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Thor’s Coney Island: New Surf Ave Building Encased in Plywood

Posted in Real Estate, Redevelopment, Uncategorized, tagged Bruce Handy, Coney Island, New Construction, Thor Equities, urban blight on February 27, 2012| 6 Comments »

Even though ATZ has been covering the boarding up of Thor Equities new (and first-ever) building in Coney Island, we were shocked by these photos. Is this a glimpse into the future of what we can expect on Joe Sitt’s property in Coney Island? Yes, the building is ugly and out of place, but the plywood just makes a bad situation worse. The blight doubled overnight.

Last time we looked, plywood covered only the Surf Avenue side, but now the entire structure has been boarded up. “Looks like they built a box then flew it in attached to helicopters,” writes photographer Bruce Handy, who shot the photos on Sunday.

What does it look like to you? Hey, let’s have a comment contest! Last time we posted photos of the building, one astute reader wrote, “Sterile is too kind of a description. Thor’s soulless construction is the true definition of urban blight.”

The plywood-encased, suburban mall-like structure is on the southeast corner of Surf and Stillwell, the gateway to Coney’s Beach and Boardwalk as well as Scream Zone’s roller coasters and thrill rides. It’s the first sight visitors see in Coney Island as they exit Stillwell Terminal. The Henderson Music Hall stood on this corner for more than a century until Sitt had it demolished along with two other buildings in 2010, putting an end to Save Coney Island’s efforts to create an historic district.

Botched Job: Coney Island Art Exiled by Thor Equities

Posted in art, Photography, tagged Bruce Handy, Coney Island, Ephamaron, mural, NO Longer Empty, OverUnder, street art, Thor Equities, Veng on February 5, 2012| 3 Comments »

No Longer Empty's Artwork Reposted at Shore Parkway. February 4, 2012. Photo © Bruce Handy/Coney Island Photo Diary via flickr

Last week, ATZ reported that the construction fencing at Thor Equities’ Surf and Stillwell lot in Coney Island had come down to reveal a sterile-looking, one-story building. What happened to the blue boards, which were emblazoned with murals by No Longer Empty artists as part of a project sponsored by the City’s Economic Development Corporation? Coney’s eagle-eyed Captain Nemo spotted some in a botched reassembly at another Thor construction site in Brooklyn and posted on the Coney Island Message Board:

The artists who tried to remove the blight that Sitt placed upon Coney Island turning his ugly blue construction fences into canvases of art, can visit their artwork by visiting his close by Bay Parkway project. He sent in the bulldozers to clear that land, and took along his Coney Island blue plywood construction fencing to his latest blight project. The artists work is mismatched and looks like impressionist artwork of the worst order.

This slide show by photographer Bruce Handy shows jumbled sections of the Coney Island murals incorporated into construction fencing at 1752 Shore Parkway in Bensonhurst. The site is Thor Equities’ $150 million Bay Center project, where BJ’s Wholesale Club is expected to be the anchor tenant.

Nobody expects the guys who put up and take down Thor’s construction fences to be art handlers, but couldn’t they at least match up the panels? After all the work that went into the murals, it would have been nice if somebody in charge at Thor Equities–Hey, Joey!– had thought of reusing them to beautify another site.

Thor CEO Joe Sitt, whose self-proclaimed nickname is “Joey Coney Island,” likes to tell reporters “I view Coney Island as a national and international treasure.” If that’s true, why not move the murals, which were created for Coney Island, to one of his other lots in Coney? There’s an unsightly empty lot at Surf and West 12th, where the Bank of Coney Island and concession booths were demolished in 2010 to make way for nothing.

No Longer Empty Mural Project, Coney Island, April 2011. Featured Artists: Ephameron, ND’A, OverUnder, Radical & Veng. Photo © Keith Schweitzer

Last April, the City’s Economic Development Corporation brought in No Longer Empty, a non-profit that curates site specific art exhibitions, to dress up the fences which greeted visitors when they first exited Stillwell Terminal. The above photo shows the finished mural on Thor’s fences surrounding the then empty lot at Surf and Stillwell.

Keith Schweitzer, who founded and curates NLE’s mural project, made this wonderfully edgy video of three street artists’ 48-hour transformation of Thor’s construction fence at Surf and Stillwell. As he explains in his blog: “Beginning with the main entrances to the park and working our way inward, six artists covered more than 4,000 square feet of exterior surfaces with artwork referencing Coney Island‘s legendary iconography and the surrounding beachfront boardwalk’s imagery.” Veng, OverUnder and Ephameron, who are seen painting the boards in the vid, are among the artists whose work has turned up in a jumble on Shore Parkway.

UPDATE February 7, 2012:

As mentioned by one of the commenters on this post, the murals on the Bowery side were also taken down and a few of the mismatched panels were put up to cover the windowless wall of Thor’s new building.

Parks Postpones Do-Or-Die Hearing on Coney Concretewalk

Posted in News, Photography, tagged Boardwalk, Bruce Handy, Coney Island, Coney-Brighton Boardwalk Alliance, design, environment, Friends of the Boardwalk, Parks Department on January 24, 2012| 2 Comments »

The Parks Department has postponed to February 21 a hearing to win approval for its controversial plan to pave all but four blocks of the Coney Island Boardwalk with concrete and plastic wood. On Monday night, Coney-Brighton Boardwalk Alliance’s Rob Burstein told ATZ: “I just received an e-mail from the Parks Department’s liaison to the Design Commission informing me that they have postponed the date that they intend to present their proposal to the Design Commission. They will not present on January 30th, as we were originally told, but have tentatively rescheduled for February 21st.”

Since Parks initiated the January 30 date to make their presentation, it appears that they are not yet ready to prove their case for concrete before the Public Design Commission. At the October hearing, PDC commissioners were skeptical of the need to use concrete and said that more environmental and engineering studies were needed to address the questions that they had.

Photos from Friends of the Boardwalk's website show the results of prior projects where the NYC Parks Department used concrete. Photos © Mary Ann De Luca via FOBConeyIsland.com

“Please SAVE THE DATE, so that if it is confirmed we can all once again be sure to be there,” says Burstein of February 21. Public testimony is limited to three minutes per person. For more info, check out our previous post “Jan 30: NYC Design Commission to Meet (Again) on Coney Island Concretewalk,” (ATZ, January 20, 2012).

On Saturday, January 28th at 3pm, Burstein’s group and Friends of the Boardwalk are having an informational meeting at Brighton Beach Library. Email Rob Burstein at robburstein[AT]Hotmail[dot]com for details.

Meanwhile, an online petition to “Keep the Boards in the Coney Island Boardwalk–No Concrete” launched this month has eight-hundred-and something signatures and a goal of 5,000. If you didn’t sign yet, don’t complain when your feet ache from walking/jogging on the Concretewalk. Of course, if the Boardwalk does get paved, images like photographer Bruce Handy’s exquisite “Boardwalk Slats in the Snow” and “Sand on the Boardwalk” will be a rare sight.

UPDATE…March 24, 2012.
At the Public Design Commission’s charade of a public hearing about the reconstruction of the Coney Island Boardwalk. A ten-foot-wide Concrete Lane for so-called “emergency vehicles” and an adjoining Plasticwalk were unanimously approved by the Commissioners for a pilot project in Brighton Beach. “The Coney Island-Brighton Beach Concretewalk Blues,” ATZ, March 22, 2012