My Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park/Barclays Center tour, as part of the annual Jane's Walk weekend of free tours, will be Friday, May 5, at 6 pm

Jane's Walk, the annual weekend of free tours (#janeswalknyc) inspired by the urbanist and author Jane Jacobs, has returned for in-person tours on the first weekend in May, so I am again offering a tour of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park & Barclays Center, at 6 pm on Friday, May 5.

A Megaproject Unresolved: What Happened with Atlantic Yards? should last 90 minutes to two hours. An RSVP to the organizer, the Municipal Art Society, is required and capacity is limited. Meeting location, ending location, and directions will be provided via email before walk date. 

The blurb:

Hugely controversial when proposed (in 2003) and later approved, the megaproject Atlantic Yards (in 2014 renamed Pacific Park Brooklyn), still deserves attention. See what’s been built (the Barclays Center, home to the Brooklyn Nets, plus 8 of 15-16 towers) and what remains: delayed plans to deck an MTA railyard for 6 towers and to build a two-tower project opposite the arena, plus an affordable housing deadline.

With watchdog journalist Norman Oder, learn Atlantic Yards’ tangled history, uncertain timetable, changing designs (and ownership), and ongoing questions. Topics include public accountability, affordable housing, open space, arena design/operations, and the changing neighborhood/Brooklyn context, including a push for new development nearby.

We will walk around part of the 22-acre site’s perimeter, plus a few adjacent blocks.

Unmentioned, but also to be discussed, is the use of alleged "blight" to enable eminent domain, and the failure, more than 16 years after the project's approval, to cure the largest contributor to that blight: the MTA's below-grade working railyard, which needs an expensive platform.

Note: when, on March 13, I submitted my Jane's Walk, Greenland USA's Scott Solish had left his job, leaving the project publicly rudderless.

Five days later, it became clear that a plan to build the first phase of the platform--key to three towers over the MTA's Vanderbilt Yard--was off the table, though it had been posited as imminent since last May. (The second phase of the platform would support three more towers and complete the project's open space.) 

So the project is very much unresolved. (My lengthy FAQ is here. Some key infographics are below.)

Background: construction

Background: developers/owners/designers

Background: affordable housing