Neighborhood Candlelight Vigil Tomorrow - Save Gowanus Station - April 10th
Join a coalition of Gowanus neighborhood groups and residents as we ask public officials to avoid demolishing the iconic Gowanus Station building at 234 Butler Street. The candlelight vigil at Gowanus Station starts at 6:30 p.m. on April 10th (rain date April 12 at 6:30 p.m.).For a bit of background:
If the NYC DEP has its way, the beautiful former City of New York Water Supply Distribution Gowanus Station building at 234 Butler Street at the corner of Nevins Street will be demolished as part of the current plan to build an 8 million gallon Combined Sewer Overflow tank and facility head house on a large site that currently includes the Gowanus Station footprint.
This two-story beaux-arts style building, built in 1913 by the Department of Water Supply, Gas and Electricity, not only reflects the larger context of Gowanus as one of the earliest and busiest industrial and manufacturing centers in this country, it is also unique for being the only building that actually bears the name of the neighborhood.
The vigil is not in opposition to the CSO tank; we support construction of the tank, but there are creative design alternatives that would permit retention of the historic Gowanus Station building as a key part of neighborhood identity. For more details, please see the web link.
For more on the Gowanus Station and what is at stake, click here:
A SAVE ME banner is a recent addition to the building
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4 comments:
Come on, guys! I'm all for preserving the character of Gowanus but this one seems silly to fight for. It's not that special of a building. Plus, the alternative -- making way for the CSO tanks by digging up the public pool and park across the street where thousands of children play every summer and all year round -- is way worse! I generally fall into the "let's preserve our neighborhood" camp (for example: the old school house in President Street, which is both a magnificent building and has historical importance), but this one just seems like a lot of pointless grandstanding.
Ben, the community really could have it all if the DEP thought outside of the box and listened to the community.
For the more than half a billion dollars DEP is spending on taking the land by eminent domain and to build an 8 million gallon tank with headhouse, the agency should have enough money left over to incorporate the old building AND give us additional park space.
Katia is right - this is not the zero sum game that some would have you believe.
If DEP wasn't so hellbent on ramming its preferred design through and looked at this with an ounce of creativity, the pools and park would be left alone, the tank would be built (adding open space) and Gowanus Station would be saved. The proposed tank and headhouse need to be reconfigured to make this happen.
The vigil is about making sure the EPA and Public Design Commission get that message.
Ben, there's a toxic migrating tar plume under that pool. I stopped going to that park ages ago. That pool needs to be dug up, that toxic tar plume needs to be removed. A remnant from when the site was a coal gassification plant.
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