Chamber celebrates the Aquarium, gets a glimpse of its future
The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce convened in Coney Island on Wednesday, July 15 to celebrate the New York Aquarium – and its latest venture, a $157 million, three-story exhibit called Ocean Wonders: Sharks! – as one of the borough’s next great destinations.
“It’s a beautiful building and it’s an iconic structure that we hope will really help to define the Coney Island skyline,” said Jon Forrest Dohlin, Aquarium director and vice president of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), during a virtual tour of the exhibit, which comes complete with its own building, and the Aquarium’s first-ever connection with the Riegelmann Boardwalk.
“[This exhibit] will really start a dialogue with the Boardwalk,” he said, stressing that, as well as having more than 45 sharks inhabiting three 500,000-gallon tanks, the shiny new building will include public amenities such as shade, seating and even a concession area to be connected with the Boardwalk.