Give us the jellyfish!
Hundreds of readers of The Brooklyn Papers cast votes on the three new maritime-themed designs to revive the New York Aquarium in Coney Island, and a plurality favored a jellyfish-inspired design by West 8 Urban Design and Weisz + Yoes.
The firm’s co-founder said she was humbled by winning the Papers’ “People’s Choice” award.
“We’re overjoyed that this idea has resonated with the people of Brooklyn,” said Claire Weisz, whose studio is based in Manhattan.
She said her design was inspired by the Aquarium’s “amazing collection of alien stingers” and jellyfishes.
But the beauty of the design is more than skin deep. “It’s a six-story-high jellyfish that will connect the Aquarium to all the exciting things happening at Coney Island,” she said. “It’s jellyfish as town square. You could get married under it. People could meet under it.”
After one week of voting in our admittedly unscientific poll, the tempting tentacle design got 47 percent of the vote, compared to 35 percent for a largemouth bass-inspired design by WRT and 14 percent for a less-flashy sand-dune-themed rendering by Smith-Miller & Hawkinson.
As promised, we informed the city Economic Development Corporation that our readers had spoken.
An agency spokeswoman said the EDC appreciated our tally, but refused to speculate whether the vote would influence the EDC board.
“I do promise that I will let them all know who won,” she said.
The agency will pick its winner by the end of the year.
