A guesstimate: Site 5 project will feature green glass to promote Greenland

The percolating giant project at Site 5 catercorner to the arena block--two towers and an astonishing shift of bulk, at least as proposed to city officials last year--still has not entered the phase of public review. 

So the project, unofficially suggested at 1.1 million square feet and with the taller tower 785 feet tall, could still change, in configuration and even ownership. (New investors beyond Greenland Forest City Partners, the current joint venture?) 

From 2016 Department of City Planning Presentation; the Site 5 project is proposed to be
three times the bulk of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank building across Flatbush Avenue

And whatever is proposed, which will include a change in the overall General Project Plan to allow new height and bulk, must go through public review--though that's typically a rubber stamp by Empire State Development.

Maybe some green glass?

But consider: when proposed at least in January 2016, the Site 5 project would have been Brooklyn's tallest building, a prominent place on the skyline for Greenland USA, the US arm of a Shanghai-based developer that calls itself a "skyscraper specialist."

So a tall building would be not just an office or residential or retail space, but also a marquee, a promotional flagship. Now consider an 8/26/16 Los Angeles Times article mentioning Greenland's Metropolis project in L.A.:

When completed in 2018, the $1-billion project will require a total of 300,000 tons of concrete and 650,000 square feet of glass, much of it in Greenland’s namesake color.

So here's a guesstimate: the Site 5 project--surely to get a new name--might have some prominent green glass to promote Greenland. 

Is that allowed? Well, the Design Guidelines for Atlantic Yards (now Pacific Park) say (on p. 38)

The Site 5 Building shall utilize not less than two different materials as principal materials. Principal materials shall be glass, pre-cast panel, metal, stone, or masonry.

So that doesn't rule out glass. But the Design Guidelines will have to be modified to accommodate a much larger building. 

And for Greenland, which may be willing to accept a lower margin that some other developers as part of its international expansion push, Site 5 may be valuable not just as a development site but as a corporate calling card. Stay tuned.