I’m the nerd who always exhorts you to walk, walk, walk to see the best of Brooklyn. Today I’m going to encourage you to loaf around instead.
How else will you experience Greenpoint’s two new waterfront parks the way they deserve to be experienced? They’re best appreciated by visitors who plan to stay a while, and just sit here and watch the river flow, as Bob Dylan famously sang.
So bring friends, bring a book, bring a blanket so you can enjoy some leisure time on the green lawns.
One of the two parks is revamped and refurbished rather than absolutely brand-new. I’ll tell you more about it in a minute.
If you don’t live within walking distance from Greenpoint, your most entertaining way to get there is, as always, the NYC Ferry.
The route from Brooklyn Bridge Park to Williamsburg to Greenpoint offers a big dose of Brooklyn waterfront scenery — and vistas of skyscrapers in lower and Midtown Manhattan, from the World Trade Center to the Chrysler Building.
This appealing public waterfront space is located in front of a residential tower called The Greenpoint. Eagle photo by Lore Croghan
Also, if you take the ferry, you’ll disembark on a dock that’s right beside the first new green space I want to show you, which is outside a new residential tower called The Greenpoint at 21 India St.
Waterfront public space in front of The Greenpoint
When you walk to the end of the dock, you find the entrance to the new green space is right there.
This waterfront space belongs to the city Department of Parks and Recreation. It has a 275-foot promenade on the edge of the East River, 33 trees, low-rise plantings, a lawn and 312 linear feet of benches.
The 29,500-square-foot green space stands in front of a driveway that leads from India Street to The Greenpoint’s front entrance.
Grasses grow in neat rows in the green space outside The Greenpoint. Eagle photo by Lore Croghan
Mack Real Estate and Palin Enterprises are the co-developers of the 40-story tower in conjunction with Urban Development Partners.
Ismael Leyva Architects designed the building, which has rental apartments on the lower floors and condos on the upper floors.
When I looked at The Greenpoint’s website the other day, available rental apartments ranged in price from $3,060 per month for a studio to $5,380 per month for a two-bedroom unit.
Here’s the playground equipment outside The Greenpoint. Eagle photo by Lore Croghan
Some condo sales have closed at The Greenpoint.
For instance, city Finance Department records indicate, a unit on the 29th floor sold for $2,235,058 and a 36th-floor apartment sold for $2,158,690.
Rezoning in 2005 mandated green space construction
The waterfront green space also has a 4,000-square-foot playground whose construction wasn’t quite finished the day I was there. Some of the playground equipment looks a little bit like abstract sculptures.
The Greenpoint’s developers were required to build the waterfront green space, give it to the city and promise to fund its maintenance. A 2005 rezoning imposed this requirement on developers of the neighborhood’s waterfront sites.
The twilight’s so serene at the new public waterfront space outside The Greenpoint. Eagle photo by Lore Croghan
By the way, the park outside The Greenpoint is open from dawn until dusk. It’s a tranquil spot to watch the sunset.
If you point your camera in the right direction, you’ll be able to include the Empire State Building in your pictures.
A new promenade at Newtown Barge Park
The second green space I want to show you is Newtown Barge Park.
Good day sunshine at Newtown Barge Park. Eagle photo by Lore Croghan
To get there from The Greenpoint, walk inland to Franklin Street and stroll several blocks north to Commercial Street.
Newtown Barge Park was an existing city park. Plans to expand it were made several years ago.
A promenade was added to improve public access to the shoreline. This particular bit of shoreline is the East River, very near where Newtown Creek empties into it.
The park has a lovely swath of lawn, pretty plantings and a fenced-in sports field suitable for baseball and soccer.
If you’re at Newtown Barge Park when the weather’s nice, you’ll see the sun glinting on the windows of an adjacent apartment tower whose address is Two Blue Slip.
The new sports field at Newtown Barge Park is quite an eyeful. Eagle photo by Lore Croghan
It’s part of a 22-acre, multi-building shoreline development called Greenpoint Landing that Park Tower Group is building. Brookfield Properties is a partner for a portion of the project.
By the way, these developers were also obligated by the 2005 rezoning to construct publicly accessible waterfront space. Last year, they opened a section of that green space. It runs between Two Blue Slip and another tower of theirs, One Blue Slip.
Sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset
Also by the way, the construction of residential towers marks a new phase in the history of the Greenpoint waterfront. In the 19th century, the area was a shipbuilding mecca.
More than a dozen shipbuilding firms moved to the neighborhood from Manhattan in the 1850s, the city Landmarks Preservation Commission’s designation report about the Greenpoint Historic District says. The famous ironclad Civil War vessel, the Monitor, was made in Greenpoint.
But more about Newtown Barge Park.
Late-day light casts a poignant glow over Newtown Barge Park. Eagle photo by Lore Croghan
It’s open from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m.
This means you can do outdoor yoga at sunrise — though I don’t have the self-discipline to get up that early, so I don’t have any photos of anything like that.
You can also sit and watch the sunset. I did. It was splendid. But the pictures I took at dusk are prettier than the sunset shots.
A dinner-time picnic would be fun at Newtown Barge Park. There are nearby restaurants that would be good places to get a to-go dinner.
Here’s the World Trade Center as seen from Newtown Barge Park at dusk. Eagle photo by Lore Croghan
The Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory is a few blocks away on Commercial Street. You might want to eat dessert there — because if you carry ice cream all the way to the park in this weather, you could wind up with a drippy mess.
SUNSET PARK — “As a resident of Marine Park, one of the great surprises I found biking around Industry City and visiting Japan Village was to discover Bush Terminal Park. I continue to be amazed at the serene hideaways that the city offers in some of the busiest places — and, still, with an iconic view.”
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — ‘A miracle that no one was killed …’ That’s what neighbors are saying about the collapse of the Hotel St. George marquee. Shown in this photograph are workmen beginning the removal and repair of the historic, old neon sign at the corner, referencing a relic of Brooklyn Heights’ past: the St. George Hotel.
ATLANTIC AVENUE — Exhausted shopper with cluster of bags and goods from mall at Boerum Place stops to look at huge construction site across the street. “Is that REALLY going to be a jail??” Her male companion is reassuring, “Nothing like Rikers … this is 21st Century.”
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — Overheard in line at one of most popular pastry outlets on Montague Street: “Hope I can get them into a camp …” A mother with two pre-schoolers in tow was showing a friend the Dodge Y flyer for Healthy Kids Day on Saturday, April 18.
