Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

This is the second of several articles based on the 9/17/19 Quality of Life meeting, hosted by Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority overseeing and shepherding the project. The first concerned plans for the school.

So, how far along is the all-important platform, the key infrastructure over the Vanderbilt Yard above which vertical development of six towers--B5 through B10--can take place?

A representative of the state couldn't give a clear answer, though she insisted there was progress.

Asking about plans for the project's "park," resident Mark Dallara cited the "open rail yard," and added, "As far as I can see, there's no footings for the platform."

"There are already footings in for the platform," responded Tobi Jaiyesimi, Atlantic Yards project director for ESD, and also the executive director of the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation.

(Greenland USA's Scott Solish, who typically makes a developer p…

This is the first of several articles based on the 9/17/19 Quality of Life meeting, hosted by Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority overseeing and shepherding the project.

In March, we learned at a meeting of the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation that the B15 tower, aka 664 Pacific Street, should be finished by Spring 2022. (See slide below.)

A 640-seat middle school, occupying the building's first six floors and very deep below-grade space (see photo further below), was supposed to open by August 2022, School Construction Authority (SCA) records said.

Not exactly.

Last night, an SCA rep revealed that the school will not open until September 2023--a delay based on the aim to "refresh" designs over the past nine months--and it will hold 800 students, a 25% increase. (It's unclear whether the school space--previously said to be 100,000 square feet, both above and below ground--is increasing.)

We got no official update on the timing for the r…

Guess what: the Construction Update for the two weeks beginning 9/2/19 didn't disclose that that, on Saturday 9/7/19, trucks would be using the B12 site, on Dean Street between Carlton and Vanderbilt avenues, as a staging area.

They appear to be used for concrete--there are two towers, B4 and B15, for which there is ongoing Saturday concrete work.

The problem, as Dean Street resident Peter Krashes wrote in his comments on the video, is that there is no noise mitigation.
To my recollection, Empire State Development stated previously that the lack of a construction fence for B12 on the Dean Street side is due to the lot being assigned to LIRR/MTA staging, and ESD also (surprisingly!) implied LIRR /MTA is exempt from the project's environmental commitments. This work appears to have been associated with B4 or B15 contractors, not LIRR.
Residents on Dean Street are impacted by the work whichever entity produces the adverse affects. Perhaps this will come up at tonight's Quali…

The more I think about it, there was some precedent for Empire State Development's dubious decision to amend--er, "clarify"--the project's Design Guidelines to allow 96,000 square feet of below-ground space to be used for a fitness center and field house.

Remember, that space, originally presented as "commercial," was then said to be "recreational," though that category was never approved--and, informally, the developer described "health clubs" in a presentation before project approval as subsumed under "retail."
Instead, rather than be subtracted from allotted commercial or retail space, it's a new category, somehow able to be exchanged for parking space (though the latter was never proposed as fungible).
What about the roof logo?
Well, remember the logo on the Barclays Center, before the green roof?
That valuable signage, however common for fly-over cameras, had been neither officially approved nor disclosed. But it passed…

Before tomorrow's Quality of Life meeting, a few photos related to the project site and environs.

Closed open space

First, the open space behind the B15 site, 535 Carlton, was closed as of last week, and a resident told me it had been two weeks. Perhaps we'll learn more. (I presume there's some sort of temporary damage issue, but they should be a little more explanatory.)



At the B15 site

I previously showed photos of the construction site at B15 (664 Pacific or 662 Pacific), but only from street level. The photos below are from the building just north of it, 670 Pacific, and show the depthy of excavation.



Endless parking violations

The volume of driving, parking, deliveries, and pickups presumably will increase when the school is built, placing even more pressure on the available parking--and the fire and police personnel who use their placards to park on the sidewalk.

Below are two photos of FDNY vehicles parked on Dean Street, east of Sixth Avenue.

.

Dangerous pedestrian pat…