December 1, 2019 Your Neighborhood — Your News®
Month xx–xx, 2019
LOCAL
CLASSIFIEDS
PAG E 15
Why hello there!
Developers replace iconic ‘Watchtower’ sign by Brooklyn Bridge
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
It’s a “Welcome” addition!
Builders replaced the iconic
“Watchtower” sign that once
greeted travelers heading over the
Brooklyn Bridge with a new sign
that reads “Welcome” on Monday.
The rooftop marquee sits atop
the Jehovah’s Witnesses’s former
headquarters turned offi ceand
retail complex in Brooklyn
Heights, where it will salute worka
day New Yorkers — and, not to
mention, potential tenants of the
bougie new commercial tower —
as they cross the borough’s namesake
span, according to a rep for
the landlord.
“Seen from Lower Manhattan
and greeting travelers as they
cross the Brooklyn Bridge, ‘Welcome’
embodies the message to
our tenants and the entire city
that Panorama is a vital part of
the transformed Brooklyn waterfront
and reinforces the idea that
Brooklyn is an inviting place for
companies to set up shop,” said
the principal of investments at
CIM Group Jason Schreiber in a
prepared statement.
The new sign was designed by
Manhattan fi rm Morris Adjmi
Architects with lettering that resembles
the original sign’s neonred
characters, and is illuminated
with energy-effi cient LED lights.
The sign will continue to sport
the old alternating time and temperature
display above it, according
to reps.
Workers tore down the original
sign — which formerly graced
the Kings County skyline since
1969 — in late 2017.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses setup
shop at the Watchtower building
in 1969, and expanded their
Brooklyn Heights headquarters
several times before selling the
property to developers ahead of a
move upstate in 2016.
Big Apple developer CIM
Group, along with partnering
Dumbo-based fi rm Livwrk, plan
to ceremonially light up the new
sign on Wednesday, on the 50th
anniversary of the “Watchtower”
sign’s debut.
After the old sign was taken
down, Brooklynites were left to
wonder for more almost two years
whether developers would install
a replacement on the building’s
rooftop scaffolding, and renderings
— including at one time the
project’s website —showed a sign
spelling out the development’s
name “Panorama.”
City offi cials ruled in November
2018 that the owners could put
their own branding on the sign.
Cyclists
demand
fi nish to
Fouth Ave
bike lane
BY BEN VERDE
Cycling advocates are demanding
the Department of Transportation
speed up construction of
the Fourth Avenue bike lane in
Park Slope, where cyclists are
forced to merge with traffi c after
the bike path suddenly ends 15
blocks short of its fi nal destination.
“Limited lanes in isolation
do not keep us safe,” said Blythe
Austin, who joined a rally outside
Atlantic Terminal on Saturday
as a member of Families for Safe
Streets. “Every time a lane dead
ends or there is a gap, then we
have to merge back into traffi c –
and that is dangerous.”
The city is currently in the
process of adding pedestrian
safety islands, greenery, and protected
bike lanes from 65th Street
in Bay Ridge to Atlantic Avenue
in Park Slope to the north-south
thoroughfare as part of the city’s
so-called “Green Streets” program.
Builders started work on the
protected bike lanes — which
separate cyclists from traffi c via
a row of parked cars — in spring
last year, but work stalled south
of First Street, where northbound
cyclists are forced to either turn
east towards Prospect Park, or
mingle with traffi c along the uptown
speedway.
“You’re asking people on bikes
to basically merge back into traf-
Continued on page 13
Developers installed the new “Welcome” sign to lure businesses and visitors to their planned offi ce and retail complex. Photo by Will Femia
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