We don’t feature tons of art shows, largely because there’s only so much we can focus on, but this show of Eric Lindquist‘s work, sample above, caught our eye thanks the work above featuring Northside Piers and 184 Kent. The work is on display at the McCaig-Welles gallery starting tomorrow (3/8), with an opening reception on Friday, March 9, from 7:00PM-9:00PM. The space is at 129 Roebling Street, Suite B. The work is described on ARTCAL as evoking:

Brooklyn’s industrial past and future residential growth. The exhibition documents specific sites of building and decay in the present Williamsburg waterfront and surrounding areas of Greenpoint, where construction cranes, glass and concrete structures rapidly supplant dilapidated warehouses and beaches of rubble, in anticipation of residential towers and public promenades. These paintings and drawings seek to document the transformations through a subdued palette, balancing graphic sensibility with painterly animation. Lindquist’s work explores landscape as a memorial.

Looks like fun.

When you send us an email that says “Party at Thor’s Office–Everyone’s Invited!” you get our attention. So, it was with this e-missive that arrived in our GL inbox announcing plans for an upcoming “No Condos in Coney Protest Party.” The event “will be hosted by some of New York’s most colorful burlesque performers!!…Glitter!! Face Paint!! Costumes!! Aquatic Spectacles!! Mermaids and more!! The true spirit of Coney Island, delivered to their doorstep in all of its splendor!!”

Call it Coney Island comes to Fifth Avenue. More details as they are sent our way.

Turns out a new design for the New York Aquarium has been selected. The New York Sun reports that it was told that
the design created by Philadelphia-based Wallace, Roberts & Todd aka WRT, and Barcelona-based Cloud 9 has been chosen. (It was certainly our personal favorite.) Renderings are available over at ruiz-geli.com. There’s also an animation of the design posted on YouTube. There is no timeline for construction yet. More renderings below.

Related Post:
Ray of Light in the Coney Island Muck
Coney Island Aquarium Renovation is Cause for Celebration

The new edition of the New York Observer contains an illuminating story about developer Joe Sitt of Thor Equities in which he expresses significant frustration that his plans for Coney Island–specifically the plans to build housing on the boardwalk–have run into opposition and suggests that skeptics are at the “junior-most levels of government.” He tells the Observer that “We’re stuck in the bureaucracy of government…It’s just crazy that somebody from government would want us to mothball this entire thing for five or 10 years, to leave it to another administration to make it happen.” Among others, City Planning Director Amanda Burden has said that housing should not be next to amusements. Sitt says:

“It is not the uniform office tower or residential tower that a lot of these folks at the junior-most levels of government are used to dealing with. This is Coney Island. This is zany. This is different. When somebody says to me, ‘You want to be careful what you want to do with Coney Island; make sure you don’t do anything too freaky here,’ I say, ‘Are you aware of the fact that this was the place where there were people like the Fat Lady and the Skinny Man and the Bearded Lady? What do you mean, you don’t want any restaurants in Coney Island?’”…Mr. Sitt contends that 975 residential units—an unspecified mix of time-shares and condos—would provide the eyes and ears (and pocketbooks) that would make the complex work year round, to say nothing of compensating for the losses he expects from running the amusement area. On a total square-foot basis, according to figures from Thor Equities, Mr. Sitt’s development firm, the apartments would constitute 34 percent of the square footage of the complex, while amusements would constitute only 14 percent. (Hotels, retail and parking would make up the rest.) The actual land area covered by the footprints of the residential towers would be much smaller, however—in part because one of the towers would rise 50 stories…“There is an inherent land-use conflict when you put a use that we hope would be a 24-hour use, where there would be bright lights and noise and crowds, right next to residential,” said Purnima Kapur, director of the Brooklyn office of the Department of City Planning. “You don’t want somebody’s windows opening up right onto that.”

Kinetic Carnival notes that it “seems the [residential] units have jumped another 275 more than last reported by Thor. And they are open about the obvious diminished amusement area which now would consist of only 14 percent.”

In any case, you can read all the details, but it would certainly seem that Mr. Sitt has adopted a strategy of public confrontation with city officials in order to try to push for a fast decision in favor of his plans. It will be interesting to see who blinks first.

It’s taken us a while to get around to this, but the newish local blog Found in Brooklyn offered a rundown of the community meeting in Gowanus to talk about the possible Toll Brothers development in the neighborhood. Found writes:

The main concern amongst other things was about how a developer wants to build 400 units in a high rise building right smack across the street from our little strip of buildings on Bond Street between 1rst & 2nd Streets. Traffic, parking & sewage problems seemed to be the main cause of concern. What gets me is our neighborhood is losing basic services everyday. We don’t even have a local supermarket anymore and fuhgettabout Carroll Gardens ever getting a Post Office! ! I don’t know how the elderly in this neighborhood manage. I suppose Fresh Direct will make a killing (more than they are already) or IF this thing comes to fruition, Whole Foods will be up and running and all the wealthy organic food eaters will never know the difference.

I really don’t want this to happen. I have lived on Bond Street for almost fifteen years. There is talk that my building will be knocked down. I miss the old Brooklyn. I’d rather live with the famous Bond Street wild dog packs than people who can spend a million on an apartment.

Seems like all of Brooklyn vaunted packs of wild dogs are no more.

There may not be any Zipcars in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, but yesterday the company trumpeted its expansion into Williamsburg. Its press release says that it will help “alleviate the growing parking and traffic challenges in the rapidly developing neighborhood.” Also, the company plans to double its Brooklyn fleet and bring about 150 cars here by year’s end. (Ray of hope for Fort Greene & Clinton Hill?)

Zipcar is “immediately bringing eight vehicles to South 9th Street at Kent Avenue, with plans to rapidly increase the Williamsburg fleet by the end of the year. The Williamsburg fleet will include a range of self-service Zipcars, including a Ford Escape, Volkswagen Rabbit, and a Volvo S-40 and will be immediately available to all Zipcar resident and business members for reservation by the hour or day for trips where public transportation is not an option.” The Zipcar release continues:

Before even launching its vehicles, Zipcar has already attracted 500 members that are residents of Williamsburg and estimates thousands of residents will become members of the service. “We are expanding into the neighborhood to fill a vastly unmet need for transportation alternatives,” said Julian Espiritu, Regional VP of Zipcar in New York. “With few subway stations nearby and substantial parking issues, transportation in and out of Manhattan is a challenge for residents and businesses in Williamsburg. Zipcar will provide an easy, convenient, and affordable option for travel.”

Zip. Zip. Zip.

What you are looking at is a photo of what used to be the Graving Dock at the Todd Shipyard where the new Ikea is rising. The photo was sent to us by Chris Curen, a GL reader. He wrote:

You can see the fill comes in from the barge at right on a conveyor belt. This is actually in keeping with EPA mandates (clean fill). It is then graded into the dock. It is difficult to tell from the vantage point of the photo, but the grading slopes downward as one heads towards the bulkheads. Thus, while the photo seems to show mostly an empty bottom, in fact heavy machinary can roll in and out of the graving dock on a slope from the Beard St. end. In short, the near end of the dock, which is difficult to photograph from my place – is completely full, while the visible end of the graving dock is only about 1/4 full.

Working waterfront advocates had lobbied for saving the Graving Dock (which will be paved over so Ikea can use it for parking) and the Municipal Art Society had sued to stop Ikea from filling the dock, which would seem to have been rendered a moot point. A couple of other Ikea construction photos below.

(If you notice something going on in your neighborhood, GL is all ears. We invite your emails at gowanuslounge (at) gmail (dot) com.)

Related Post:
Ikea Sued Over Plans to Fill Graving Dock

Greenpoint is the gift that keeps on giving (along with Williamsburg) in terms of poorly secured construction sites. It’s not that we go looking for them, so much as they keep coming to us. This one comes from our always vigilant Greenpoint correspondent and is located at 98 Clay Street. There’s some sort of summons for a violation on the crappy fence as well.

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related information and images.

• McGuinness Boulevard [newyorkshitty]
• New ESDC Chair Gets Up to Speed on Atlantic Yards [AYR]
• Bloggers Deconstruct Atlantic Yards Media Messages [No Land Grab]
• Is Atlantic Yards a Done Deal? [Gotham Gazette]
• Northsix Owner Fights Back [Brooklyn Record]
• Cadman Plaza Green [Brownstoner]
• Someone Demolishing Something on Grand? [Clinton Hill Blog]
• Help Save Ward’s Bakery [Don’t Worry It’s Just Reality]
• Latest Developments at Famous South Slope Crack Building Site [IMBY]
• Brooklyn: America’s Finest Victorian City [Living in Victorian Flatbush]
• City Seeks Designers for Steeplechase Plaza [Kinetic Carnival]
• Brooklyn Has an Excellent Lice Lady [Mrs. Cleavage’s Diary]
• New Brooklyn HS to Offer Middle East Studies [Sun]

Williamsburg blogger I’m Not Sayin’ I’m Just Sayin’, who produces one of our favorite Brooklyn blogs chock full of original reporting, has been on a roll this week. First, he caught up with some Splasher-like American Apparel advertising on N. 6th Street. Now, he’s posted up some very cool screencaps from a film called Pickup on South Street. INSIJS writes:

A couple of weeks back, a reader tipped us off to this scene from the 1953 Richard Widmark film Pickup on South Street. The picture was released as a Criterion Collection DVD in 2004, and though we’re not generally fans of noirs that don’t follow pinot, the flick was pretty darn good.

Note the building at right – 150 Kent Avenue, whose demise we chronicled in an earlier post. Here it is again in the film, from a slightly different angle: still part of the BEDT complex. And again in the foreground of this late 2004 photo, with the former waste transfer facility still standing where the Northside Piers luxury tower now rises…

INSIJS has posted a couple of more caps in a small flickr set. Cool stuff.

Is it just us, or does there generally seem to be less street art in Williamsbug west of the BQE these days? We’ve been noticing a tremendous amount of artwork that’s been covered up via paint roller. (This goes for tagging too, which we’re not going to defend, but which also has its own codes and followers and, for better or worse, has been part of the Williamsburg streetscape for a long time.) Whether it’s a function of the shifting nature of this part of the neighborhood or more vigilant clean up efforts, there is far less up on walls and fences than there was one, two or three years ago.

In any case, as we were shooting photos, we found two different clean ups going on within blocks of each other. One was the weird paint rollering pictured in the top photo where some deuceseven artwork was being covered over in a closed cement plant across the street from 184 Kent. We’re guessing they’re re-locating or selling the tank? Because we can’t think of another reason for the work we saw going on. In the other case, someone was at work steam cleaning paint from the site of a building, around the corner from the Splasher-Artist war on N. 6th.

One of the first Ikea signs we’ve caught on Beard Street is this super-friendly one that went up at some point in the last week. Hey, it’s their property, and they’ve got a right. However, what we want to know is who was on the site and what were they trying to hand out?

The city’s plan to turn a large part of the so-called Public Place between Smith Street and the Gowanus Canal into housing is not winning friends in the neighborhood. The site is one of the most contaminated in South Brooklyn, having served as the home of a manufactured gas plant for nearly a century. MGPs, as they were called, left behind a deeply toxic legacy including coal tar. Contamination on the site runs as deep as 150 feet. Toxins are seeping into the Gowanus Canal. The city presented plans for the 11.5 acre site that include up to 600 new units of housing in townhomes and a building of up to 12 stories.

An article in the Park Slope Courier details the hostile reaction of many communty members at a recent meeting of Community Board 6, particularly to what is viewed as the formulation of plans with little public input. There is signficant community opposition to building housing on the site both because of concerns about congestion and questions about the safety of people living on a deeply contaminated parcel which it will be possible to only partially clean up. The toxins would be sealed with a protective membrane and environmental experts says they are only a risk if one comes in contact with contaminated soil or groundwater.

The city’s plans are so far advanced that it intends to try to find a developer for the site by the second quarter of the year. Construction on the cleaned up toxic site could start as early as 2009. The big parcel is divided into four sections, with the most severe contamination under currently empty land. A second segment that is currently occupied by a concrete plant is also believed to be seriously polluted.

The site is comprised of a total of four parcels, with the majority if the contamination found on the first, which is vacant, and second, which is leased by the city to a cement plant. The third lot is a clothing distribution warehouse and the fourth is home to a truck maintenance facility and commercial truck lot. KeySpan is responsible for cleaning the site.

Although contamination is as deep as 150 feet, soil would only be removed to a depth of about eight feet. This is similar to a cleanup done at the site of a Lowe’s store that was also the site of a gas plant. Another former gas plant site is now the site of a park, including a playground. The extent of toxic contamination there has never been measured.

We will do a full series of Revere photos at the end of Thor Equities demolition of the iconic dome in Red Hook. (Any day.) For now, here’s a view from summer 2006 and from Saturday.

As Forest City Ratner stands ready to start demolishing buildings in the Atlantic Yards project footprint, No Land Grab reports a new online petition concerning one of those buildings: The historic Ward’s Bakery on Pacific Street. The petition reads:

To: Mayor Michael Bloomberg

The Ward’s Bakery at 800 Pacific Street is a gem of historic industrial architecture. Completed in 1911, it’s builder, George Ward, had taken his architects to Europe for inspiration in its design.

The building is graced with rows of Greco-Roman inspired arches, embellished with a delicate band of a classic wave motif, and clothed entirely in gleaming white terra cotta tile.

Ward’s Bakery is a magnificent candidate for adaptive reuse and would yield amazing living and/or workspaces. The success of such conversions has been demonstrated again and again in former industrial enclaves, such as SOHO, Tribeca, and the meat-packing district.

Forest City Ratner is poised to demolish this building, even while their proposed project is still being litigated and may never materialize, leaving us with a wasteland of demolition sites.

We urge you intervene immediately and save this irreplaceable historic treasure for the delight of generations to come.

The petition can be viewed and/or signed here. For more information on the building and adaptive reuse of historic buildings generally, check BrooklynSpeaks.

[Photo courtesy of benben/flickr]

The increase in Brooklyn real estate prices is not in your imagination. In fact, a report released yesterday by the Real Estate Board of New York quantifies it. The Real Estate summarized the findings, including the fact that median apartment price in Brooklyn rose 6 percent from 2005 through 2006 to $343,000. The median for one-, two-, and three-family homes in Brooklyn increased 16 percent in 2006 to $570,000. “Try getting a Manhattan townhouse for that price,” TRE notes.

According to REBNY’s report, the median sale price of all Brooklyn apartments (cooperatives and condominiums) increased six percent above the 2005 level to $343,000. These include both co-ops and condos. In individual neighborhoods, Carroll Gardens posted both the highest average sale price of $681,000, a 12 percent increase, and the highest average price per square foot for a cooperative at $800, a 32 percent increase over 2005. Greenpoint had the highest percentage jump in median sale price of an apartment in 2006, shooting up 65 percent from a year earlier. The highest percentage increase in median price per square foot for an apartment was in Williamsburg at 28 percent.

DUMBO/Fulton Ferry reported the highest average sale price of a condominium at $1,053,000. In 2006, Brooklyn Heights maintained the highest average price per square foot for a condominium at $914.

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related information and images.

• The (Temporarily) Newark Nets? [AYR]
• Why Is DOT Reorganzing Park Slope Traffic? Because. [Streetsblog]
• Jane Jacobs, Atlantic Yards & the Age of Marketing [AYR]
• Closer Look at Late-Night Walks [Brooklyn Record]
• Attention Dogshit Queen of Greenpoint: Beaucoup Poo in Clinton Hill [Clinton Hill Blog]
• Bring Zip Car to Fort Greene & Clinton Hill [Myrtle Minutes]
• Corbin Place Naming Uproar [NYDN]
• Cursed Brooklynites Seek Relief [Daily Intel]
• Price Cutting at Park Place Condo [Brownstoner]
• The Future of N. 6th Street [Brooklyn Record]
• Kent Avenue the Way It Was [INSIJS]
• Things to Check Out on Green Brooklyn [Green Brooklyn]
• Brooklyn Geek in Distress [Velvet Sea]
• Red Hook Advertising [Esthetic/Aesthetic]

The Gowanus Canal Conservancy, which was formed last year to advocate on behalf of cleaning up the canal and promoting recreational and other uses, is holding another meeting tonight (3/6) on the subject of water quality in our favorite canal. The session runs from 6:30-9:00 PM and will look at some of the causes of water quality problems, including the wonderful events known as Combined Sewage Overflows (how your toilet, under certain circumtances, flows directly into the canal, with disgusting results, in layman’s terms). Other meetings in the series include one on March 29 to look at the idea of a Green District in Gowanus. There’s a “Green Gowanus” charette on April 10. All of the sessions take place at 333 Jay Street in the Dibner Library at Polytechnic University, Room LC 400. The Conservancy was formed by the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation. We truly hope their efforts meet with success.

Like fish? This could be your chance. The New York Aquarium is looking for a new director. This comes from a “Hot Jobs” item in Crain’s:

WANTED: Director
ORGANIZATION: New York Aquarium

JOB DESCRIPTION: Guiding day-to-day fiscal and administrative operations

MOST IMPORTANT TASK: Attracting and engaging visitors

CREDENTIALS NEEDED: Senior-level management experience in a science or conservation institution

SALARY: Upper-$100,000 range

RECRUITER: Phillips Oppenheim

DOWNSIDE: Managing the facility during controversial Coney Island overhaul

UPSIDE: Being able to strengthen ties with Wildlife Conservation Society staff and with Brooklyn’s civic, philanthropic and business communities

Former Director Paul Boyle left in the fall to pursue other opportunities. The aquarium is one of the five “living institutions” under the Wildlife Conservation Society umbrella, along with the Bronx, Central Park, Prospect Park and Queens zoos.

Leaves us wondering aloud about the status of the Aquarium’s renovation plan. It was originally said a winning design could be selected before the end of last year.

Ikea and the Splasher have something in common: Neither one likes street art very much. Whereas one wanders the streets and splatters street art with aqua, purple and white paint, the big Swedish multinational dispatches its workers with rollers and blue paint. The supremely ugly and monstrously long blue construction fence Ikea has put up on Beard Street in Red Hook has been adorned with street art from time to time, which at least relieves the ugly, deadening sameness that has ruled since Ikea dispatched the Todd Shipyard buildings. Until this week. Perhaps inspired by coverage of the paint vandal destroying street art all over New York City, the Ektorp People decided that they could no longer allow the street art adorning their construction fencing to continue. (The latest batch had been there for close to two months.) There was some great work by visualresistance, peripherpheralmediaproject, swoon and others. That’s the “before and after” shot above.

There’s always a lot going on in Sunset Park, but one thing we weren’t aware of, until we got an email from a reader is the diminishing number of thrift stores in the neighborhood. At one time, there were a half-dozen in or near the neighborhood. Soon, there will only be one, and that one–a Salvation Army store on Fourth Avenue in Bay Ridge–will be closing later in the spring. Leaving the neighborhood with none if the count is correct. We will let our reader explain:

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul has operated a thrift shop for 14 years at their current location and for over 60 years in Sunset Park. The thrift store has been offering low cost clothing, books, children’s toys, canned foods, housewares, electronics and other donated items from local businesses and individuals. Serving a variety of charitable organizations, it also accepts vouchers for referrals from a variety of charity and social service programs in Brooklyn.

At the end of March, without warning or alternative, this will come to an end as the shop closes its doors and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul moves its operations to Queens.

This leaves the Sunset Park/Bay Ridge area, which in the past boasted of at least half a dozen such establishments, with only one. The sole survivor, the Salvation Army Store on Fourth Avenue in Bay Ridge is slated to close later in the Spring.

In an area with a strong influx of new immigrants and a large contingent of working class families and the elderly, such an establishment is a great alternative in bargain shopping and a valuable service to the community.

The writer has posted an online petition asking the Society of St. Vincent to keep its store open. You can visit it, by clicking here.

All of which leads us to wonder if significant numbers of thrift shops have closed around Brooklyn as real estate prices have skyrocketed and commercial rents have shot up in some neighborhoods. We’re aware that Housing Works recently opened a thrift shop on Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights, but we’re thinking more in terms of thrift shops where people of modest incomes shop for clothing, furniture and other items. Sunset Park going from six to none would seem to be an alarming canary in a coal mine.

The iconic Revere Dome that once defined the Red Hook skyline is in its final days at the hands of demolition crews working for developer Joe Sitt and Thor Equities. This was the scene on Saturday as workers hacked away at the cylinder, filling dumpsters with cut metal almost faster than they could drive them away down Beard Street. Click on the embed or on this link.

The end draws very, very near for the Revere Sugar Dome. Crews were hard at work this weekend tearing down the cylinder. The sounds of crashing metal as huge chunks came down could be heard up to two block away. Check out a small flickr album of shots, if you wish.

The city’s Steeplechase Plaza development, which would extend from Keyspan Park in Coney Island to the Boardwalk, encompassing the area around the Parachute Jump, appears to be taking a baby step forward. The city’s Economic Development Corp. is asking for “Requests for Qualifications” for an architectural team to do design on the project. Documents are due by March 23. This is in advance of proposals being submitted for the project. According to the NYCEDC’s website:

A key component of the Coney Island Strategic Plan (the “Strategic Plan”) announced by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the Coney Island Development Corporation in 2005, the Project calls for the creation of a new iconic civic and entertainment destination on a 2.2-acre site between Keyspan Stadium and the famous Coney Island Boardwalk. This new mixed-use plaza would contain a variety of uses, including the restored B&B Carousell, a historic 40-horse carousel purchased by the City of New York in August 2005. In conjunction with additional planned improvements to the streetscapes and public open spaces and enhancements of existing facilities and landmarks, Steeplechase Plaza will serve to anchor new private development in Coney Island with dramatic new public amenities.

There was a design competition in 2004 for a Parachute Jump Pavilion that resulted in the selection of the design pictured below. It came from London-based architects Kevin Carmody, Andrew Groarke, Chris Hardie, and Lewis Kinneir. The winning design was a 7,800-square-foot, glass-enclosed structure lit up by a dense pattern of light bulbs, a high-ceilinged exhibition space, a restaurant, a bar, and a souvenir shop. We don’t know if it will be incorporated in the new “Steeplechase Plaza” design.

In case you missed it, on Friday, Amy’s New York Notebook ran an item about sinkage of land in Red Hook that was accompanied by this photo clearly showing something collapsing into the water over time. We ran the photo along with Amy’s post and the Brooklyn Record’s take on it on Saturday. Well, Carolina Salguero, director of PortSide New York, which helps spread a great deal of information about Red Hook and about waterfront matters in general, emailed to say that this particular photo doesn’t show land sinking. “That is not land sinking,” she wrote. “That is ‘relieving platform’ failing as worms get at the supporting pilings underneath.”

So, while there are sinkage issues in parts of Red Hook (land is sinking and the odd sinkhole opening here and there) and the problems will get worse as traffic and development increase, the fringes of Red Hook aren’t falling into New York Harbor. If you want a sense of how much of Red Hook was at one time marshland or tidal and how much land was created with fill or by draining, check out this post done by Callalillie last year, who overlaid an old map of the neighborhood atop a current one.

The bottom line is that there’s sinkage in Red Hook and the potential for more in the short-term future, but in this case, we’ve got to blame it on worms.

Related Post:
Red Hook: Slowly Sinking?