The Eminent Domain

The Fort Greene Association met Monday night to discuss, among other matters, the controversy erupting over the grand but decrepit historic houses on Admirals’ Row, in the Brooklyn Navy Yard… and members think the solution might have a lot to do with freshly baked bread.

Check out last week’s New York Times City Section for the story on the 10 crumbling buildings on Admirals’ Row, which once housed high-ranking officers but now stand vacant. The city wants to purchase the structures from the National Guard and demolish them to make room for a grocery store that would serve and employ local residents, especially those from the nearby Farragut Houses. Historical preservationists, like those who make up the FGA, want the city to grant the 150-year old buildings landmark status and restore them — a project that, according to the Guard, could cost as much as $20 million.

At the meeting Monday night, FGA member Paul Palazzo suggested that the restoration of the houses would be a boon to the community, bringing in profits from tourism that could be used to improve other areas of the neighborhood. “We have a valuable historical asset that can be turned into cash!” he said. Palazzo, well aware that the majority of community members are in favor of the plan to build a grocery store on the site, assured his audience “we can have our cake and eat it too.” (The phrase comes straight from a December post by Brownstoner, which slammed David Yassky, Tish James, and other elected officials for contending that the pricey preservation of the buildings would kill any hope for a supermarket.)

Toward that end, the Association has brought Professor Brent Porter, a professor of architecture at the Pratt Institute, on board to design a proposal that preserves the houses from demolition while still providing area residents with a grocery store.

The FGA has begun seeking developers and supermarket chains to sign on to the plan, which Porter says will be completed by May. At that time, the FGA will present the plan to the National Guard, which must review “viable alternative proposals” before handing the land over to the city.

“We do not feel a mega supermarket…is necessary,” said FGA Chair Howard Pitsch. “We could do with much less and save the houses.” He pointed out that the land parcel on which the houses sit has an area of six acres, and asserted that a market could take up only two of those acres and still be sufficient. “Think of the Park Slope Key Foods,” he urged the audience. “It’s a lovely store with 80 parking spaces, on only one and a half acres.”

Porter’s plan addresses the financial burdens associated with preservation in two ways: by lowering the cost of repairing the houses and by making sure that they are reused in ways beneficial to community members.

Porter has had to do some fancy footwork in order to address both goals in the same space; as a result, his sketches look a bit like storyboards for a sci-fi movie. For instance, he suggests reducing the air conditioning costs for the houses and supermarket using photointake receptors on the roof. His mop of gray hair flopping wildly, he assured the audience that the houses are not in as bad condition as they might think. “The mason walls are fine; it’s just the porches that are falling off,” he said, and skimmed over the difficulties of renovating the vast empty spaces, saying “a few engineers could fix it up” for reuse as a green market.

Among his other ideas? A green space that “Bette Midler could finance” and youth center-cum-bakery.

“Howard said we can have our cake and eat it too,” said Porter, “but I say we can have our bread and bake it too!” Chuckling at his own joke, he showed his plans to adapt the houses for reuse as a bakery at which children could participate in after-school baking classes.

“With a little imagination, we can do it,” he effused.