Gawker Picks Up on the Pierhouse Controversy

By on January 2, 2015 12:30 pm in Landmark Preservation

As the members of the newly formed Save the View group prepare for their first large meeting tomorrow (1/3), Gawker has written about the controversy.

RELATED: BHB’s coverage of the Pierhouse

Hamilton Nolan writes this today:

If you walk through Brooklyn Bridge Park now, you will see the hulking concrete shell of Pierhouse rising up. If you stand at the end of the promenade now, in order to gaze out at the beautiful view of the Brooklyn Bridge, you will see that that view is now partially blocked by the Pierhouse condo. No longer does the promenade offer a view of a park, an iconic skyline, and the Brooklyn Bridge; it now offers a view of a park, an iconic skyline, and part of a bridge obscured by an enormous glass fortress full of people far richer than those forced to stand outside in order to enjoy the view. In a very real way, the public’s park, the public’s air, and the public’s view have been packaged and sold off to millionaires. The public can no longer even stroll through a public park without being confronted by a gleaming glass Gorgon of multimillion-dollar apartments.

As for Save the View, Claude and I attended the first meeting of the group last Saturday. They are nothing if not prepared to meet this challenge head on and find a way to curb the height of the Pierhouse. Their next meeting is scheduled for Saturday (1/3):

Save The View Now group on Saturday Jan 3, 2015 at 1:00 PM at:
Brooklyn Heights Synagogue
131 Remsen Street,
Room 2 C

Photo via Carrie Hamilton

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  • Jorale-man

    I admire Gawker’s angle. They’re taking the class-based argument that the supporters of real estate development have been constantly using to bolster their cause (e.g. “this will help solve NYC’s housing shortage you fancy Brooklyn Heights residents”) and turning it on its head.

    As Gawker points out: “In a very real way, the public’s park, the public’s air, and the public’s view have been packaged and sold off to millionaires. The public can no longer even stroll through a public park without being
    confronted by a gleaming glass Gorgon of multimillion-dollar apartments.”

  • Panina

    I just walked along Columbia Heights north to Middagh and I gasped at what I saw! The massive structure totally obscured the bridge and Manhattan skyline and gave me a feeling of being ‘fenced in’! Horrendous….can only pray the height can be brought back down!

  • Yikes

    It’s really atrocious. The fruit street sitting area is destroyed… seemingly overnight. It’s like they shot the last 7 floors up over Christmas break. How on earth did this height get approved? It needs to lose 7 floors.

  • Andrew Porter

    Just wait until the other building south of the wobbly bridge goes up; there will be no point to the Fruit Street Sitting Area, unless you want to spy on people in their apartments.

  • Jorale-man

    I was walking along the fruit street sitting area today and thought the same thing – they may as well get rid of the benches up there because all you see now is the building. Even the north end of the promenade will be losing many of its views once that second building goes up, since it will take away most of the northerly vista including a good chunk of the Manhattan skyline.

  • Doug Biviano

    The bottom line is exactly what I campaigned about: your elected officials have completely cut you out of vital neighborhood decisions.

    The few voters remaining keep voting in the same type of elected official and expect a different outcome. We see this with LICH, the Brooklyn Heights Public Library, Condos at Pier 6, PS8 overcrowding, etc., that is, an elected class that make some mild and nuanced ruckus for the cameras then quietly get out of the way of developers or even usher in these kinds of projects and zoning changes, often on a silver platter RFP. These politicians use the same consultants/PR machines to get elected as developers or are cozy with the Kings County Democratic, both working against our neighborhoods (LICH and BPL with Seddio/Carone and Simon and Berlin Rosen with Levin, Squadron, Lander and de Blasio). These politicians are simply not working in our interest. Their relationships tell volumes and can precisely predict an outcome. The harm to us is almost never ending.

    The moral of the story is to truly participate in your democracy, carefully vet and support candidates for elected office and throw out bums who sell out their neighborhoods. They should only get one chance. Elected officials hold enormous power and can fight or prevent this harm to communities if they really want to.

    The other thing to consider is real hard hitting press that reports these matters before it’s too late. I consider the BHB a vital resource for our community and would support it, particularly financially if the blog ever says so. I also consider http://truenewsfromchangenyc.blogspot.com vitally important and a great case in point. True News’ Gary Tilzer — a true fighter for the reform movement — is at the verge of ending his blog because he can no longer financially sustain his commitment. Please contribute to the True News blog because without any scrutiny you see what our politicians can and will do to our communities, parks and institutions. True News gets a lot of traffic so if anyone can help Gary monetize the blog that would be just as helpful.