By Stephen Witt
Outrage! That’s how some responded to last week’s Landmarks Preservation Commission decision to tear down the Purchase Building to make way for the proposed Brooklyn Bridge Park. “We are deeply disturbed and troubled at the decision and believe some commissioners may not foresee the precedent that they will be setting with this decision,” said Brooklyn Heights Association Executive Director Judy Stanton. “Particularly disturbing is to have spent a morning testifying [at the LPC hearing on the matter] to see the decision had already been made,” Stanton added. Built in 1936 as a project of the Works Progress Administration, the Purchase Building, 11 Water Street, is located under the Brooklyn Bridge overpass off Old Fulton and Water streets in Fulton Ferry. The building features late Art Deco and early modernist designs. It is also within the confines of the Fulton Ferry Historic District. Several local civic and neighborhood organizations as well as preservation groups have argued the 300-foot long, 30-foot-high building should not be torn down. However, the City’s Parks Department and proponents of the proposed Brooklyn Bridge Park argued the building should be torn down so their can be a view corridor under the bridge. Ultimately, many of the opposition groups, including Community Board 2, reached a more conciliatory position, hoping to at least save the façade of the building. However, their hopes were dashed with the LPC decision. Meanwhile, proponents of removing the building hailed the move as a necessary evil. “We had supported the City Parks Department position for the demolition of the building,” said Marianna Koval, co-executive director of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy. Koval did allow that it was a tough issue, but that the demolition would create more of a green and open space for the people of Brooklyn. While the building was part of the historic district, it was not found to be a contributing building to the district, she noted. “While we are supporters of preservation, we viewed this particular instance as one where the public interest was better served to remove the building to create the Brooklyn Bridge Park,” she Koval. At press time, officials were not available for comment as to when the demolition will take place.
