I've written before about puff pieces for the 550 Vanderbilt rooftop farm, and here's another, from Modern Farmer, Brooklyn’s Newest Condo Amenity: Rooftop Agricultural Plots, complete with some glaring distortions:
Um, it's not a "public works project," it's a public-private partnership with emphasis on the latter. A "train terminal" underneath the Atlantic Terminal mall is not the same as the Vanderbilt Yard, which 1) is not defunct and 2) only 8.5 acres, and thus can't be transformed into the 22-acre Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park.
In fact, 550 Vanderbilt is being built on the southeast block of the project, terra firma, formerly occupied by commercial and residential buildings.
The gardening space is reported as 520 square feet, which is the size of a decent studio apartment--not "whopping" unless it were associated with a single apartment, rather than 278 units, or 1.87 square feet per unit. (I earlier erroneously tweeted a slightly lower figure, using 298 units.)
Interestingly enough, the garden was previously reported as a "1600-square-foot rooftop farm." My best guess is that the majority of that space is reserved for the restaurant Olmsted, with the "whopping" remainder left for residents.
But here’s one we haven’t seen much of: Rooftop gardens. That’s right: one gigantic new-construction condominium building in the heart of Brooklyn is making urban agriculture a fundamental part of its pitch. 550 Vanderbilt is a huge 278-unit building in what was formerly called, and probably still best known as, the Atlantic Yards, a massive public works project to transform a defunct train terminal into a commercial and residential zone anchored by the Barclays Center, home of the NBA-worst Brooklyn Nets.(Emphases added)
... Because the building is so big, there are plenty of nooks and crannies to tuck fun stuff throughout its 17 stories, and what the designers came up with is a whopping 520 square-foot gardening space on a huge eighth floor terrace.
Um, it's not a "public works project," it's a public-private partnership with emphasis on the latter. A "train terminal" underneath the Atlantic Terminal mall is not the same as the Vanderbilt Yard, which 1) is not defunct and 2) only 8.5 acres, and thus can't be transformed into the 22-acre Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park.
In fact, 550 Vanderbilt is being built on the southeast block of the project, terra firma, formerly occupied by commercial and residential buildings.
The gardening space is reported as 520 square feet, which is the size of a decent studio apartment--not "whopping" unless it were associated with a single apartment, rather than 278 units, or 1.87 square feet per unit. (I earlier erroneously tweeted a slightly lower figure, using 298 units.)
Interestingly enough, the garden was previously reported as a "1600-square-foot rooftop farm." My best guess is that the majority of that space is reserved for the restaurant Olmsted, with the "whopping" remainder left for residents.
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