From Common Edge: "Does Brooklyn’s New Brooding Monolith Deserve Kudos?" (and do selfie-takers at Barclays Center plaza seek out the supertall?)
Yesterday Common Edge published my essay Does Brooklyn’s New Brooding Monolith Deserve Kudos?
It's surprising to me that two major critics, and an online poll, have treated the Brooklyn Tower, the borough's first supertall (over 1,000 feet) so generously, since the "person-on-the-street" perspective is so negative.
It's surprising to me that two major critics, and an online poll, have treated the Brooklyn Tower, the borough's first supertall (over 1,000 feet) so generously, since the "person-on-the-street" perspective is so negative.
Note that the architect behind the tower, SHoP, is also responsible for the Barclays Center's look.
As I wrote:
As I wrote:
To Dezeen, SHoP principal John Cerone linked the Brooklyn Tower to the Barclays Center, the Brooklyn arena that the firm revamped—after a design by Ellerbe Becket—to acclaim when it opened in 2012.“People take selfies at Barclays and then they turn around and then take selfies down the street with the Brooklyn Tower,” said Cerone. “They don’t know they are by the same architects.”
Well, if they take selfies from the arena plaza, those photos include the Brooklyn Tower, but it’s not the focus. As shown [below[, a photo from the plaza foregrounds the familiar elegance of the Williamsburgh bank, with its multiple setbacks, plus the glassy wedge 100 Flatbush, while the supertall broods in the background.
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| Looking northwest from Barclays Center plaza. Williamsburg Savings Bank tower in foreground, as is wedge-shaped 100 Flatbush. At center is the supertall Brooklyn Tower. At far left is 11 Hoyt. |
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