Events in May 2024
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Scenic Stewardship Series - Finding Prospect Park
Scenic Stewardship Series - Finding Prospect Park
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May 5, 2024Sunday, May 5, 2024
11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.This tour will take you through the northern half of Prospect Park, Olmsted and Vaux’s masterpiece. A brief introduction to the park’s history and design will be provided while will investigate lost rustic and picturesque shelters and bridges, the marvelous “electric fountain,” the mysterious “Culvert Arch,” the park’s “Dairy,” the “braiding of the ways,” the still present but deteriorating Litchfield Villa, the circular yacht, and other sites and features of the original park. The main focus of the tour will be discovering lost features and why their loss matters. Some of these features are gone without a trace; others remain only as archaeological remnants. Some are largely intact but have been “lost” to the public for other reasons.
Your tour guide, Jeremy Woodoff, is a city planner and historic preservationist, currently serving on the Advisory Board of the Historic Districts Council and the Board of the Victorian Society New York, both of which are sponsoring this tour. During his 20-year employment at the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, Jeremy was responsible for setting up the Commission’s review procedures for work in scenic landmarks like Prospect Park and for reviewing all work proposed for the park by the Parks Department and the Prospect Park Alliance.
For those who register, a QR code will be available that will allow you to download a series of historic images to use on your cell phone or tablet during the tour. The tour leader will have a set of images that can be viewed as well.
Friends / Seniors $15; General $20
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The Changing Face of Atlantic Avenue
The Changing Face of Atlantic Avenue
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May 7, 2024Tuesday, May 7, 2024
6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Via ZoomAtlantic Avenue is Brooklyn’s only east-west thoroughfare that stretches from Brooklyn Heights to Jamaica, Queens. It is heavily used by both trucks and passenger vehicles. It is unique in that it is also the route of the Long Island Railroad, which runs both below and above ground. The communities of Clinton Hill and Bedford Stuyvesant lie to the north, and Prospect Heights, and Crown Heights to the south. Currently zoned for low-density industrial use, proponents have presented a plan with a massive zoning change for the avenue and surrounding blocks. It will allow residential construction and other changes that will promote growth in an underserved part of Brooklyn. How will the Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan benefit the communities along the way? Will it achieve its goals to promote a mix of truly affordable housing and living wage jobs for the community? This virtual tour, led by architectural historian Suzanne Spellen, will look at what was, is now, and could be there in the future.
Image from NY City Planning
Friend of HDC / Senior $15; General Admission $20