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The Municipal Art Society (MAS) had their intense redesign Coney Island workshop at the end of last week, and as promised they've released their ideas to the public today. The concept and design is portrayed in the renderings above (so many robots and clowns!), and MAS says "The concept, which would include a variety of indoor and outdoor facilities, can be implemented immediately (Summer 2009) and would take advantage of the parcels of undeveloped land in Coney Island, much of which is now vacant or operating as street-level parking."
One entertainment developer involved, David Malmuth, notes that the live entertainment programming and a major new ride are integral to the future of Coney...he's also the former VP of Disney, and he's not the only mouseketeer on the team, former Disney exec Anne Hamburger (who oversaw programming in all of Disney’s theme parks for more than eight years) is also on board. Are so many Disney minds a good thing in this case?
The next step for MAS (who are likely quite happy with this morning's news) is to provide a more detailed programming and funding proposal, which they promise by early 2009. After the jump you'll find more about their proposed Imagine Coney concept.
Establish Coney Island as the ‘Main Stage for New York City’
- Small and large, indoor and outdoor facilities for events and performances
- Can be implemented immediately for Summer 2009 and will bridge to future when larger development is complete
- Complements Coney Island’s role as entertainment and amusement destination, a primary function that will continue
- Services/augments existing traffic to this district
- Positions Coney Island as a 12-month destination
Programming / Events
- Halloween Parade
- Holiday Festival of Lights
- Live Video Gaming Arena
- International Music festival
- Aerial and Environmental Arts festival
- Ethnic Festivals
- International Tattoo-apalooza
- International Graffiti Contests
- Street performance
Permanent Entertainment
- Venue for Small Performing Arts Groups
- Parades for all seasons
- Niche Events Such as the Mermaid Parade, Polar Bear Swim and July 4 Hot Dog-Eating Contest
- Spectacles such as nighttime light show over the water
- The New Shore Theatre: A key attraction of the new Coney Island offering a short-form, high-tech musical on Coney Island that combines Vaudeville theatre and a circus as a new form of dinner theater.
- Digital City (a 21st Century Bowery) of interactive robots
- New cable-car ride that would float through clouds and connect all of the major Coney Island attractions
- A wave-like retractable roof that would ensure 12-month seasonality for Coney Island
- An "electric city" that would feature small-scale, local entrepreneurs, amusement operators with 21st century digital skin signage
- A high-rise hotel and entertainment district north of Surf Avenue that would feature extraordinary new architecture.
Guiding Principles include:
- Reestablish Coney Island as an amazing entertainment destination for New York and world.
- Ensure economic vitality 12 months a year
- Support community growth and vitality
- Create a sustainable Coney island
- Start now.
Transportation
- Express subway line to Coney Island
- Ferry landing at Coney Island creek
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The pictures are a joke right?
Why won't my eyes stop bleeding?
Tilly is pissed!
(or tripping balls)
more like coney island gets swishy
It's Blade Runner on acid, and you're in drag.
Have any of these people submitting these sketches been to Coney Island? There is a great aesthetic there that could be riffed on, played with, and built on. These re-imaginings seem to completely disregard the exciting, visually interesting and unique gifts that Coney already has. This is more like Dubai on PCPs.
WOW, that's ugly.
These are all horrid and these so called designers need to be put in a cage at the freak show.
The most logical thing to do is to have something that is respectful of the past and will not be some overpriced Di$ney-fied sanitized thing that could be anywhere.
We need something organic not this garbage.
Of COURSE they're hideous. What was I expecting?
I do like the subway train though.
I can not even understand what is *happening* in those pictures. Did I miss something? Are they turning Coney Island ito a space station?
With geishas? WTF?!?
I kinda dig the wrap on the front of the train though.
someone's been watching the Fifth Element a bit too much
Coney is more likely to start looking like it did when they filmed the Warriors.
Those pictures are awful.
This is nightmarish, and the lines will be too big and I'll never get to eat another hot dog.
ok enough with the prop 8 protest, damn
LOL@ #s 4 & 10. You guys took the words out of my mouth.
In that 3rd photo I think I see an astronaut/robot and a stormtrooper, not to mention that Jetsonian tram car on a rainbow colored hula hoop. Bottom line - I'm scared.
So basically, the new Coney Island is going to be a cross between a bad acid trip and Disney's Tomorrowland circa 1972?
This will never happen. The good thing is that the Municipal Art Society is neither architect nor developer.
Another redesign fantasy that can only happen in Second Life.
Uh yeah... could we actually see some designs done by an architect or an urban planner? Preferably executed when both of them are in the same room at the same time.
There's brainstorming and then there's hitting "mermaid parade" into flickr, downloading images, and throwing them onto a digital background.
Utopian slum.
Rouge City from A.I.
They have to do something drastic in order to make coney island worth visiting.
Oh fuck me that's a hellish design. You want a good idea of what Coney Island should look like? It's printed on any number of vintage postcards out there.
M.A.S. is a big joke won't save the old Tin Pan Alleysongwriters buildings on 28th street .it's easier than this PR stunt but Nah! ,no big money in it.
Timothy Leary is still alive? I love it!
Wow this proposal doesn't even address the character or context of the neighborhood. Is this a joke? Cause can you honestly take this seriously?
I'm tired of commenting on What Was and What Will Be Coney Island.
There is an expression in the Balkans that is used when ones realizes the futility of furthering an argument: The mother of this conversation is dead!
Someone's been to Japan... or at least seen a lot of videos and pictures.
What a joke! Sorry, you are early on your April's Fools prank.
I love the Tilly train!
I think all these negative responses are just kneejerk naysaying. These sketches are a starting point. They are just suggestions.
Frankly, I like what I see. There is an emphasis on fun and amusements. There is an attempt here to incorporate 21st century technology and design into the treasure that is Coney Island.
This is a positive step forward and much praise to the MAS for taking up the cause of Coney Island.
Unlike the city of New York, the MAS actually consulted people who are in the amusement industry. And they said at the presentation last night that Coney needs much more than the 9 1/2 acres that the city wants for an amusement area. Whatever one may think of these renderings, they are a damn sight better that the images of the Coney of today with lots of land used for school bus parking lots.
Even more, they are a damn sight better than the future of Coney Island as promised by Joe Sitt of Thor Equities, that being bland glass towers of condos and malls where rides and amusements ought to be.
My family came from Coney. They lived under the roller coaster that they owned and ran for 50 years. I applaud the MAS for coming forward to renew Coney Island. There is still a lot of work to be done.
Imagine Coney is an initiative of the Municipal Arts Society of New York to create new ideas for the future of Coney Island to restore the area to it's former position as a great entertainment and amusement area - the "world's playground."
The Imagine Coney Web Site:
http://imagineconey.com/
Imagine Coney Presentation Pt 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXBdw6QTl7I
Imagine Coney Presentation Pt 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZoBh2RPZX4
Ughh, so sad. But i guess if Bloomberg keeps changing the election policy for Mayor, he'll stay in there indefinitely and well we can all kiss the real NY goodbye.