Photo by Jake Dobkin
The Municipal Art Society attended a meeting today at which the negotiations between the National Guard, the owner of the property, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation (BNYDC) discussed the future of the buildings at Admiral's Row. The meeting was part of the federally-mandated Section 106 process that requires federal agencies to study the impact of their actions on important historic buildings. Sadly, it seems their minds were made up, the Brooklyn Paper reports that they will save two of the historic buildings in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and destroy the others, making way for a supermarket.
This deal would not guarantee that the buildings (the Timber Shed and building B) would be preserved, rather, ownership would be transferred to the city, who would then "solicit bids from developers to build a supermarket and an industrial building as well as to 'test the market' to rehabilitate and maintain the two crumbling 19th-century structures."
While the city is smiling upon this agreement, MAS (who had their own plans proposed) and other preservationists are not. The former just released the following statement: “MAS appreciates the National Guard’s focus on this issue and the rigorous review it is conducting as part of the Section 106 process. We will continue to work with them to address issues that they have articulated in our effort to preserve more of the buildings. The Brooklyn Navy Yard is seeking to demolish the buildings to create a very large surface parking and we strongly believe that more of the historic buildings could be preserved by reconfiguring their plan.”
