Jane’s Carousel Prepping for Opening on September 18
September 1st, 2011
Jane’s Carousel is being installed in Brooklyn Bridge Park in the Jean Nouvel designed Pavilion, and will open to the public September 16, 2011.
Here’s a few photos taken yesterday:
According to the poster under the Brooklyn Bridge, the carousel will be open 11am-7pm (closed Tuesdays), and will be $2 per ride.
Flickr user funkymonk2000 also posted a few nice photos close up:
September 1st, 2011 at 10:21 am
I was walking on Plymouth, post-Irene, when I saw the “pavilion.” No exaggeration: I asked myself, ‘What is that?,’ and the first answer that came to mind was, ‘oh, it’s some gawd-awful BWAC installation.’
September 1st, 2011 at 10:31 am
I hope it has AC. That unshaded, glass encasement looks like it may contain the most un-fun summertime activity. For only $2!
September 1st, 2011 at 10:46 am
When they first released the plan a few years ago I thought, wow that looks horrible. Now that it has been fully realized I’m thinking, wow that looks f_cking horrible.
September 1st, 2011 at 12:21 pm
I think it looks pretty awesome. Can’t wait to take my kid on it. Going to be a major attraction.
September 1st, 2011 at 3:14 pm
I can’t imagine a structure that would look more out of place than that thing. HEINOUS! Amzing that we have all these landmark laws in this city and then they are allow plunk that stupid thing down right in frount of a civil war era building.
September 1st, 2011 at 3:33 pm
Jane’s Carbuncle.
September 1st, 2011 at 3:34 pm
They paved paradise, put up a carousel.
September 1st, 2011 at 5:14 pm
drweb – This is how they did it…Sincethis area is out of the DUMBO Historic District the LPC has no say. Usually, the Public Design Commission has to approve all art/architecture on parkland, but since this was completely privately funded, this wasn’t under their jurisdiction, either. Basically, the Walentases and BBP we able to plunk this down with zero public review. Enjoy!
September 1st, 2011 at 5:43 pm
Wasn’t this federal land once? I hope they got a permit from the Dept of the Interior to put a paid amusement ride on park land. Otherwise they will just be tearing it down two years from now after someone sues their tookus for making a music box the symbol of Brooklyn.
September 1st, 2011 at 9:27 pm
it’s horrible. But not half as horrible as Dock Street is going to be.
Nice legacy.
September 1st, 2011 at 10:16 pm
NYT is publishing a story on Jane’s Carousel tomorrow: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/02/arts/design/janes-carousel-at-brooklyn-bridge-park.html?_r=1
In it they discuss the design and architecture of the structure.
September 1st, 2011 at 10:22 pm
apparently i’m the only home owner who in dumbo who loves it? so many nyc denizens are mortified of change. this thing is beautiful!
September 1st, 2011 at 10:31 pm
I’m also a Dumbo condo owner and I am looking forward to the Fulton Ferry State Park reopening. The carousel will bring more people to the park, but it’s not like a hip hop concert or anything that will tear up the lawn.
September 1st, 2011 at 11:19 pm
Im going to reserve judgement for the carousel structure until I can see it up close but it certainly doesn’t seem to be a glass cube up to Steve Jobs’ standards.
September 2nd, 2011 at 2:47 am
Hideous! As tasteless as the Walentases, just like the interiors of their condo buildings.
September 2nd, 2011 at 2:51 am
Utter disrespect for the neighborhood, all they did in the NY Times article was to name drop Jean Nouvel! Everything is so tasteless. And that lady Walentas looked eerily similar to the horse.
September 2nd, 2011 at 9:18 am
Did you also notice that the photograph in the Times is taken from a very lofty angle (one would assume from the window of the Walentas’ apartment, where she was being interviewed) and not from the POV of a park visitor? A very different perspective indeed. It almost looks palatable from that height.
Let them eat cake!
September 2nd, 2011 at 4:45 pm
i helped bring a pony over from 55 washington this morning. the whole thing is pretty amazing! My one complaint about the new park, aside from the reduction in trees, is the decision to use asphalt paths instead of gravel like the pier 1 park.
September 2nd, 2011 at 7:25 pm
what a joke. shoulda sent it to binghamton
September 2nd, 2011 at 7:49 pm
What an eyesore. Pure vanity. Poor us.
September 2nd, 2011 at 7:54 pm
That ugly box comes and St Ann’s Warehouse goes? Shame on BBP and the neighborhood associations like FFLA for letting both these atrocities happen.
September 2nd, 2011 at 10:27 pm
How many acres of park land and this is where they put it? It couldn’t be anywhere else? This was a beautiful, quiet, majestic piece of park.
And we lost that incredible weeping willow and the uninterrupted view of the bridge and the skyline. Makes me sad.
September 2nd, 2011 at 11:14 pm
@Chong FFLA and DNA fought very hard for years to keep the Carousel away from the cove, individually and as members of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Community Council, where we enlisted the support of other nearby community groups. Other sites were suggested, such as the end of New Dock Street. The Defense Fund group (way too late in the game) wondered why the Carousel was not placed on Pier 6. The simple truth is that Jane needed to see HER carousel from HER window, and Two Trees donated $3.5 million to the Park for new landscaping, drainage and lighting in Fulton Ferry Park. Money talks, especially when Regina is listening.
September 8th, 2011 at 3:09 pm
i am absolutely blown away by this monstrosity. i am actually a fan of the architect– what happened jean? it’s hard to believe this wasn’t perpetrated by one of “the donalds” design minion– tasteless in every way– placement is its biggest sin– just inches from one of the most iconic structures of all time. what a shame. we are truly devolving.
September 9th, 2011 at 10:14 am
The park is starved for money so it’s the $3.5 million donation that let Walentas have his way with this public land to build a monument to his ego. Just like the $1M in lobbyist fees and “campaign donations” to the city council bought him the air rights to build Dock St. against the Brooklyn Bridge.
The selling price of these public resources is so dirt cheap (from a wealthy developers perspective), I’m surprised the rest of the unscrupulous developers aren’t yet doing the same with other public areas.
September 9th, 2011 at 4:27 pm
Again and again we learn that money does not equal taste or refinement or good judgement. Usually, quite the opposite.
Thank god there wasn’t enough room for a roller coaster.
September 12th, 2011 at 8:22 am
again and again we learn that new yorkers are so terrified of any change to their neighborhood, complaining with the highest levels of hyperbole.
September 12th, 2011 at 11:04 am
I’m with Josh
September 15th, 2011 at 5:12 pm
Josh, Mike, with all due respect: there are 28 comments on this thread and 24 or so are negative. Are these all from “terrified New Yorkers”? Or is it possible that the majority opinion here is that this is an unwelcome addition to the park? I welcome change to the neighborhood (restored belgian blocks, trees being planted, the development of the park) but I can’t stand to look at this carousel. Does that make me “terrified”?
September 15th, 2011 at 7:57 pm
Can’t speak for Josh but I was agreeing more with the “complaining” component of his statement. You and the other 23 commenters sound like a bunch of whiners. Terrified, no.
September 15th, 2011 at 8:53 pm
I think it’s grossly out of character with the waterfront. I think it will prove to be a costly feature of BBP. And I think it will prove to be a mistake to have installed it directly on the waterfront.
Mike and Josh sound like typical trolls from the suburbs who plan to drive in to take their kids to the carousel and wil whine about the lack of parking in DUMBO.
September 15th, 2011 at 11:44 pm
I think it’s absolutely wonderful. What a generous and beautiful gift to us all.
September 16th, 2011 at 10:39 am
i own an apartment in dumbo. epc is a typical nyc whiner.
September 16th, 2011 at 12:08 pm
Jenn, you misspelled your name.
September 18th, 2011 at 1:06 pm
epc, I live and work in dumbo, I park on the street and celebrate that I never have to cruise for a space for more than five minutes… and, now that I’ve been down to the carousel.. may be changing my mind. Its big. Its really big and somehow doesn’t work too well with its placement. I can’t put my finger on it. Maybe its the angles, maybe its size makes the park seem smaller… dunno. Still think this thing was a nice gift for the neighborhood and not some expression of vanity, but it is out of context for that spot.
September 23rd, 2011 at 10:19 pm
I took a “Lady Liberty”cruise last night. We went past the carousel in glass,I think it is beautiful.So did most of the people on the cruise
.We are going to go there sometime in Oct.I can’t wait to see it up close.
September 27th, 2011 at 4:05 pm
You took a “Lady Liberty Cruise”. ‘Nuff said.
October 5th, 2011 at 12:00 am
I bought 12 tickets and my wife and I rode the carousel with our three-year old. Marvelous experience, we all loved it, and look forward to many more rides.
October 8th, 2011 at 10:01 am
As a condo-dwelling Dumbo yuppie, I love that carousel. Its looks great and is good for my property values. Eff all you haters.
October 8th, 2011 at 9:28 pm
I was hoping it would grow on me but it looks worse every day. I look the other way now when I walk my dog in the park every morning. It’s garish and wrong and will age badly- it doesn’t belong where it is.
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