Page 326 - Demo

Page 18 PHOENIX April 25,1974Mrr ot uesign TorDramatic, but CohesiveBY DAN ICOLAKIThe task of revitalizing the downtown Brooklyn area has combined considerable planning and coordination with more than a pinch of audacity. Because it%u2019s not only buildings and street-use patterns that become altered in this process, it%u2019s people%u2019s attitudes as well.Says Margo Wellington of the Downtown Brooklyn Development Association (DBDA): %u201c Five years ago. the downtown business community was thriving, but in some instances the return was based on limited or small investment. Too often, the philosophy was, take the biggest possible profit, don%u2019t reinvest, and be ready to pull out if you have to. Now, merchants are trying to negotiate the longest possible leases on commercial property and are much less hesitant about making physical improvements; there%u2019s been a dramatic change in outlook.%u201dTo effect such a zap on public consciousness, DBDA and the The Fulton Arcade will put pedestrians under cover.Ybu%u2019ll findBrooklyn Bankersat Bankers Trust.12345678Bay Ridge8724 Fourth Ave. at 88th St. 833-9400Bensonhurst8603 21st Ave. at 86th St. ES 3-20009Kings Highway1321 Kings Highway near H. 14th 998-6500Boro Park4410 13 th Ave. near 44th St. U L 4-1800DeKalb Avenue896 D eKalb Ave. at Sumner Ave. G L 3-1600Flatbush1545 Flatbush Ave. at Nostrand Ave. 859-4242Graham Avenue47 Graham Ave. at Varet St. EV 8-6400Grand Street317 Grand St. at Havemeyer St. ST 2 -IS 7 0Kings Bay3851 Nostrand Ave. at Ave. ZT W 1-67001 0I IMontague Street205 Montague St. near Boro Hall 577-3103Pitkin Avenue1756 Pitkin Ave. at Watkins St. H Y 8-6700w a Ralph AvenueH ^ 2095 Ralph Ave. near Ave. K1 31 41 516968-7174Sutter Avenue574 Sutter Ave. near Alabama H Y 5-0300Avenue U1603 Ave. U near E. 16th St. 336-6464Avenue M1704 Ave. M near H. 17th St. 336-1313Brighton Beach1009 Brighton Beach Ave. near Conev Island Ave.74343162You%u2019ll find a banker at Bankers Trust FIcity%u2019s Office of Downtown Brooklyn Development realized they would have to go about changing first impressions of the area, which are formed visually. So DBDA began installing public art in Borough Hall Park, in Albee Square, at the triangle at Lafayette and Flatbush Avenues; it commissioned a mural on Livingston Street.Installing the art was meant, first of all, to be provocative; to create excitement and herald the changes taking place downtown. Part public relations, part advertising, part art, placing work by established artists at key locations is but one element in an overall planning and design scheme.%u201c Our approach,%u201d says Ms. Wellington, %u201c has been to treat each area in an appropriate fashion. There are some places where dramatic change is needed and some where preservation is more desirable. But every design decision must relate to what already exists in the area and what is planned or already underway. If we were creating a city from scratch, it might be possible to apply planning abstractions whole; but the requirements of downtown Brooklyn mandate a subtle, thoughtful approach. You can%u2019t just plop down a building in the middle of a business or residential community without being pretty sure how it%u2019s going to work in relation to everything else. It has to make sense.%u201dOne of the planners%u2019 more complex tasks has been to introduce cohesion and physical amenities to the area%u2019s major shopping center, Fulton Street. Says Robin Burns, Senior Planner with the Office of Downtown Brooklyn Development: %u201c When you look atFulton Street, you realize that it%u2019s essentially a pedestrian rather than a vehicular thoroughfare, but that it does little more than permit people to walk from one store to another. Our plan takes the existing use - a pedestrian shopping street - and enables it to work as a real public street, a special place with its own character and its own street life.%u2019*The most dramatic change calledfor in the plan is, of course, themall, called Fulton Arcade, announced several months ago. Themajor feature of the Arcade is asmokcy-colofed plastic and steelframe canopy system that willcover the sidewalks on both thenorth and south sides of FultonStreet and will span across intersections. Its most obvious benefitis that it will protect shoppers fromrain and snow; but with a uniformsystem of store sign placement, itwill also relate existing buildings to a more human scale.The planning effort for the Fulton Arcade is also directed toward eliminating the jumble of parking signs, signals, directions, public advertising and street illumination that clutter more than inform. Integrated into the total design picture are provisions for traffic lights, traffic control signs, sidewalk illumination, directories, subway stop signs, maps, telen h n t ip c a n H m n r pA system of %u201cstreet furniture,%u201d as it is called in planning-ese, will nclude benches, telephone booths, water fountains and planters placed directly on the street. This can be accomplished because of the canopy design and because the roadway will be reduced from 42 to 24 feet, creating widei sidewalks as well as a two-directional \wav%u201d for buses and emergency vehicles. All other traffic will be Continued on page 27