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Mayor Bloomberg (and his would-be successor, Speaker Christine Quinn) journeyed to the Brooklyn Navy Yard on Wednesday to unveil a $15-million historical center that will celebrate the Navy Yard’s illustrious role as a ship-building Mecca during World War II, when it employed 70,000 people.
The project will add a new gallery and office space to the Commandant’s Residence, an 1857 building that is part of the decaying Admiral’s Row.
The rest of that line of 19th-century structures — the best looking ones at the entire Navy Yard — will be torn down to make room for a supermarket.
“[It] is essential that we remember [the Navy Yard’s] rich and historic past,” said Bloomberg.
The mayor’s appeal to history at the Navy Yard is similar to his approach on nearby Duffield Street Downtown, where the administration has condemned historic houses to make room for a parking garage.
After securing the condemnation of the historic buildings, the mayor announced that the city would spend $2 million on a historic center there.
Irony aside, the mayor’s plans will allow Brooklynites to see the Navy Yard in a more intimate setting, and get a sense of its long naval history. The historical center will combine the 19th-century architecture of the officers’ homes with new a MoMA-like facility.
The cost of the green building, which will sit on Flushing and Carlton Avenues, will be funded through a combination of taxpayer money and public-private partnerships, the mayor said.
The center is just one tiny piece of a massive $250-million, multi-year expansion that’s designed to turn the Navy Yard from a post-War relic to a booming incubator for business and 1,500 new jobs by 2010, Hizzoner said.
©2007 The Brooklyn Paper
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