1936 Purchase Building Slated for Demo
August 20, 2005, Brooklyn Papers — An historic building proposed for demolition by designers of Brooklyn Bridge Park, a 1.3-mile open space, housing and commercial development along the waterfront, has split supporters of the plan and even preservation agencies at the city and state level. Built in 1936 as a project of the Works Progress…
August 20, 2005, Brooklyn Papers — An historic building proposed for demolition by designers of Brooklyn Bridge Park, a 1.3-mile open space, housing and commercial development along the waterfront, has split supporters of the plan and even preservation agencies at the city and state level. Built in 1936 as a project of the Works Progress Administration, the Purchase Building, located under the Brooklyn Bridge overpass off Old Fulton and Water streets in Fulton Ferry, features late-art deco and early modernist designs.
According to the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) released last week by the state-run Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation, the warehouse, a mix of brick and thin glass-window facing with pink-toned concrete ribbons, is useless to an 80-acre open space of green, water and revenue-generating developments that will form Brooklyn Bridge Park. Additionally, the EIS says the building will split the park in two, destroying view planes.
Fear “Purchase” To Be Torn Down [Brooklyn Papers]
river cafe and bargemusic are great things to have other there… and a nice place to pass the time while you wait 20 years for this park.
As for this building, if the city owns it and it’s not a historic landmark, they can tear it down… hey at least they renovated the tweed courthouse and are converting the old Board of Ed to condo’s.
I really like that building, it’s a little classic, and I even think it’s cute hunkered down under the bridge like that. The astroturf fence isn’t doing it any favors, but that’s not it’s fault.
Read the linked article – honestly it seems silly to tear that building down, it should be reused. Much more of a problem is the way River Cafe prevents you from going from fulton ferry landing to the river side of the Brooklyn Bridge tower. That Restaurant should be demolished to make way for the park (maybe it’s going to be, I don’t know).
Not every single building should be preserved just because they’re old. With all the anti-development protests (Save this 2 story vinyl-sided apt. house in Greenpoint!), no wonder jobs and development have been shifting to the West and South for the past 2 generations.
Can’t see it anyway behind the astroturf fencing…
Tear the stupid thing down if its in the way. Hardly best or most attractive example of WPA era
– besides its out-of-context.
Ah, I didn’t realize it had the Emergency Response Center in it… that seems dumb — didn’t they learn their lesson by having it in the World Trade Center on 9/11?
The last time I walked by, the sign said it was an office of DCAS, which I think it the agency that buys NYC’s pencils, computers, and other sundry supplies. Maybe they don’t want to publicize its true function?
About the old Red Cross building, I thought construction had stopped for awhile on the new Emergency Response headquarters, in favor of a less high-profile location. But someone recently mentioned to me that construction was underway again, so who knows.
I don’t think there’s any restrictions on being under the east river bridges–I jog semi-regularly under the manhattan, brooklyn and williamsburg bridges (on the manhattan side) and have never been discouraged from lingering.
I’ve loved that building for years, but I’ve found that no one else I know likes it. The contrast between its modernism and the bridge’s Victorian stylings is great, in my opinion.
I doubt that part of the park would be open to the public anyway — they haven’t let people into the park directly under the bridge (behind this building) since 9/11, and there’s a police car sitting there all the time.
So it’s not like knocking it down will increase parkland, though I guess it would open up the view somewhat… though the River Cafe and the bridge’s base would still obstruct the view.