Nothing But Sad News For Admiral's Row

From today's NY Times:

FOR three years, some of the most powerful forces in New York real estate — including the federal and city governments, developers, preservationists and community advocates — have fought over the fate of a cluster of historically significant turn-of-the-last-century houses known as Admiral’s Row in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Last month, the parties finally arrived at a compromise that seemed to strike a balance between preservation and development, in a $60 million project that would add a large supermarket to an underserved neighborhood, while also salvaging some buildings of deep architectural and cultural significance.

But it now appears that those historic buildings may be in such precarious condition that they cannot be saved.

“This is one of the worst cases I have ever seen in terms of neglect,” said Alex Herrera, the director of the technical services center at the New York Landmarks Conservancy. “It is a disgrace.”

For more than three decades, Admiral’s Row, like much of the nearby industrial waterfront, was largely left to rot. Further complicating matters was the fact that even though much of the 300-acre site was turned over to New York City in 1966, 10 former officers’ homes and a timber shed that was once used to repair masts of large sailing vessels remained under the control of the federal government....

And now the delicate compromise, having been reached, is under threat. The federal government agreed to sell the city the land to develop as long as it met certain conditions. Because the timber shed and the homes on the site are eligible for placement on theNational Register of Historic Places, the government required that the shed and one of the homes be restored and useable. Last month, after protracted debate, negotiators accepted a proposal from PA Developers of Manhattan to build a supermarket — serving the 15,000 residents who live in three public housing projects bordering the yards — along with new retail stores and an additional 125,000 square feet of industrial space.

But after the bid was accepted, Kristin Leahy, the cultural resources manager for the National Guard Bureau, the federal agency that controls the site, said engineers had found that the historic structures, particularly the timber shed, might be beyond repair. “We hired these engineers with tools to stabilize the buildings,” she said, “and that is when they came back and said we had a problem.”

Funny how, when you let historic buildings rot for nearly half a century, they tend to be unresponsive to fixer-upper efforts. This affair has been riddled with cynicism from the start. I don't think any of the involved parties—the Federal Government, the City, the developers—ever for a second considered seriously the idea of saving any of these buildings.

Admiral's Row to Be Mowed Down For ShopRite

Progress is having its way with Admiral's Row.

The decaying, but beautiful and historic, row of ancient military homes along City-owned Brooklyn Navy Yard, will be torn down to may way for a 55,000-square-foot ShopRite, along with 30,000 square feet of other new retail space and 125,000 square feet of industrial space.

"I can’t wait until that wall is demolished," said genius Councilwoman Letitia James. "It creates psychological barriers for the entire neighborhood." Ugly big box stores create their own headaches, too, Letitia.

James said the new ShopRite would be a "destination supermarket like the [Pathmark] at Atlantic Terminal Mall" in Fort Greene—which is another visual beauty, as we all know. And it will finally give the neighborhood a convenient place to shop, she said. Because convenience always trump historical heritage.

The project, which is expected to break ground by early 2012 and be finished by 2013, will provide 500 (lousy, low-paying) permanent jobs and 500 (here-today, gone-tomorrow) construction jobs. Those happy construction workers will have the privilege of demolishing nine historic buildings. One single former military residence and timber shed at Admirals Row will be restored and incorporated into the development.

And here's the icing on the cake: The project will also provide more than 300 parking spaces for the new businesses.

Parking spaces. Gorgeous. 

Some Stuff That's Interesting

The Coney Island Mermaid Parade goes on, despite the rain. [Gothamist]

Another example of the endemic abuse of eminent domain now common in Bloomberg's New York. [Queens Chronicle via Queens Crap]

A toast to the number 169 [Ampersand Seven]

A house in Admiral's Row goes kerflooey. The culprit: rain, and governmental neglect. [Curbed]

Rush to Tear Down Admiral's Row is Slowed

Good news regarding the endangered Admiral's Row at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

The Brooklyn Paper reported that "a plan to tear down 10 historic houses at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and replace them with a supermarket has been delayed indefinitely thanks to a decision by federal officials to review whether the dilapidated 150-year-old mansions can be saved."

“There is absolutely no way we can give any sort of end date at all … there is no mandated time limit,” said Kristin Leahy, the manager of the National Guard Bureau Cultural Resources Program, which is investigating the mansions’ historical integrity — to the frustration of those eager to see the run-down buildings torn down.

Leahy said the earliest that she could hold a meeting with the city, area residents and preservationists is March. And that meeting would be just the first of a series.

Bizarrely short-sighted City and neighborhood officials continue to characterize the preservation movement as a villainous scheme to deprive poor folks in the neighborhood or ready access to fresh fruit and vegetables. I wish somebody would hit them with a piece of fresh fruit.

The paper also mentioned that preservationists have been helping to make their case by showing off some renderings by Lucy Sikes which illustrate what the mansions one looked like. I'll do my part by reproducing one here. Purty.

Sometimes Bureaucrats Surprise You

You get all excited about the possibility of knocking down some historic, one-of-a-king buildings so you can erect a nifty supermarket and a really neat parking lot next to it and then some assholes from Washington tell you the damn buildings are actually worth preserving! Well, if that ain't a kick in the teeth.

That's what happens this week when a federal study commissioned by the National Guard to access the state of the 100-plus-year-old group of military mansions inside the Brooklyn Navy Yard known as Admiral's Row didn't conclude, "Hey, go ahead! Knock 'em down!," but instead said eight of the ten structures were sound and retained "an extremely high level of integrity." $20 million and they'll look good as new.

"But not as good as a new parking lot!" screamed the mad-as-a-wet-hen Navy Yard officials who want the buildings, and their rich history, gone yesterday. Restore the handsome things!? We don't want the property if we have to do that!! We likem wreckem ball.

"If the federal government...requires that some or all of these structures be rebuilt from the ground up...neither the City of New York or the [Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corp.] are interested in acquiring and developing the site and it will continue to lay fallow for years to come," wrote Navy Yard Development Corp. President Andrew Kimball yesterday in response to the report, according to The Daily News.

The final recommendations of the report, which the City must abide by, are still to come. Any dope—any federal dope, it turns out—can see Admiral's Row deserved landmark status.

But for this temporary snafu alone, I think the Army Corps of Engineers. I love to see City officials throw hissyfits when they don't get the rubber stamp they've been promised.