CBS New York and Other Network Outlets Cover Pierhouse Foes Save the View Now

By on January 8, 2015 8:26 pm in brooklyn bridge park, Brooklyn Heights, Landmark Preservation

Two more local television stations reported today on Save the View Now, the grassroots group aiming to curb the height of Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pierhouse.

 RELATED: WPIX Reports on Pierhouse

RELATED: All BHB Coverage of Save the View Now

CBS New York: The mayor’s pick for park president said the Pierhouse is just 3 feet higher than originally planned due to changes forced by Hurricane Sandy, and no more obstructive than a warehouse torn down on the site.

“There’s no bait and switch. The building that is under construction now is exactly the building that was approved,” said Regina Myer of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation. “This was all according to the plan for this beautiful park.”

But opponents have won an important ally as the Brooklyn Heights Association is putting its weight behind this fight over height, Aiello reported.

And from WNBC-TV:

And the struggle made the front page of this week’s Brooklyn Heights Press:

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  • Heights Obsrever

    Anyone who remembers the old cold storage warehouse knows that the Mayor’s park toady is wrong. We are not stupid. Can anyone supply photographic proof showing both buildings from the same angle?

    I guess we have a clue now as to where Mayor di Blowhard stands. (He probably feels that he’s going to need the real estate industry’s help for his re-election campaign.)

  • gc

    Does de Blasio have any idea how many groups he has alienated?

  • Jorale-man

    That CBS piece made it appear that the Cold Storage Warehouse was an equivalent height (and bulk) to Pierhouse. It’s been shown here through comparative photos taken on the same place on the promenade that the Pierhouse is taller and certainly more obstructive.

  • Willowtown Resident

    The “save the view” goal is laudable but the approach is myopic. To stop the BBPC a short window exists to prove in court certain key arguments. By the time the save the view folks and the BHA get a court process going it will be too late. Their best move would be to unite with save pier 6 to demonstrate that BBPC has behaved in a pattern of repeated behavior not allowed under existing regulations. If the two groups don’t unite and the BHA continues to play politics focused on the narrower interests of the North Heights, save the view will almost certainly miss the window and save pier 6 will lose the benefit of the BHA and the power of a larger group. The BBPC is not the friend of the BHA. Does anyone really believe Toll Bros. is the culprit? If so I have a beautiful albeit partially obscured bridge to sell you.

    Wake up BHA and take a stand that deals with the real problem: an out of control park corporation with little to no accountabity to the public, spinning a web of misinformation that would make Robert Moses blush.

  • DoBro84

    Brings to mind Monty Python’s “Life of Brian” and the Judean People’s Front, the Judean Popular People’s Front, the Campaign for a Free Galilee, and the Popular Front of Judea.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Python%27s_Life_of_Brian#Political_satire

  • Susan Raboy

    he doesn’t care

  • martinlschneider

    Regina Myer is shading the truth when she avers that her building is in the same “footprint.” She surely knows that the footprint was never the issue. It’s not where the building is being built. It is the height of the building that has been the issue since 2005.
    Nor is revenue the issue. That necessity too has long been accepted. But when the sales value of the floor space skyrockets from an originally projected $750 to over $1500 a square foot, it is clear that the Park’s income is more than secure; it is way over the original target. .
    She is defending the destruction of an internationally prized view, forever. Why? What is really at stake? Does the Mayor know the details of the deal? And if the windfall money is not going to protect the pubic interest, where exactly is it headed?

  • Roberto Gautier

    Willowtown Resident’s comments reflect the wisdom of strategic historical lessons of community organizing. It makes sense for a unification of the two Saves. It seems to be the same battle. Why not pool resources to become more formidable?

  • gc

    I guess his political aspirations begin and end as a one term mayor.

  • DIBS

    Have you heard about the fence erected at Gracie Mansion? Have you heard about what it is really shielding from view????

  • martinlschneider

    There are many , many views from the center of the promenade, around Clark St., showing the old warehouses. Save the view should make a definitive photo display on their website, pronto. Let’s put any doubts that may be played upon to rest now. Pictures tell the story.

  • R.O.Shipman

    That really needs to be done for everyone’s sake. I hate debates without facts, and the best facts available are comparative photographs. Someone needs to find a few old pictures and in good faith try to replicate the photo angles and zoom as accurately as possible.

    My hunch is that some people will find that the view isn’t as changed as they thought as the absence of the torn down buildings for so long has obscured memories (people were saying you could see the full span from the northern end of the promenade, which was not true), but there should still be enough of a difference to show the huge problems with the new buildings.

  • Jonathan

    The National Cold Storage Warehouse roofline, save a few mechanicals, was most definitely lower than the crest of the bridge roadway, as viewed from the southern part of the promenade. See original image at: http://forgotten-ny.com/2008/06/old-furman-street-in-transition. Also note that the old building, having few and small windows, did not call much attention to itself. The Pierhouse, with its walls of floor-to-ceiling glass (reflective during the day and illuminated at night) will be far more distractive.

  • Jonathan

    Cropped and enlarged version of orginal photo.

  • Jonathan

    Sorry, attached photo disappeared each time I posted. The original is from the 1975 St. Francis College yearbook, according to Kevin Walsh at Forgotten NY.

  • Remsen Street Dweller

    The photo may have disappeared because it was too big (in terms of bytes) to be uploaded. See if you can reduce the size and try it again.

  • ShinyNewHandle

    If you “post as guest”, as I do, then your name appears in gray instead of blue, and you can’t upload pics onto the servers of the company that provides the commenting software. But you can leave a link, as you have done.

  • Diesel

    Like what did you expect to happen, don’t you humans know yourself by now…

  • ShinyNewHandle

    Insufferable mutt.

  • Diesel

    Insufferable perhaps but “mutt” Gerrrrr

  • Clarky

    Here you go.

    http://blog.quartley.com/brooklyn-bridge-park-condos/

    It’s not quite the same angle, but it’s very close. Unfortunately, I think our collective memories are playing tricks. The condos are currently marginally taller. Of course the view from closer to the end of the promenade does show the condos obscuring more of the view, but horizontally not vertically.

  • guest

    I don’t think that photo shows what you say it does. It shows me that from the southern end of the promenade, the cold storage warehouse at least partially blocked the roadway. And it is easy to see that as you walk north up the promenade, the building would obscure the roadway even more. And there are plenty of old photos and the internet that confirm that. Also are you really trying to say that an old vacant deteriorating warehouse has a better visual impact than a new lived in residential building? That may be your opinion, but I think you’ll have to understand if alot of people don’t agree with that statement. In the end, I think that looking at old photos of the cold storage warehouse pretty definitively shows that all of this hubbub is much ado about nothing. There’s only one vantage point from which the new building definitely obscures the view of the bridge in a way that the old buildings did not, and that is the view from the fruit street sitting area – in other words, right in front of Mr. Guterman’s townhouse. Was that a vantage point that the Park had promised to protect back in 2005, or was it just the view from the promenade?

  • ShinyNewHandle

    Guest, since you ask about 2005, this is from the “Brooklyn Bridge Park: Fact Sheet” dated December 2005:

    Section title: “Neighborhoods benefit from the creation of the park.”

    Paragraph 1: “Legally-protected view planes, including the special Brooklyn Heights scenic view district, would be respected and enhanced. The proposed design for the park would open up and extraordinary sequence of views of the river, New York Harbor, the Manhattan skyline, surrounding landmarks and of the park itself from one end to the other. None of the structures proposed for Brooklyn Bridge Park would reflect noise into or cast shadows onto surrounding neighborhoods.”

    That seems clear to me.

  • stuart

    don’t confuse us with facts. we are on an excellent tear.

  • Clarky

    Annoying isn’t it?

  • http://www.shootlikeagirlphotography.com/ lauren

    What year/time frame should the old pictures be from? I have done a lot of shooting in the area in the past 10 years and could look through my archives.

  • guest

    Yes – seems clear to me too. They were only promising to protect existing views from the promenade. So they never promised to protect the views from the fruit street area on columbia heights.

  • ShinyNewHandle

    Re fruit street area: “None… would cast shadows onto surrounding neighborhoods.”

    A few days ago, I passed the site and counted two dozen men working hard to raise Behemoth, Part II: The Hotel on the southern side of the bouncy bridge.

  • Heights Correspondent 1

    NONE of this is going to change without
    Serious, fully credible legal action best
    in a Federal Court followed by public
    Hearings into the structure and over
    all activities of Regina and company.
    But all the above depends on high
    Visibility public discontent, and that
    DOESN’T mean one of two people
    showing up for news coverage,
    amount of angry people visible
    Counts folks…

  • Still Here

    The Cold Storage Building was demolished toward the end of 2008. This picture is from August 2008 after the piers sheds were removed. So, you need Promenade views before then.

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