Starchitect-deprived Brooklyn Bridge Park has signed up Robert A.M. Stern as a consultant. According to the Empire State Development Corp.?the agency in charge of the big open space, residential and commercial project?Stern will be helping with design guidelines for the parts of the project that currently include more than 1,000 units of housing, 500,000 square feet of retail and commercial space, a 225 room hotel and parking for nearly 1,200 cars. (In other words, the components of the 1.3-mile, 85-acre development that will help bankroll the project, but that opponents really dislike.)
One possible indication of the planning tightrope Stern will walk is that the ESDC told the Brooklyn Paper it wouldn't talk about Stern's role in the project. Stern's urban planning work on Disney's master-planned town Celebration in Florida got decidedly mixed reviews. Maybe Stern could propose disguising the BQE's path along and above the park with Mouse Ears, etc.?
· Starchitect joins Bridge "park" team [Bklyn Papers]
· Brooklyn Bridge Park Gets Its Walking Around Money [Curbed]