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COURIER L 20 IFE, MARCH 8–14, 2019 M BR B G
Bricking around
City set to salvage two brick walls of
ancient Gowanus Station, Feds say
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
The city will painstakingly restore two
walls of the Gowanus Station building
after razing the rest of the ancient
structure to erect a water-fi ltration facility
on the site, according to the Feds
leading the cleanse of Brooklyn’s Nautical
Purgatory, who recently reached an
agreement with state preservationists
about what parts of the Station to save.
Workers with the local Department
of Environmental Protection will rebuild
a 25-to-30-foot portion of the Butler
Street building’s wall along that
street, and the entirety of its wall along
Nevins Street, in order to incorporate
both into the design of the headhouse
required as part of the canal’s scrub,
the man in charge of the job said.
“So dismantling carefully, basically
brick-by-brick, the two walls,
and then rebuilding them with all the
historic elements between the pediment
and everything else that’s in
there and incorporate them in the new
headhouse that will go in place,” Environmental
Protection Agency Project
Manager Christos Tsiamis said at a
Feb. 26 meeting with local watchdogs
in the Gowanus Community Advisory
Group — the organization’s fi rst gathering
since the longest government
shutdown in American history, which
left the federally contracted group rudderless
for weeks .
The restoration agreement the Feds
and leaders of the state’s Offi ce of Historic
Preservation reached still must
be signed off on by federal offi cials
with the Advisory Council on Historic
Preservation, but Tsiamis told the
Gowanusaurs the scheme is in its last
stages, and that his environmentalagency
bosses have the fi nal say.
But one preservationist — who
with other locals last year unsuccessfully
pushed the city to landmark the
1913-built Station to spare it from the
wrecking ball — claimed the language
in the new agreement is too vague, and
gives the city too much leeway when it
comes to what workers may salvage.
“There’s a bunch of weasel language
that says, ‘And to the extent practical,
preserve the materials.’ If you give an
inch, as we have learned, a mile will be
taken, and there’s a chance that nothing
will be preserved,” said Brad Vogel,
a member of preservationist group
the Gowanus Landmarking Coalition.
And the agreement also falsely described
the building’s demolition as
unavoidable, according to Vogel, who
previously argued that the headhouse,
and an adjacent open-air public space
planned to rise on land the city last
year approved the use of eminent domain
to seize, could be built without
destroying the Station.
STILL STANDING: The entirety of the Gowanus
Station’s Nevins Street facade, and part
of the building’s wall along Butler Street, will
be painstakingly restored after city workers
demolish the rest of the building to make
way for a water-fi ltration facility on the site.
“I think there’s things in here in this
draft that are quite concerning, such as,
‘There appear to be no prudent and feasible
alternatives to demolition.’ I just
don’t think that’s accurate,” he said.
“This is broad blanket language that I
don’t think is accurate or justifi ed.”
The headhouse and public space
will sit on Nevins and Butler street lots,
on top of infrastructure buried below
ground to collect storm-water run-off
when the canal fl oods during heavy
rains.
For years, plans for that infrastructure
called for two massive tanks — one
of which would sit beneath the headhouse,
and the other below ground on
city-owned land near Second Avenue
and the Fourth Street Turning Basin.
But the city recently proposed building
a giant subterranean tunnel instead of
the cisterns, prompting Community
Advisory Group members to fi re off a
letter demanding the Gowanus Station
be preserved in full if offi cials swap
tube for tanks — a plan the Feds have
yet to approve, according to Tsiamis.
Another local, however, applauded
the agreement’s terms to save the two
Station walls, given the fact that offi -
cials did not need to preserve any of the
building because it is not landmarked.
“I’m delighted that, if I’m understanding
it correctly, the whole Nevins
Street facade, all two stories plus
pediment will be reconstructed,” said
Peter Reich.
It is not yet clear how designers
with the Department of Environmental
Protection will incorporate the
salvaged walls into the headhouse design,
according to Tsiamis, who noted
his agency is not involved in that process,
but encouraged locals to share
ideas with the city offi cials that are.
File photo by Jason Speakman