyone else noticed that the footbridge is out-of-whack structurally and is resting at an angle?

  • Karl Junkersfeld

    Heights Observer, I appreciate your point of view and have my own reservations but I feel, at this present moment in time, the benefits far outweigh the costs. In 2 years, I may feel differently. We shall see.

  • Kenji Takabayashi

    David, every time I walk over it, I freak out – with it’s natural “give” suspension. I hope you are wrong, if so I will walk a block out of my way to get to the water lol

  • Rick

    Buried in your sarcastic diatribe, in which you undervalue the land that was one of the crown jewels of New York City, you blundered upon an actual truth. This site really is on a par with Yellowstone National Park. It is an urban jewel, a location with a view so spectacular that people who’ve come to NYC from all over the world spend part of their precious vacation time here traveling to it and oohing and aahing over it.

    It needed little embellishment, but to remain open and accessible. Some grass, some trees appropriately placed, a few paths. In other words, a slightly cleaned up version of Empire Fulton Ferry Park, as it was right before the beautiful trees were ripped out and it became largely a concrete plaza.

    This was not the place for costly sporting venues. There is plenty of land languishing a short distance to the south that would have been a more appropriate location for these attractions. Had the park simply been kept a park, the costs would have been far lower, without the need for an inappropriately large hotel and condos. And the light pollution and overcrowding would have been eliminated.

    Some really poor urban planning.

  • petercow

    >Remember, the park has to be self sustaining.

    That begs the question of “why?”.

    Do subways have to be self-sustaining? How about CUNY?

  • Banet

    Just to play devil’s advocate, while the subways do get a good bit of public financing, you also pay to use the subway every time you enter it. Would you prefer that there was no housing but you had to pay an entrance fee to enter the park? Because that’s EXACTLY how the subway works.

  • Banet

    I’m curious as to what “languishing” land you refer to “a short distance to the south”. If you mean Piers 7 through 12, while not in full use, they do have some shipping going on and much more important, these are not remotely as convenient to the subways as Piers 1 through 6. Remember, a park is only usefukl if people can get there.

  • Rick

    Interesting argument.

    UghSubscription’s answer to problems is to accept things as they are or just move out of NYC.

  • Rick

    There is a lot of unused or underused land to the south, both on and off the water. There are also subways and buses that run nearby.

    But even if there wasn’t, there’s a larger point.

    This particular site is unique and precious (as well as quite small).

    It would have been better not to load it up with expensive extras and then invite a hotel and condos into the park to pay for them.

    Sports venues are important. But a world-class view isn’t to my knowledge a prerequisite to athletics. They should have been built somewhere more appropriate, outside of the tiny footprint this park occupies.

    And I haven’t even mentioned the overcrowding that will increase many times over as all the other new construction around the park is completed.

    Good urban planning isn’t about jamming as much as possible into a given area.

  • Remsen Street Dweller

    Nor taking away the services that already exist there.

  • BrooklynCoffeeLover

    At the same time, does complaining on a little blog like this really do anything? The buildings are already being built. People are complaining about things on here, but don’t do more than that. They don’t go to meetings or participate in changes of the town. Just like any social network, they think posting on here will make some sort of change.

  • Remsen Street Dweller

    Some of us do a lot more than comment on blogs. However, no matter how hard we fight, we’re up against a tide of greed and corruption in our political and judicial system that chooses to ignore our voices.

  • Doug Biviano

    Vote for me if you want to return the power of representation back to you the voter. What’s going on is terrible. LICH is another case in point. Mayor de Blasio used LICH as a campaign prop then spins it with the Gary Reilly letter. My opponent Peter Sikora is deeply involved in this deception and was hand picked by the same permanent class of elected officials ruining our neighborhoods and endangering us. I explain more on my website dougbiviano.com

  • ujh

    Regina can’t afford to listen. Her job is to carry out the decisions of the Economic Development Corporation via the BBP board of directors. The politicians have known the scenario for years but didn’t forcefully opposed the Pier 6 development until after de Blasio was elected mayor, hoping to find a sympathetic ear.