Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

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 6.  It should last 90 minutes to two hours. Unlike in previous years, you can't just show up-- 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. (By the way, if any groups/classes ever want to hire me for a separate tour, I'm available .) From the blurb: Hugely controversial when proposed (in 2003) and 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 6 of 15 towers), what’s coming (2 more towers), and what’s left (decking the raily...

The tour is rain or shine. As part of Jane's Walk , I'll be leading a free tour Friday at 5:30 pm:  Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Brooklyn/ Barclays Center: Explore Brooklyn's most contested real estate development . The tour will take about two hours. Please arrive at 5:15 if possible. At about 5:30 we will move away from the starting place, as fans will arrive for the New York Islanders hockey game. Latecomers should look for someone holding a yellow MAS/Jane's Walk paddle, who will stay behind to direct people. [as stated in the blurb] You can't understand Atlantic Yards (in 2014 curiously renamed Pacific Park Brooklyn) and the Barclays Center arena (home to the Brooklyn Nets and New York Islanders) unless you see the context for the 22-acre project. It begins at the edge of Downtown Brooklyn and extends through blocks in Prospect Heights (near Park Slope and Fort Greene) that were formerly residential and mixed-use, with industrial and commercial buildings...

I'm leading a walking tour today of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park/Barclays Center/Prospect Heights (via Municipal Art Society ), and have presented several posts in preparation. One thing to remember: the project remains very much in process. Some impacts feared, expected, or welcomed have not emerged because they were calculated on a larger/full buildout. At the end of 2008, in his traditional end-of-the-year interview with the Brooklyn Paper 's Gersh Kuntzman, Borough President Marty Markowitz made an observation about the then-stalled Atlantic Yards project: “I always say to these folks that are viciously anti—when it’s built I hope that you’ll say to me ‘Marty, you know, it’s not so bad,’” Markowitz spritzed. “I don’t expect you to say you know you were right.  Just say to me, ‘You know what, not so bad.’ That would be to me that would be a tremendous celebration.” He's surely gotten that wish. After all, in 2013, the New York Times declared arena-related problems ...

I'm leading a walking tour Sunday of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park/Barclays Center/Prospect Heights (via  Municipal Art Society ), and present several posts in preparation.  One thing to remember: the project remains very much in process. Some impacts feared, expected, or welcomed have not emerged because they were calculated on a larger/full buildout. Others were never anticipated.  (Updated with comment at bottom) The B2 crane; the B3 crane is in background One lesson from Atlantic Yards, as I've said, is that it's a "never say never" project. For example, today, the arena is ringed with three cranes, and they're lingering longer than projected. No one expected cranes on the arena block for long, because four towers were supposed to be built along with the arena. That didn't happen. The arena was shrunken to save money, decoupled from the towers to allow a slower buildout, and constructed first. Beyond that, no one expected the crane for B2...

I'm leading a walking tour Sunday of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park/Barclays Center/Prospect Heights (via  Municipal Art Society ), and present several posts in preparation.  One thing to remember: the project remains very much in process. Some impacts feared, expected, or welcomed have not emerged because they were calculated on a larger/full buildout. Perhaps the most glaring architectural difference between Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park as planned and as it has emerged is the absence of "Miss Brooklyn," aka B1, the flagship office tower. Some 511 feet tall and containing 1.1 million square feet, intended to loom over the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues. (See list of building heights and square footages; note that B1 was reduced from 620 feet to 511 feet to be shorter than the Williamsburgh Savings Bank, though the point is somewhat moot today, with taller buildings in Downtown Brooklyn.) Miss Brooklyn/B1 would be huge. Consider how even when the ren...

I'm leading a walking tour Sunday of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park/Barclays Center/Prospect Heights (via  Municipal Art Society ), and present several posts in preparation.  One thing to remember: the project remains very much in process. Some impacts feared, expected, or welcomed have not emerged because they were calculated on a larger/full buildout. It's clear that the Barclays Center, combined with ongoing gentrification, has driven retail rents up nearby and shifted the mix on those nearby blocks toward purveyors of food and drink, plus some clothing. The enduring question: who has this helped and hurt? Landlords have clearly benefited, though some have been waiting a while to collect higher rents. Some long-time tenants have been pushed out. Some new ones have found less than what they expected, either from arena crowds that don't like to go far or because the housing associated with the project--and the new customer base--has not yet arrived. And others have be...

I'm leading a walking tour Sunday of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park/Barclays Center/Prospect Heights (via  Municipal Art Society ), and present several posts in preparation.  One thing to remember: the project remains very much in process. Some impacts feared, expected, or welcomed have not emerged because they were calculated on a larger/full buildout.  Instead of Fro-Yo, a couple of Nets  The Barclays Center, two-and-a-half years in, is still not officially finished. It's on its 14th Temporary Certificate of Occupancy (TCO), with the latest TCO , effective 2/2/15, expiring 5/3/15. It Why? The document is not exactly clear, but it's likely at least in part because of unresolved retail space. The TCO indicates that, however fractionally unfinished, the building is safe and legal to occupy. As I  wrote  10/14/13, it took three and four years, respectively, for the new Yankee Stadium and Citi Field to get their Final Certificates of Occupancy. For...

I'm leading a walking tour Sunday of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park/Barclays Center/Prospect Heights (via Municipal Art Society ), and present several posts in preparation.  One thing to remember: the project remains very much in process. Some impacts feared, expected, or welcomed have not emerged because they were calculated on a larger/full buildout. Others were never examined. What's going on in this photo that I took last Friday at around 5 pm? The view is west from the northwest corner of Sixth Avenue and Dean Street, toward the arena loading dock and associated "pad." Well, members of the Virginia Commonwealth University band, in town for the Atlantic 10 tournament at the Barclays Center, were loading a bus with their instruments and luggage, and getting on the bus. From the right side of the vehicle. Very close to traffic. This is a hazardous situation. The signage does not bar stopping, but it is a turning lane. The boarding, obviously, should be from ...