SECTION
01
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GUIDE & ATLAS TO GOWANUS
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A plan for growth that does not undermine the neighborhood’s economic base or displace longtime residents is desperately required. In response to these changing dynamics, this atlas and guide book takes a fresh look at the neighborhood’s rich potential.
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There is a growing need within the Gowanus community to establish guidelines to steer the neighborhood’s redevelopment.
Gowanus, Brooklyn
DESTRUCTION OF CULTURE Many are of the optinion that Gowanus holds potential to support significant new housing on vacant and underutilized properties that were once occupied by manufacturing and commercial enterprises. Some analysis’ of land-use patterns in Gowanus suggests the neighborhood could sustain a 30% increase in its housing supply. This is significant and an unusual expansion for a settled urban area. The map to the right indicates a number of sites with current development applications and contracts. The existing and previous commercail and manufacturing enterprises are listed on the following page.
The Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn is now experiencing potent forces of change and renewal.
DESTRUCTION OF CULTURE There is rising demand for housing in Gowanus, as signaled by the recent influx of newcomers to the neighborhood. Recent development trends indicate that the dominant reuse of land in Gowanus will be for housing.
THIS COULD BE ALL YOURS TODAY FROM $1.645M - STERILING EQUITIES 2014.
363 - 365 BOND ST 700 Apartment Complex Lightstone Development Construction has commenced
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345 CARROL STREET BOND ST 32 Luxury Condos Sterling Equities Construction Comences 2015
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399 3RD AVENUE 58 Room Boutique Hotel Globinest Hospitality Construction Comences 2016
SMITH & FIFTH ST 774 Apartment Co Hudson Companies Construction Come
ALL EXISTED ONCE
363 BOND ST Townhouses & Warehouse
365 BOND ST Burns Brothers Coal Silos
BUILT 1901 SOLD 2007 $ 50M
BUILT 1915 SOLD 2007 $14M
399 3RD AVENUE Eagle Clothes Factory
BUILT 1951 SOLD 2010 $20M
318 NEVINS ST Engineering & Prod Warehouse
BUILT 1960 SOLD 2013 $
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PROMOTION OF LIFESTYLE BENEFITS TO NEWCOMERS RATHER THAN LONG-TERM RESIDENTS
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REJECTION OF LOCAL PLACE & CHARACTER
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NEW YORK CITY
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GOWANUS
WILLIAMSBURG
EXISTING RESIDENTS PRICED OUT OF OWN NEIGHBOURHOOD
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LIVE !
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WORK !
PLAY !
NEIGHBOURHOOD CHANGES TO SUIT NEW COMMUNITY DESIRES
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LOCAL INDUSTRY IS DESTROYED. NEIGHBOURHOOD CHARACTER DIMINISHED.
CLOSED FOR BUSINESS GOODBYE GOWANUS
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T omplex s ences 2016
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$14M
PRESSURE FROM SURROUNDING CAPITALISM SYSTEMS
123 - 175 3RD ST Commerical Mixed Use Kushner Companies Proposed Design 2014
123 - 175 3RD ST Industrial Warehouses
BUILT 1960 SOLD 2011 $70M
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360 SMITH ST Commercial Mixed Use Brownstoner Completed 2010
460 UNION ST Luxury Residential Brownstoner Proposed Design 2002
360 SMITH ST Housing
450 UNION ST Thomas Paulson & Sons Brass Foundry
BUILT 1940’S SOLD 2006 $14M
BUILT 1940’S SOLD 2006 $30M
DESTRUCTION OF CULTURE
People are concerned about new homeowners coming in, capitalising on “industrial chic” housing and then expressing irritation about what it actually means to live in proximity to industry.
INSTITUTION RECREATION
VACANT PLOTS
COMMERCIAL
INDUSTRIAL RESIDENTIAL
DIVERSE MIXING POT
A demographic profile of the Gowanus Canal Study Area reveals dramatic changes over the last three decades. As outlined on the following pages, the population has started to rebound... young, well-educated professionals are moving in, and the poverty rate has dropped sharply.
GOWANUS Whites: 43% African American: 15% Hispanics: 32% Asians: 2% Other: 8%
CARROLL GARDENS Whites: 55% African American: 10% Hispanics: 30% Asians: 2% Other: 3%
North Gowanus
West Gowanus
East Gowanus
An understanding of these complexities is vitally important to the formation of a redevelopment plan that meets the needs of the neighborhood’s diverse citizens.
SOUTH BROOKLYN Whites: 13% African American: 7.5% Hispanics: 74% Asians: 5% Other: 0.5%
BOREUM HILL Whites: 30% African American: 40% Hispanics: 25% Asians: 1% Other: 4%
ALL OF BROOKLYN Whites: 35% African American: 45% Hispanics: 12% Asians: 5% Other: 3%
PARK SLOPE SOUTH SLOPE Whites: 41% African American: 3% Hispanics: 50% Asians: 3.5% Other: 2.5%
Whites: 58% African American: 10% Hispanics: 25% Asians: 5% Other: 2%
HISPANICS WHITES AFRICAN AMERICANS
DIVERSE MIXING POT
The neighborhood’s diverse building stock.. a mix of rundown buildings, modest row houses, brownstones, former plants and warehouses.. shows its lively history. From an architectural and socio-economic standpoint, the community presents a notable alternative to the more homogeneous and affluent residential neighborhoods that surround it.
ENVIRONMENTAL & POLLUTION CONCERNS For generations, prior to the adoption of modern environmental controls, industrial businesses along the busy commercial waterway polluted both the canal and the surrounding blocks. Layers of contaminated sediment at the bottom of the canal are among the legacies of this industrial era. While there is little heavy industry in the neighborhood today, recent samplings of sediment found high levels of residual contaminants, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), heavy metals, volatile organic compounds, pesticides and coal tar.
Redevelopment of the Gowanus neighborhood rests on a single factor, the comprehensive cleanup of the canal and the land around it.
Over the years, pollution and neglect have turned the canal into a fetid stew of dangerous chemicals and toxins, an embodiment of the worst excesses of the industrial age. As if that were not enough, every heavy rain washes in fresh tides of raw sewage.
SECTION
02
:
VISION & APPROACH
At the center of this approach is a restored Gowanus Canal that will serve as a catalyst for development, not just along the waterway but throughout the neighborhood. Preserve not only the industrial history, but also its distinctive social, economic and architectural fabric and set the stage for growth.
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EMBRACE THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS
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PRESERVE SOCIAL & ECONOMIC FABRIC
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RESTORED CANAL ACTS AS CATALYST
EMBRACE THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS NICHE & SPECIALTY ARTISANS The canal is the ideal location for niche and specialty manufacturers. The fact that diverse manufacturing activity has returned to the Gowanus Canal despite price pressures and speculation caused by the super-gentrification of neighborhoods to the east and west should influence future land use decisions. Makerbot Industries Kitchensurfing Holstee Elastic-co
These artisans and industrial art enterprises should be encouranged.
MATERIALS RE-USE BUSINESSES There is a strong presence of businesses and nonprofits in Gowanus that employ a business model based on the re-use and re-purposing of materials. This emerging cluster should be supported and fostered. Some business include: Build it Green Gowanus Canal Conservancy Film Biz Recycling LES Ecology Center Electronic Waste Recycling Warehouse
This fledgling cluster should be further supported and expanded.
EMBRACE THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS
CASE STUDIES
The manufacturing community in Gowanus is flourishing; new types of firms are moving in and setting up shop alongside more traditional industrial businesses that have been part of the community for decades. This reflects larger trends in Brooklyn where after decades of decline, manufacturing is now showing signs of resurgence.
FILM BIZ RECYCLING Film Biz Recycling (FBR) is a non profit organisation that prevents pollution, creates jobs and aids our community by diverting set materials to local charities and operating a retail store, prop shop and creative reuse center in Gowanus. They redistribute over 60% of donated items through our network of 15+ charity and nonprofit partners in the New York City area.
HOLSTEE Holstee’s founders, Dave, Mike and Fabian sat together on the steps of Union Square in New York to write down how they define success. The goal was to create something they could reflect back on if they ever felt stuck or found themselves living according to someone else’s definition of happiness.
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re not the factories of eryear who polluted the canal �
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Artists and small businesses priced out of other neighborhoods have been taking up residence in the old warehouses and are now taking advantage of the halt in large-scale building.
ELODIE BLANCHARD Founded in 2005, Elodie Blanchard studio specializes in textile design and fabrication − from large-scale custom curtains and site-specific installations to ready-made surfaces, soft furniture and home accessories. 9th Street, Gowanus
MAKERBOT INDUSTRIES MakerBot Industries' products were designed to be built by anyone with basic technical skills and were described as about as complicated as assembling IKEA furniture. Made out of Brooklyn, New York. Est 2009.
PRESERVE SOCIAL & ECONOMIC FABRIC Education
arts/ fashion/ music groups
local production
blending cultural boundaries
cultural forum
TALKS WITH
generating income
GOWANUS ALLIANCE & PROTEUS GOWANUS
workshops
The key stratergy for the Greater than Gowanus intervention is to generate a strong connection between the industrial groups in Gowanus by adressing the Social, cultural, economical & environmental factors. The key plan will be looking at creating a defined axis through the site providing a middle ground for industry communities and people of dierent ethnicities to experience.
LIVE CINEMA SCREENINGS
FILM BIZ RECYCLING
music / film
MAKERBOT, ELASTICO
REACH TO OUTER COMMUNITY
MARKETS SELLING INDUSTRY GOODS
market place
cultural hub
CREATING A PUBLIC SQUARE
Greater than Gowanus will create a place that encourages a forum for people to voice their ideas and visions for the community. It will be a place where you can learn, create, manufacture, discuss, generating a strong social conduit through a diversity of activies.
RESTORED CANAL AS CATALYST About 20% of the canal frontage is publicly owned and used mainly for storage and parking city vehicles. Another 11% is vacant, and 10% is taken up by street ends. 70% PRIVATELY OWNED
Layers of contaminated sediment at the bottom of the canal are among the legacies of this industrial era. A 20m canal set back and potentially reclaimed canal frontage land can be used in conjunction with Superfund clean up eorts to ensure filtration of storm & canal water.
terraced vegetation wetland retained sheet piling floodable retention basin raised public boardwalk
typical canal section
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The Gowanus neighborhood finds itself at a crossroads, with an opportunity to think afresh about the best way to develop post-industrial land.
Gowanus Manufacturing Zon e & Materials Re-use Cluster
SITE PLANNING
Opportunity locations for additional community market places & pop-up displays to embrace local manufacturing and begin the mushroom eect
Pedestrian Street
Manufacturing corridors - ensure people cross paths, creativity comes from interactions with the right people
Gowanus Manufacturing Zone Embrace Industrial Arts
The sites including the Whole Foods & Batcave stand as the vital connection, linking the two emerging manufacturing zones.
Opportunity site @ 9th & Smith Sts Potential additional industrial arts market location Natural attraction under via--duct above
Flood-able Wetlands (Contaminated site) Biological Purification terraces
Gowanus Manufacturing Zone Materials Re-use Cluster
MASTERPLAN Pedestrian Street & Bridge 3rd Street
Canal Edge Treatment Terraced Wetlands & esplenade
Community Market Space for Industrial Arts
Street End - Stormwater Runo wetlands
Public terraced flood-able ampitheatre Community Forum Space MIA Powerstation Site
Gowanus Manufacturing Zone Embrace Industrial Arts
interest
the intervention
GREATER THAN GOWANUS future vision
art is not created in the background ting things need to happen with interesting people
the intervention
GREATER THAN GOWANUS COMMUNITY FORUM
brt power station exhibition centre
CULTURAL
town square &
reinstating heritage ‘sylo’ from power station as defining beacon to Gowanus.
CENTRE
marketplace
COMMUNITY PERFORMANCE
natural outdoor amphitheatre
enhance pedestrian connectivity create active canal edge draw people down to canal
terraced wetlands a biological purification system that filters canal water though planted reeds and native vegetation. A unique edge condition addresses setbacks to industries along canal bank through reclaimed land.
the environment
GREATER THAN GOWANUS
the performance
GREATER THAN GOWANUS
the performance space creates a strong public place for people to express their creativity through film, music & art.
a stepping concrete ampitheatre makes a subtle incision into the landscanpe, defining the new edge to the canal. The ampthitheatre deals with unique threshold of levels, drawing people down to the water.
natural amphiteatre & event space ...bringing you a moon lit short film from The blowout theatre company a tune from of flood studios on 9th street a live performance from spring into dance
the industries
GREATER THAN GOWANUS community market place
the market place will define the new cultural centre to the gowanus. Within this precinct, local weekend markets will take place for localised industries to sell their goods to like minded people. Industries such as Makerbot, Holstee, Gowanus Furniture, Elastico will feature.
the community forum
GREATER THAN GOWANUS
BROOKLYN RAPID TRANSIT POWER STATION (BRT) - built 1896
Transforming an underutilized space into an ‘ideas centre’ where the community can voice their opinions & generate new concepts to benefit the greater Gowanus.
COMMUNITY GALLERY SPACES & LIBRARY
FLEIXIBLE ART INSTALLATION SPACE
COMMUNITY GARDEN
the community forum
GREATER THAN GOWANUS
RETENTION OF CHARACTER
SPEARKERS CORNER
COMMUNITY NOTICE BOARD
COMMUNITY DINING TABLE
the community forum community notice board
the notice board is a tool for the community to keep up to date with events in Gowanus.
Spearkers corner
the rejuvinated power stati series of ‘Gowanus Talks’ ev representatives of differen will be invited to talk and s
ion will host a vents, where nt community groups spread their knowledge.
with the thriving art culture in Gowanus, long-term community artisans such as Artsicle can hold regular exhibitions and art classes to educate Gowanus. A public community library is also present in the BRT and will run book club & book exchange in conjunction with Proteus Gowanus.
gallery exhibition spaces & community library
community garden & art installation space
the community garden intends to increase a sense of pride and ownership for community based land. it will be a focal point for the community as a whole and generate social encounters with the wider civic.