Revising perspective on Site 5 plans: 2016 proposal from developer Greenland minimized change in scale. Alternate view shows tower dwarfing bank and B1.

A new plan for Site 5, a key parcel catercorner to the arena block, has been solicited (link), and I think we've been looking at it all wrong since 2016.

From Jan. 2016 Greenland Forest City presentation

Back then, plans surfaced from master developer Greenland Forest City Partners (now essentially Greenland USA) to transfer the bulk of the unbuilt flagship tower (B1), long slated to loom over the arena, across Flatbush Avenue.

The destination: Site 5, long home to the big-box stores P.C. Richard and the now-closed Modell's.

A 250-foot, 439,050-square foot tower had been approved there. 

Moving the bulk from B1, dubbed "Miss Brooklyn" by original architect Frank Gehry, could create a much larger two-tower project, up to 785 feet tall and 1,142,052 square feet.

Today, that pending plan likely will be revised and expanded by Greenland USA or, perhaps, a new partner or successor.

A strategic angle

Consider that the angle Greenland chose for the renderings-- a hovercraft view looking down Flatbush Avenue somewhere northwest of the historic Williamsburgh Savings Bank tower--portrays the proposed shift in a self-serving way.

{That's putting aside the misleading use of green to designate open space like the tiled arena plaza, and the absence of the actually green Brooklyn Bear's Garden, at the tip of Site 5.)

Annotations added to presentation

The hovercraft angle maximizes the contrast between the 512-foot bank and the 511-foot B1 tower, while minimizing the contrast between the 511-foot B1 and Site 5: first, the 800-foot potential building envelope (center) and then the 785-foot taller tower (right).

Yes, the rendering in the right panel suggests a significant contrast in scale between Site 5 and the bank building.

By portraying B1 so robustly, it suggests that moving bulk to Site 5 is no big deal. However, the Site 5 images are more than 50% taller than B1. (The images come from a presentation to the Department of City Planning.)

Another strategic angle

The below perspective, also provided in the Greenland presentation, is closer to street level. It's from Downtown Brooklyn, northwest of the project site, foregrounding the bank.

From Greenland Forest City presentation

While it seems somewhat centered along Flatbush Avenue, the perspective leans northeast, closer to the bank building than Site 5. That allows the 512-foot bank building and 785-foot Site 5 tower appear roughly the same height. (Yes, it does suggest a contrast between B1 and Site 5.)

So we deserve a range of renderings.

An alternate view

I asked Ben Keel, who contributes graphics to this site, to produce an alternate view, which, however arbitrary, is worth considering.

Instead of looking southeast along Flatbush Avenue, why not look north from Fifth Avenue, so B1 and Site 5 are more centered?

Instead of a hovercraft view well above any of the buildings, why not start perhaps 450 feet up, so we can see Miss Brooklyn, the bank building, and Site 5 more as peers?

The result shows far more of a contrast between Site 5 and B1, and then Site 5 and the bank tower.

Yes, this is just one alternative. (Would Site 5 block the bank and its signature clock? I wouldn't bet against it. Then again, the clock has already been blocked by the B2 tower, 461 Dean Street.)

A view from street level, for example, would portray any foregrounded building as the largest.

More perspectives needed

All this supports an argument for a full range of views, from different perspectives and different angles.

Keep in mind the 2018 proposal by Jaime Stein, then a member of the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC), that the advisory board hire its own planning, design, and construction consultants—not merely facilitators—to review the expected Site 5 proposal to inform the board and the public.

That's still worth considering, as we await a new proposal for Site 5.

Another strategic rendering

Some Atlantic Yards watchers may recall another strategic rendering.

Consider the angle in the image at right, from May 2006, produced by original architect Frank Gehry.

It shows the bank building dwarfing the flagship tower, though it was actually less than one-third the bulk of B1 and at that point 108 feet shorter (512 feet vs. 620 feet).

That's looking south from street level along Flatbush Avenue.

So the nearest building seems the most imposing.