Ongoing concerns about Barclays Center’s overall impact on surrounding borough neighborhoods—including Brooklyn Heights—could rise from a low roar to a full-on battle cry, given the mammoth long-term plan that developer Bruce Ratner has in mind for the area. Located at the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic avenues, Barclays is merely the first part to be completed of a planned 16-building complex that would include 6 million square feet of residential, 247,000 of retail and 336,000 of office space.

In a lengthy story about the Atlantic Yards development, The Architects Newspaper reports that the as yet tallest modular construction building in the world—a 32-story residential tower—is slated to add to the Brooklyn skyline. An office building and possibly a hotel would round out the first phase of development, followed by eleven more residential buildings, eight acres of open space, and retail.

Related: Opening Night at the Barclays Center

Ironically, it was NYC planner Robert Moses who first pooh-poohed the idea of a stadium near the space now occupied by Barclays Center, back in 1955. Responding to Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley’s proposal to build a new home for the Dodgers on the site of what is now the Atlantic Center Mall, Moses said, “I don’t want to see a baseball field in downtown Brooklyn at all. The streets will never handle all the cars. (A) stadium would create a China Wall of traffic.” Much more, including more photos, here.

How did we get there from here? Read the Atlantic Yards Report’s definitive primer on the area’s development.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/49042