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BROOKLYN WEEKLY, DECEMBER 29, 2019
GLASS FORTRESS
Developers plot massive glass tower in Fort Greene
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Manhattan-based developers
are angling to erect a
massive glass tower in Fort
Greene, which will house
around 120 residential units
and a spacious new music
school.
Builders with Gotham
Organization plan to construct
the 285-foot condo
building on St. Felix Street
between Hanson Place and
Lafayette Avenue — on a
vacant lot adjoining the
historic Williamsburg Savings
Bank Tower — senior
rep for the company Bryan
Kelly told Community
Board 2.
Some members of the
civic panel took issue with
the glass facade of the building
and its large podium
entrance,, which is shown
in renderings donning a
modern look next to the
surrounding stately townhouses
and brownstones.
“That seems garishly
out of place to what’s going
on on St. Felix — it jumps at
you,” said Eric Sprueill.
Kelly told the civic board
member that the architects
would take that feedback
into consideration, and possibly
change the proposed
tower’s aesthetic to fi t more
with its surroundings.
“I hear what your saying,
that entrance should be
more of a brownstone feel,
I understand that,” Kelly
said. “I think it’s a very
valid, reasonable comment.
We’ll do some studies.”
If approved, the planned
development would include
some 120 condos, 30-percent
of which will be slated
as so-called “affordable
housing” units under the
city’s Mandatory Inclusionary
Housing program
— which requires developers
to set aside a percentage
of cheaper units if they
add housing via land use actions.
The “affordable” units
will be targeted at households
earning between
$52,000 to $110,000 a year —
the most expensive out of
four options given to developers
under the city’s regulations.
The development’s cellar
and fi rst two fl oors will
also house a 20,000 square
foot space for the Brooklyn
Music School — which
is currently bursting at its
seams hosting some 2,100
students in four connected
townhouses adjacent to the
site, according to the school
chair of its board of trustees,
Shelby Green.
Gotham bought the lot in
2015 for $5.5 million, along
with the music school’s unused
air rights for $7 million.
The school will fund its
part of the build through
the revenue from that sale
of the air rights, along with
$6 million in funding the
previously city allocated for
its expansion and other proceeds
the education facility
collected with its own fundraisers,
the developers said.
The building company
hopes to launch the city’s
lengthy land use review to
allow for more residential
units on the lot during the
middle of 2020 and they anticipate
having the greenlight
by City Council a year
after that, Kelly said.
The project will also fi rst
need to get a Certifi cate of
Appropriateness from the
city’s Landmarks Preservation
Commission, due to its
location within the Special
Downtown District.
The 285-foot condo tower will house an expanded music school at its base on St. Felix Place.
Photo by FXCollaborative
High-tech puppet show explores gun violence in America
BY ROSE ADAMS
This show is a straight shooter!
A new high-tech puppet show blends horror movie
tropes and Greek mythology to discuss gun violence in
the United States. “Fear in the Western World,” opening
as part of the Exponential lo the Target Margin Theater
in Sunset Park on Jan. 5, follows two parents who trek
through catacombs hidden beneath under their suburban
home in search for their abducted daughter — and who
come across mythical, gun-wielding creatures along the
way, according to the show’s co-creator.
“There’s a Greek slant on their adventure as they go
on,” said David Commander, who wrote and directed the
production with artist Rob Ramirez. “The whole performance
is presided over by Janus, the god of transitions
and passageways.”
The play’s spooky tunnels make the show feel like a horror
movie, Commander said, but its creatures are as frightened
as they are frightening. The protagonists, and the catacomb
dwellers they come upon, cling to their guns for a
sense of protection — often injuring each other in shootouts
— even if there is no real danger, Commander noted.
“They’re using guns because they’re scared,” he said.
“They’re scared when they’re safe; they’re scared when
they’re being threatened. They’re just frightened.”
Commander created “Fear in the Western World” in
response to the many mass shootings in the US since the
Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in 2012. Each
tragedy involved a cycle of violence, media coverage, and
political posturing that, to Commander, felt like an endless
carnival ride.
“There’s something kind of like a haunted house ride
or a rollercoaster where you can’t get away,” Commander
noted. “You can’t escape it. You’re in for the ride.”
The show mimics the sense of anxiety that Commander
believes plagues the country, and that contributes to the
cycle of fear and gun violence. But despite its dark subject
matter, the show is not completely bleak, he said.
“It has a very optimistic ending,” he promised.
The show will feature several high-tech puppets with
tablets for heads, with distorted images of human faces on
their screens. The puppeteers will move the puppets with
rods, and change their expressions by using a video game
controller. The puppeteers will remain visible to the audience,
allowing viewers to see how the show is made, Commander
said.
“There’s no attempt to trick the audience,” he said.
“The audience has a choice in what to focus on.”
GOT NO STRINGS: The digital puppet production “Fear in the Western
World,” explores how gun violence and fear affect two parents
searching for their abducted child. Photo by Maria Baranova