Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), James Corner Field Operations (JCFO), and Two Trees Management have unveiled a masterplan for the Brooklyn waterfront that could bring two residential towers and a 6-acre park to the area.
The River Street Waterfront Masterplan project aims to "enhance connectivity of the public waterfront, restore natural habitats, elevate the standard for urban waterfront resiliency, and transform the way New Yorkers interact with the East River," according to a press release. The project team is working to achieve these goals by filling in a missing link within a growing stretch of public waterfront trails while also bringing necessary community-oriented recreational and retail spaces and housing to the site. The project aims to extend the borough's Metropolitan Avenue into a riverfront plaza that loops in on itself.
The swooping towers included in the design will house 1,000 residential units, including 250 below market rate homes. At the base of the buildings, a 47,000-square-foot YMCA will take shape alongside 30,000 square feet of “neighborhood-oriented retail” spaces, while series of “community occupied kiosks” run along the waterfront trail.
Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner and Creative Director at BIG said in a statement, "The radical transformation of Copenhagen’s port into a swimmable extension of the public space that we helped pioneer two decades ago, now seems to be knocking at the door in Williamsburg and the entire East River. The River Loop will be the first of many invitations for New Yorkers to dip their toes in the water."
The development is taking shape just north of the Domino Park site, where SHoP Architects has designed its own masterplanned district, this one anchored by the PAU-designed Domino Sugar adaptive reuse project site and a series of boxy towers, including a 24-story, pants-shaped skyscraper designed by COOKFOX .
A project timeline for the River Street Waterfront Masterplan has not been announced.
7 Comments
Interesting how they don't bother to justify the forms diagrammatically anymore - "Interconnected" waterfront, triangle sites and - BAM - sloped bronze towers.
It's better than the rubbish stacked-box buildings master planned by SHoP at the neighboring Domino Sugar site.
They're all crap because they never amount to anything but a collection of unrelated forms. There's no connective tissue except the lovely neighborhoods being loomed over.
there goes the neighborhood ....
interesting project. Not as annoying as most BIG stuff, seems like NYC tends to limit their worst impulses — turning them into a SHoP imitator. The forms and landscaping is nicer than their hideous twisting towers (never mind about good work in nyc). Still, a lot of the waterfront landscaping and park design du jour in general is overdone and annoying.
Wish there was more design criticism these days, people just tend to accept things with no consideration or just project political commentary on buildings. A lot of which depends — if the building is keeping lot of tech douchbros away from real nyc that’s fine. Unfortunately the market urbanists tend to ignore real people density vs fake sq ft numbers
I like this one better...but if either committed to CLT upfront maybe I could get more excited!
Cool project
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