Sidewalk Bridging Being Installed at Empire Stores Warehouse

January 8th, 2008

As reported in December, the Empire Stores buildings in the Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park have structural issues with deteriorating brick window frames. The NY State Office of State Parks have started to install sidewalk bridging to protect pedestrians from possible falling brick. Other identified structural weaknesses at the building include a large crack that has developed in the northwest corner of the building and the deteriorating brick window arches.

(Photos courtesy of epc)

Previously: {Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park Temporarily Closed, 21Dec2007}
{Treatment Arrives for Dumbo Crack Problem, Curbed, 07Jan2008}

Filed in Brooklyn Bridge Park, Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park at 5:33 am
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  • low bmi
    They'll knock down the stable building and put up a tower when the Galapagos lease is up.
    That Stable is ancient...Not lamdmarked? (the building that is)
  • I don't want to get into another LPC war, but I just noticed that the final DUMBO HD map excludes the stables building (where Galapagos is going in). It's also excluded from the Fulton Ferry HD. Oversight or intentional?
  • Too bad that lot was also left out of the historic district. A developer would get all the buzz of being in DUMBO (because who's going to be able to tell the difference between DUMBO and the DUMBO HD?), yet none of the restrictions of developing in an historic district.

    Since Empire Stores is within the Fulton HD I assume that in the event the state does let them fall apart any replacement would have to be consistent with the existing design, otherwise the HD designation is pretty useless.
  • ancient
    Guess what bmi and anon- the "park" IS building a condo tower (at least 16 stories) on DUMBO's waterfront. At the end of Pearl Street there is an empty lot that is owned by Con Edison. The DNA worked for two years to get Con Ed to donate the land to the Brooklyn Bridge Park. Con Ed agreed, then the park planners decided to hand it over to developers to raise money for the park. Sucks, but its true.
  • bumbo
    Bye bye Chicken Little. Don't let the sky smack you on your ass on the way out.
  • chicken little
    Between the crack heads, the crack whores, the cracks in the wall... I'm gettin' out while the gettin's good. Thank God I only rent.
  • In looking through shots I took over the Summer of 2007 you can see the crack leading along the eastern edge of the windows but it seems much narrower. I've posted a head-on shot here, I don’t have an earlier head-on shot.
  • anon
    please, no Shaefer Landing or Northside piers in Dumbo. If it hasn't happened already, a condo tower there will turn Dumbo into another sterile, Disney World-esque neighborhood with chain stores and an Au Bon Pain bakery that will push out Almondine. What can we do to make sure the State actually repairs the building so it can be repurposed into something useful?
  • Smokey
    did someone say crack?
  • low bmi
    Developer Watch - I can see the developers lining up now on the sidelines saying "Please fall, please fall" in hopes of developing the site the way they really want to.
    Schaefer Landing...Northside Piers...and now Dumbo Towers at the Cove? A residential/retail complex providing funding for the park? Oh... they would be real nice and leave a couple walls intact for historical preservation.

    We better pray that the state does the necessary repairs ASAP. Those buildings should not have been left to fall into disrepair. The building that houses the bakery on Water Street was a structural disaster before it was fully restored by 2 Trees and Bob Villa & Co. It was in much worse shape than the Coffee Warehouses.

    If the State is just going to errect scaffolding and walk away, you can just guess where this is going. Those cracks DID NOT just appear over night.

    Please add comments on this topic.
  • dumbostreets
    I hate those ugly things. They stick them up all over the city and leave them for years and years. Why can't they, at least, install something that doesn't look so awful if it is going to be up for any period of time ??
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