How Six Controversial Proposed Skyscrapers Will Radically Transform Brooklyn’s Skyline

Just like our rents, Brooklyn’s buildings are going up, up, up. With this week’s announcement of a 600-foot-tall commercial building at 420 Albee Square and a 1,000-foot-tall tower at 340 Flatbush Avenue Extension, we thought it was high time to see how a few buildings-in-the-works measure up.

Is there such a thing as too tall? Or are these structures just right in height? Here’s the line-up:

340 Flatbush Avenue Extension
Neighborhood: Downtown Brooklyn
Height: 1,000 feet
Square Feet: 466,000 residential, 140,000 commercial
Complete: early 2019

When built, this 1,000-foot-tall tower planned for 340 Flatbush Avenue Extension will be Brooklyn’s tallest structure and the tallest building in the city outside of Manhattan. Designed by SHoP Architects, the tower is being developed by Michael Stern and Joe Chetrit.
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205 Montague Street
Neighborhood: Brooklyn Heights
Height: 700 feet
Square Feet: 300,000 residential or commercial
Complete: unknown

The property at 205 Montague Street — with air rights enabling a 700-foot-tall tower —went on the market in 2015 for a cool $200,000,000. No takers as of yet, but air rights included in the sale mean the site’s future owners could build higher than all of the existing structures nearby.
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420 Albee Square
Neighborhood: Downtown Brooklyn
Height: 600 feet
Square Feet: 400,000 office and retail
Complete: 2018

While shorter than the nearby 340 Flatbush Avenue, the 600-foot-tall tower at 420 Albee Square will be the area’s first ground-up office development since the 2004 rezoning of Downtown Brooklyn. A skyscraping tower has been in the works for years, but was initially intended to be residential and 65 stories high.
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280 Cadman Plaza West
Neighborhood: Brooklyn Heights
Height: 441 feet
Square Feet: 200,000 residential, 21,500 library
Complete: 2018

The ultra-controversial proposal to sell the city-owned site of the Brooklyn Heights library branch to developer Hudson Companies is no news to Brownstoner readers. The planned 36-story luxury condo tower would have 139 apartments and a new library and retail space on the ground floor. Hudson would also build 114 units of affordable housing in Clinton Hill as part of the deal.
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Former Long Island College Hospital Site Towers (as-of-right plan)
Neighborhood: Cobble Hill
Height: 434 feet and 336 feet
Square Feet: 528,935 residential, 262,555 community facility
Complete: unknown

Developer Fortis Property Group released new renderings and details of two potential plans for the former LICH site. One of them, the as-of-right option shown above, can be built without community approval. Though the towers are lower than initially proposed, they’re still well above the 50-foot cap proposed by the Cobble Hill Association.
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Pier 6 Towers, Brooklyn Bridge Park
Neighborhood: Brooklyn Heights
Height: 280 feet and 125 feet
Square Feet: 3,870 retail space in Parcel A, 192 condos; 930 retail space, 1,500 community facility in Parcel B, 145 condos
Complete: 2017

The controversy never stops with these two towers planned for Brooklyn Bridge Park. Are they too big? Too affordable? Should they be built at all?
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