More Demolitions Scheduled in Atlantic Yards Footprint
A dozen planned demolitions would create “facts on the ground,” isolate plaintiffs
By Norman Oder/Atlantic Yards Report
February 28, 2007
With the filing of papers preliminary to the demolition of 12 properties it owns within the Atlantic Yards footprint, developer Forest City Ratner–even as a pending eminent domain case constrains it from construction work on the planned arena–seems poised to create “facts on the ground,” empty lots that would foster both a perception of isolation and a sense of the project’s inevitability.
The demolitions would include the Ward Bakery on Pacific Street, which preservationists have hoped to see saved for adaptive reuse, but instead would be razed for an interim surface parking lot.
Among those most starkly impacted would be the residents still within the 22-acre footprint. Take, for example, the four story apartment house at 624 Pacific Street. In the fall of the 2005, when the above picture was taken, the house was bordered on both sides by existing buildings.
Last summer, after the developer demolished two properties to the west deemed structurally unsound, 624 Pacific was bordered on one side by empty lots. Should the developer follow through on plans filed in the past week to demolish 12 properties, including 626 Pacific just east of the residential building, the residents, who have filed suit in state court to block the condemnation of their building, would be further isolated.
For more information on the Atlantic Yard proposal:
Atlantic Yards Report