Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

How public is that Barclays Center plaza? Well, not as much as I thought, because, on my Jane's Walk tour last night, our group of 16 was ejected--the first time ever, after leading such tours for several years and not getting bounced from the plaza. Then again, as far as I can tell (and will explain below), we weren't violating any of the rules. It wasn't the first time a group with me had had a run-in with arena security--last year we were asked to leave the pavement outside the Dean Street entrance. It's an interesting counterpoint to the ideals of Jane's Walks, which are in the spirit of the late urbanist Jane Jacobs and supposed to underscore the role of citizens and communities in city-shaping. Let's back up. Public and private I've long kept track of the curious nature of the plaza, once the Daily News Plaza, now the Resorts World Casino NYC Plaza, a branded corporate space, open to the public but not always, offering a key amenity for are...

It's always interesting and challenging to discuss Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park on a walking tour, especially when participants bring quite varied amounts of history--regarding Brooklyn, and/or the project--to the table. So, with more than 30 people to lead around during my Jane's Walk tour Friday, I had to hit some high points. “Atlantic Yards is a never-say-never project" was the most important of the four mantras  I periodically use. After all, the project has gone through significant changes, in ownership, name, program, designers, and timing. Outside the Barclays Center. Photo: Eric Richmond I also redeployed a couple of phrases well known to urbanists. I suggested that  the phrase "form follows function"--that style should reflect purpose--might be more wisely replaced by the phrase "form follows finance," the title of a book by Carol Willis, also the founder of the Skyscraper Museum . After all, the lack of finance may mean the abse...

My free Jane's Walk on Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park/Barclays Center is Friday, May 4, at 5:30 pm. See information here . The annual Jane's Walk weekend sent me back to a 3/16/17 panel at the Brooklyn Historical Society on the Legacy of Jane Jacobs, on YouTube below. The summary: In 1960, Jane Jacobs' book "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" sent shockwaves through the architecture and planning worlds. New York Times columnist Ginia Bellafante talks to Matt Tyrnauer, director and producer of the acclaimed documentary "Citizen Jane: Battle for the City," Rober Hammond, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Friends of the High Line, and Dr. Samuel Zipp, Associate Professor of American and Urban Studies at Brown University and Co-Editor of "Vital Little Plans: The Short Works of Jane Jacobs," about Jacobs' extraordinary impact on the urban landscape. Starting off talking about Brownstone Brooklyn--today expensive, beautiful, low-ri...

The Municipal Art Society of New York (MAS) is again sponsoring Jane's Walk in New York City May 4-6, part of "a global festival of free, citizen-led walking tours inspired by urban activist Jane Jacobs." Numerous tours are available over those three days, with no reservations required--just show up. And on Friday, May 4, at 5:30 pm, I'll be offering my now-annual tour of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Brooklyn/Barclays Center : Explore Brooklyn’s Most Contested Real Estate Project  See what’s been built (arena plus 4 of 15 towers) and what’s coming within Atlantic Yards (in 2014 renamed Pacific Park Brooklyn), and learn the project’s tangled history, shifting timetable, changing ownership, and ongoing question marks. Meet at Ona, by  Ursula von Rydingsvarg  (source of photo) The tour should last about 1.75 hours, depending on how many people show up and how fast we move. Meeting point, ending point We meet outside the Barclays Center--many subway lines ...

As part of the annual Jane's Walk in honor of urbanist Jane Jacobs, 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." For those who remember the high hopes, deep passions, and fierce pushback regarding "Jobs, Housing, and Hoops," this tour will serve as an update. For those new to Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park and Brooklyn, it will be an introduction. Meeting at Ona , by Ursula von Rydingsvarg  (source of photo) The tour will take about two hours and go rain or shine. No registration is required. We'll meet outside the Barclays Center under the oculus (opening to the sky), next to the giant statue that looks like a rock formation. We will end at the intersection of Vanderbilt Avenue and Dean Street. From the description You can't understand Atlantic Yards, (in 2014 renamed Pacific Park Brooklyn) and the Barclays Center a...

Yesterday's Commercial Observer interview with Forest City Ratner Pacific Park project director Susi Yu contains some very interesting tidbits, along with her comments about Site 5, which I address separately . The 421-a delay Yu wasn't asked about the timetable for the delayed B12 tower, which is one of three development sites for sale. But she said "We actually put the footings in to preserve our 421-a benefit." "In terms of the rest of the buildout, we have to see how 421-a plays out and in what form it comes back," she added. "It’s impossible to do residential development without it." That sounds like a pretty uncertain schedule. Working with Greenland Asked what’s it like to work with joint venture partner/overseer Greenland USA, Yu responded: China definitely has a different way of working, so I think there’s definitely a little bit of an educational process in learning that in New York you can’t just do everything because you...

On today's rain-or-shine free Jane's Walk , starting 5:30 sharp outside the Barclays Center (get there early), I'll take people through the complex history of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, starting with the project announcement in 2003, and the many plans, twists, and turns. But what of the great urbanist Jane Jacobs, whose 100th birthday is being celebrated? I'll sit out for now the various "What Would Jane Do?" speculations, but rely on a wise observation from architecture critic Paul Goldberger, who suggested, "So if there is any way to follow Jane Jacobs, it is to think of her as showing us not a physical model for city form but rather a perceptual model for skepticism." Ah, there are many triggers for skepticism. Modular and Jacobs Forest City Ratner executive (now CEO) MaryAnne Gilmartin, in 2013, contended that the developer's cutting-edge plans for modular construction were Jacobsian: To my mind, the modern redux of Jane Jacobs ...

On Saturday and Sunday, May 3 & 4,   Jane’s Walk NYC  returns: 100+ free guided walks throughout New York’s five boroughs. "Jane’s Walks are organized and led by urban enthusiasts, animators and organizations that celebrate Jane Jacobs’ legacy," according to the coordinator, the Municipal Art Society (MAS). My tour is  Atlantic Yards and the Barclays Center, In Context , on Saturday May 3 at 9 am. Meeting Place: One Hanson Place, Outside Williamsburgh Savings Bank, just north of Atlantic Terminal mall and Atlantic Avenue/Barclays Center subway terminus. (The tour will end at Dean Street and Vanderbilt Avenue.) The description: Join Atlantic Yards Report watchdog journalist and New York Like a Native guide Norman Oder on a walk around and beyond the controversial Atlantic Yards site, home to the new Barclays Center arena, the "accidental plaza," and the 16 planned towers, one under construction, the world's tallest modular building. While visiting F...

Development boosters like to claim a purported synthesis of Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses, with even a priority to the former. "We plan on a Robert Moses sort of scale, at least a number of these rezonings," claimed City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden in July 2010, "but we judge ourselves by a Jane Jacobs scale." “It may surprise some given my developer DNA, that I identify more with Jane Jacobs than Robert Moses,” declared Forest City Ratner CEO MaryAnne Gilmartin last May. However, Roberta Brandes Gratz, author of  The Battle for Gotham: New York in the Shadow of Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs , has warned that Moses's "ends justify the means" philosophy was fundamentally antithetical to Jacobs's respect for process, and that it's impossible to merge the two. So it was astounding to hear Gilmartin-- one of the two developers on Mayor Bill de Blasio's transition team --claim, as described below, that building modular apartments...

In  MaryAnne Gilmartin Boasts About Building Affordable Housing, Moving to Brooklyn , the New York Observer reports: Apparently, though, newly appointed president and CEO MaryAnne Gilmartin is now thrilled about housing. As she told a crowd of urban planning gurus, developers and real estate powerbrokers at a CURE. (Center for Urban Real Estate) dinner at Columbia University Wednesday night, while all of the positive feedback on the arena had been nice, “it is the housing component that will truly revolutionize the project.” Ms. Gilmartin raved about the Forest City Ratner’s decision to go with modular, conflating the cost-saving measure with much higher-minded ideals than cheapness. It was about innovation, Ms. Gilmartin said, and the developer’s commitment to affordable housing—the  much-delayed component that helped Forest City sell the controversial project to political leaders and community groups. (While the first tower, at 32 stories, will be the world’s tallest pre...

From the Municipal Art Society : On Saturday, May 4  and Sunday, May 5 , thousands of New Yorkers will come together for Jane’s Walk NYC – a weekend series of  100+ FREE guided walks (and bike rides!) throughout New York’s five boroughs. Registration is NOT required . Whether you choose to stroll through neighborhoods you love or discover new neigborhoods you’ve never visited, you’ll enjoy this international program created to commemorate the life and legacy of urbanist Jane Jacobs . My tour: Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards and the Barclays Center, In Context    Time: Sunday, May 5, 3:00 PM – 5:15 pm     Walk Host: Norman Oder    Accessibility: Partially Accessible - curbs, uneven terrain, busy sidewalks Description: Join Atlantic Yards Report watchdog journalist and New York Like A Native guide Norman Oder on a walk around and beyond the controversial Atlantic Yards site, home to the new Barclays Center arena, and 16 planned towers,...

On Thursday, 3/14/13, community planner Ron Shiffman (right), received the 2012 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership, presented by the Rockefeller Foundation. The press release is at bottom, and here's the Storify account of the evening, in tweets. Shiffman, in both his speech and in the pre-speech video about him, made reference to his work with Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, where he served on the board of directors and wrote a 2006 essay explaining his opposition to Atlantic Yards, citing a flawed process and extreme density. Shiffman's speech Shiffman gave me a copy of his speech, which he edited to meet time constraints, so he did not deliver the remarks in gray . He first thanked the Rockefeller Foundation and the Municipal Art Society, which administers the awards: I am truly honored to be this year’s Jane Jacobs awardee. Jane played a pivotal role in forging the way we think about people, cities and the economy. The position I filled at Pratt 50 year...