URBAN DESIGN COMMITTEE
Continuum’s website (https://www.960franklin.nyc/), the unions have agreed to engage in robust, zip-code-based outreach to Crown Heights community residents to ensure they receive the most job benefits. The only real change between the 34-story and the 17-story schemes is that the developer lopped off half of the height without addressing any of the glaring site plan deficiencies. Because the shadows on the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in the 34-story version is a big hurdle for the developer, he needed both the union support and two measly alternatives to convince the public of the worthiness of his preferred scheme. The quantities and type of units to be built are not clear. Should most units be studios or one- and two-bedroom apartments, families with more than two children would be excluded from the affordable units. This raises the question of affordable housing for whom? The promises of hiring local labor and generating 3000 jobs are attractive, if unenforceable. Then there is the issue of the ‘public’ open space that consists of vehicular drive-through with building entrance courtyards and plantings. It’s difficult to see where the public space might be. Caveat: remember the other Bruce (Ratner of Forest City) who promised all sorts of benefits from his large development at Atlantic Yards in 2003. So far, the basketball arena and
Three Continuum proposals From: https://www.960franklin.nyc
only four (of the promised 15-16 towers) have been built. And Forest City Ratner sold their interest in Atlantic Yards to a Chinese government owned company, Greenland USA. At this time, Greenland is behind schedule in building the platform over the train tracks which may or may not be done by 2023 – the twenty-year anniversary of Atlantic Yards. This is not to imply that 960 Franklin will take twenty years, but only that promises are not binding. Just sayin’….
Rendering of the 34 story towers proposed by Continuum Courtesy, Municipal Art Society
30
