You want tall? This is what Brooklyn is getting: 9 Dekalb Avenue – at 73 storeys, nearly twice as tall as any existing building in the borough.
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Just approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, it passed the final hurdle after securing the air rights from the adjacent temple bank building. In other words, it is heritage preservation that allowed it to be so tall.
Plutocratopia.
On DeKalb Avenue, this is a marked improvement. Without those air development rights, there’d also be a lot fewer landmarked buildings. A shamelessly unaltruistic win-win.
I live about 4 blocks from this site. It’s staggering how much building has gone on there recently. In 2009, the Williamsburg Savings Bank Tower had been the tallest building in the borough since the Depression. Now it has already fallen to sixth and there are several more, including this one, on the way. All are within a fairly tight radius of one another.
And that’s all in addition to the Atlantic Yards project and the other new towers adjacent to Barclays.
It’s not Dubai in New York, it’s New York in New York. Erecting such arrogant symbols of capitalism is a classically New York pursuit.
Who wouldn’t love this? Objectively badass.
And believe it or not, allowing the construction of buildings to house the rich ultimately relieves upward rent pressure for lower classes. And as Bloomberg said, having the Uber rich locate in your city does immense good for your city coffers and economy. What’s not to love?