Image Credit: NYC DOT

One year ago, in January 2020, the Expert Panel assigned by Mayor Bill de Blasio to study the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway issued its Final Report. Mayor de Blasio in 2019 appointed the seventeen-person Expert Panel* of which I was a member, following the angry rejection of New York City DOT’s plan for reconstructing the section of the BQE adjacent to Brooklyn Heights, Dumbo and Downtown Brooklyn. City DOT presented its plan publicly September 2019. The plan caused immediate outrage. (more…)

Mayor Bill de Blasio at the announcement of the new Medgar Evers College Preparatory School building. Image Credit: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.

The new building will replace eight Transportable Classroom Units. On November 23, 2020 Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the groundbreaking on the 681-seat new school building for the Medgar Evers College Preparatory School in Brooklyn. This project will be adjacent to the school’s current site at 1186 Carroll Street in Crown Heights. This project was undertaken by the Mayor’s Office in partnership with the Department of Education, the School Construction Authority, and the City University of New York. (more…)

Mayor Bill de Blasio. Image credit: CityLand

The recently completed projects are part of an effort to add more protected bike lanes in Brooklyn by the end of the year. The protected bike lanes are part of the City’s Green Wave plan for cycling. On November 5, 2020 Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the completion of two protected bike lanes in Brooklyn. The new Flatbush Avenue and 4th Avenue protected bike lanes add 3.2 miles of protected lanes. (more…)

Angel Guardian Home, Main Building Image Credit: Brooklyn CB10

Angel Guardian Home would be first landmark designation in the Dyker Heights neighborhood. On June 30, 2020, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to calendar the designation of the Angel Guardian Home, located at 6301 12th Avenue in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn.  The former orphanage, which encompasses the entire 12th avenue frontage between 63rd and 64th Streets, is composed of four original, completely intact buildings: a central administration building, a nursery building, a reception and intake building, and a laundry building. The designation is sought only for a partial portion of the block, specifically the main building.

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Rendering of Proposed Building at 358 Malcolm X Blvd./Image Credit: Gerald J. Caliendo Architects and LPC

The building’s ground-floor storefront design was inspired by the commercial storefronts seen on the block. On June 9, 2020, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to issue a binding report for the construction of a new three-story residential building on a vacant lot located at 358 Malcolm X Boulevard, Brooklyn. The vacant lot is located within the Bedford-Stuyvesant/Expanded Stuyvesant Heights Historic District. The proposal is part of a Department of Housing and Preservation Development affordable housing project and the building will be used as a three-family dwelling.

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