Brooklyn Heights Blog

New York City will assume control of the Brooklyn Bridge Park project, it was announced today.   NY1 reports that New York state will “retain” influence on the final makeup of the park.  The deal must first be approved by the State Public Authorities Control Board.

Read  BHB’s reports on the park’s progress so far.

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At last month’s BHA annual meeting, architect Michael Van Valkenburgh took attendees on a “virtual” tour of Brooklyn Bridge Park.  The BHA’s snazzy new website has the full tour posted now.

The BHA.org: Michael Van Valkenburgh is a principal of the design firm bearing his name, which has been involved in designing Brooklyn Bridge Park for 12 years. Valkenburgh was the featured speaker at the Brooklyn Heights Association’s Annual Meeting on Feb. 23, 2010. In his presentation, Van Valkenburgh describes the design of a park as “the most extraordinary manifestation of a group of people collectively trying to shape the world they live in.” He then establishes the context for Brooklyn Bridge Park, reviewing how “incredibly dynamic and transitory the water edge of Brooklyn has been for hundreds of years.”

The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.

Artist Sam O’Hare’s “The Sandpit”, with music composed by Human, co-written by Rosi Golan and Alex Wong, uses “tilt-shift photography” to depict a day in the life of the City. Much of the action is seen from the Promenade and from the Brooklyn Bridge, including scenes of construction work on Brooklyn Bridge Park. It’s best played full screen in HD. Thanks to Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation’s Facebook page for the link.

More than 100 residents gathered last night for the 100th annual meeting of the Brooklyn Heights Association. The evening broke with tradition by beginning with keynote speaker Michael Van Valkenburg, landscape architect of Brooklyn Bridge Park. Read more »

“Jane’s Carousel”, the 1920s vintage merry-go-round restored under the auspices of Jane Walentas, wife of developer David Walentas, and now housed in a building on Water Street in DUMBO, is slated to be moved across the street and into what is now Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park, itself to be incorporated into Brooklyn Bridge Park, sometime within the next year. The carousel is to be covered by an enclosure designed by Jean Nouvel, the cost of which will be paid by Walentas. However, not everyone is happy with this arrangement, as this story on the New York Post’s Brooklyn Blog reports: Read more »

Michael Van Valkenburgh, FASLA, FAAR, principal landscape architect for the portion of Brooklyn Bridge Park under construction below the Heights, will be the keynote speaker at the Brooklyn Heights Association’s annual meeting, to be held at Plymouth Church, entrance on Orange Street between Henry and Hicks, on Tuesday, February 23, beginning at 7:00 p.m. Refreshments will be served, and you need not be a BHA member to attend.

Responding to a reader inquiry about the condition of the trees being held near the foot of Pier 3 for eventual transplantation to Pier 6, we requested information from the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation. Today, Nathan Tinclair responded for the Corporation:

We understand completely your reader’s concerns, and we have paid close attention to the condition of the trees which will be planted at Pier 6. The trees are currently in a temporary nursery on the site, and we have taken many precautions to ensure that they remain healthy and vibrant until we are able to plant them at Pier 6. Our landscape contractors are taking diligent care of the trees in the nursery including giving the trees special biological inoculations which will ensure that they will stay in good condition until they are transplanted in the coming months.

Thanks for your concern, and please let us know if you have any other questions.

Originally scheduled to open in December, then delayed to January, the Pier 1 portion of Brooklyn Bridge Park (see photo above), though evidently good to go, will not welcome the public until, according to the latest promise, sometime this spring.

The Brooklyn Paper: The long-awaited first permanent section of Brooklyn Bridge Park has been delayed — again! — and will now open “in the spring,” Borough President Markowitz revealed in his “State of the Borough” address on Wednesday night.

The waterfront development’s Pier 1 recreation area at the foot of Old Fulton Street — the fruit of decades of planning and controversy — was originally scheduled to open in late 2009, but was pushed back until January.

According to the report, no one has given an explanation for the delay.

Greensward, paths, benches, stairs, and trees beckon visitors to Pier 1 in this photo taken from the Brooklyn Bridge on Wednesday, January 27. For some time, we’ve been advised that this portion of Brooklyn Bridge Park would open this month, but January has just two days left and no opening date has been announced. Thanks to a tip from reader Publius, we may now know why:

The New York Post: A turf war between the Bloomberg administration and the state over who will control two highly touted waterfront parks is causing even more holdups for both already-long-delayed projects, sources told The Post.

Most immediately, the squabble — the mayor wants to commit another $300 million right away but in return wants control of the two projects, while the cash-strapped state has been dragging its feet — is delaying the opening of the first completed segment of Brooklyn Bridge Park, which was supposed to open in Brooklyn Heights late last year. To date, no ribbon-cutting is set, and the green space remains fenced up.

We earlier reported on the City’s plan to commit an additional $55 million (the $300 million referenced in the Post article includes funding for parks on Governors Island) to park construction if the State would yield control of the Park. It appears that state officials, despite having no additional funds for the Park, may be opposing this because of their desire to take credit for the Park. Read more »

As reported in The Brooklyn Paper last week, workers installing new water and sewer lines near the foot of Old Fulton Street encountered some trolley tracks that had been buried under asphalt for many years. After consulting with city officials and an archaeologist, the contractor “ripped up the tracks and threw them in the trash.” This drew an angry response from some preservationists and from advocates for the restoration of trolley service like Red Hook resident Bob Diamond (more about Brooklyn trolley history here and about Bob Diamond’s project here). Read more »