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February 9, 2011
Video suggests maybe those Atlantic Terminal bollards, however ugly, work as street furniture
Atlantic Yards Report
When the bollards outside the Atlantic Terminal station emerged in December 2009, they were tagged by No Land Grab's Eric McClure as "a closely spaced series of enormous, intrusive, Sarcophagus-like — and butt-ugly — blocks."
(Photo by Adrian Kinloch)
The Brooklyn Paper's Gersh Kuntzman followed up in a 1/26/10 article pointing out that the New York Police Department advises that bollards “measure between 30 and 36 inches in height” and be spaced 48 inches apart--but the ones outside Atlantic Terminal are 50 to 52 inches high and in some places are 36 inches apart.
Plans for the Barclays Center plaza nearby include bollards, but not like these. "We're not making that mistake," said Forest City Ratner's Jane Marshall at a public meeting last September. "These are very simple standard bollards, that were approved by the security board and countererrorism."
A second look
Brooklyn architect Jeff Geisinger, however, recently filmed the plaza as an exercise in documenting public place. His video (below), he suggests, "demonstrates the effectiveness of the bollards as urban furniture and as a buffer to the bustling traffic of Flatbush Avenue, despite their bulky, unattractive aesthetic."
NoLandGrab: Sure, people can sit on them. But we stand by our original appraisal.
Posted by eric at February 9, 2011 11:08 AM