Fulton Ferry Landing cafe and bar hits setback

April 9, 2019 Mary Frost

A rendering of the proposed restaurant pavilion for Fulton Ferry Landing. Rendering via Starling Architecture

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A plan to build a permanent restaurant pavilion on the pier at Fulton Ferry Landing was sent back to the drawing board by the Landmarks Preservation Commission on Tuesday.

Brooklyn Bridge Park had planned to attach the structure, which would be open-air in the summer and closed in the winter, to a 1929 hose shed just west of the 1926 Marine Fireboat Station. A seasonal bar has been operating under a tent in that area. Alex and Miles Pincus won the initial concession rights for the site.

After hearing from preservationists who testified against the plan, the Landmarks Preservation Commission “encouraged us to come up with a minimalist design and come back,” a park spokesperson told the Brooklyn Eagle on Tuesday.

“We fully respect the LPC and the whole process,” the spokesperson said. “We will work closely with the Pincus brothers to incorporate the feedback we heard today, and will come back with an updated plan.”

Jesse Denno, testifying for the Historic Districts Council, said in its written statement that the Council “does not object to the design of this proposed restaurant pavilion in and of itself. However, we do greatly object to where it is proposed to be placed. The current siting proposes to introduce a new permanent structure that would further reduce view corridors of the Brooklyn Bridge, and add to the further accretion of commercial enterprises within this public space.”

The historic designation report “identifies the Brooklyn Bridge’s historic and continuing hold on the imagination of writers, artists, urbanists and the public at large,” Denno wrote. “New solidifying construction impeding vistas of the bridge, an iconic landmark the world over, would contradict any preservation purpose.”

The hose shed itself adds an important historic note to the pier, the organization added.

The LPC held off on a vote on the project.

The park said that the pavilion would be rebid out after a time period, like other concessions in the park.

A historic fireboat is also planned to dock on the north side of the pier as part of the concession. Landmarks did not consider the vessel as part of its review.

The fireboat house and its surroundings, occupied since 2001 by the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, will now be shared by Ample Hills Creamery.