Starchitect joins Bridge ‘park’ team

Architect Robert A.M. Stern will work as a consultant to the Brooklyn
Bridge Park waterfront development.

Stern will “prepare design guidelines … for the uplands of Pier
1, Pier 6, and the John Street site,” according to a press release
by the Empire State Development Corporation, the lead agency in the construction
of the residential, commercial and open space project.

An ESDC spokeswoman declined on Wednesday to answer questions about Stern’s
role.

Residential construction inside the 1.3-mile-long development is the most-controversial
element of the plan.

Supporters of a waterfront park who oppose the planners’ current
vision object to apartment buildings in the site, while boosters say maintanence
fees generated by such buildings will pay for construction and upkeep
of a park that all can enjoy.

Current plans call for 1,240 units of housing, a 225-room hotel, nearly
520,000 square feet of retail, restaurant, office and showroom space,
plus 1,183 parking spaces. Much of the non-green construction is slated
for the upland area at Pier 1, which sits south of the existing waterfront
esplanade at the end of Old Fulton Street; Pier 6 at the foot of Atlantic
Avenue; and at John Street.
Stern’s urban planning has come under fire ever since he worked with
Disney on its master-planned Florida town, Celebration.

On the preservation side, Stern has been an outspoken supporter of Edward
Durrell Stone’s 2 Columbus Circle, the quirky building being transformed
from a Modernist monolith into a glass-walled home for the Museum of Art
and Design.