Look: LA Design Firm Envisions Glitzy Future of Red Hook and Sunset Park

RED HOOK, BROOKLYN — A new study released by Los Angeles-based planning and design firm AECOM argues that opening Red Hook and Sunset Park to massive private development could help fund transit improvements, new affordable housing, storm-resiliency infrastructure, additional green space and a ton of local jobs.

The plan's detractors, though, call it a self-interested marketing ploy in disguise.

The proposal, unveiled earlier this week at New York University (and embedded in full below), was drawn up by AECOM, already a major player in New York City real estate.

AECOM purchased Tishman, the major NYC developer, for $245 million in 2010. The company was recently selected by the city to design a flood protection system for Lower Manhattan. It also owns the Hunt Construction Group, which built the Barclays Center.

This latest study, on the other hand, was not sanctioned by the city, and is an independent project of AECOM. Chris Ward, a higher-up at the company, told Patch that the proposal aims only to present a series of development scenarios city planners could consider as they envision the future of Red Hook and the Sunset Park waterfront (an area AECOM has designated "Southwest Brooklyn").

Rendering: An imagined Atlantic Basin subway stop along an imagined 9 Train

Residents in both neighborhoods are facing significant challenges, the AECOM study argues.

"Sunset Park residents are underserved in terms of waterfront access and open space," the study says, "and would greatly benefit from a robust local industrial sector that prioritizes head of household jobs that do not require a college degree."

And "Red Hook residents," the study says, "are isolated in terms of access to public transportation, jobs, neighborhood services, cultural amenities and waterfront access."

That demand will only increase as the city's population grows, AECOM analysts write.

"The development can be ad-hoc and developer-driven," the study concludes, or "it can be done with collaborative, holistic neighborhood planning to support new mixed-income housing creation with supporting infrastructure and services."

Rendering: A new walkway would connect the low-income Red Hook Houses to the waterfront

AECOM's analysts said they chose to examine Red Hook specifically because of its unique status as "the New York City neighborhood that can accommodate the most new density without displacing the existing community."

The more the area is built up, the study says, the more residents will get in return. For example, AECOM estimates that 45 million square feet of development would support 157,000 new jobs, 11,250 affordable housing units, 4.5 miles of coastal protection, 5.7 miles of streetscape improvements and 100 acres of new parks and public space.

Rendering: The imagined "Fields at Columbia Piers"

On Tuesday, Village Voice reporter Lauren Evans, formerly of Gothamist, blasted the plan. She wrote that AECOM's vision caters solely to "developers thirsting to raze the 'underutilized' waterfront and turn it into the glass-walled broscape of their dreams."

Members of Community Board 6, who represent Red Hook, declined to comment to Patch on AECOM's study, seeing as the company hasn't officially presented its ideas to the board.

Councilman Carlos Menchaca, however — whose district includes Red Hook, South Slope and Sunset Park — laid into the presentation, calling it a "dead-end sales pitch."

"Greenwashing a development fantasy with elaborate graphics and splashing words like 'resilience' and 'equity' isn’t good enough," Menchaca said in a statement sent to Patch. "The false premise here is that Williamsburg-style market rate condos on the waterfront are how to build sustainable communities in Red Hook and Sunset Park."

"I’m not surprised a giant global conglomerate would seek to co-opt and reframe Brooklyn neighborhood planning for their self-interest," the councilman said. "AECOM hasn’t bothered to engage Brooklyn residents and local planning experts. Their slick, expensive proposal, pretending to foster dialog asks, 'What kind of city do you want to live in?'"

"Well, AECOM," Menchaca said, "I choose to live in one where local communities determine their own future."

Rendering: The proposed 9 subway line

David Estrada, Menchaca's chief of staff, noted in a followup interview that community members and city officials are already planning Red Hook's response to challenges like storm resiliency — efforts he said AECOM ignored.

"A giant mega-developer [came] up with a working document that is written from the assumption that the solutions are either a vast amount of development or an even [greater] amount of development," Estrada said. He called the new proposal "nothing less" than a pitch for lucrative future contracts.

AECOM's plan calls for the creation of a new subway line — the 9 line — linking Manhattan's South Ferry subway station to the Columbia Waterfront area and Red Hook.

The plan assumes the city will go through with building the Brooklyn Queens Connector, a new streetcar system that would run between Brooklyn and Queens.

Ward said the streetcar could be constructed in a way that addresses multiple challenges at once — a "two-for-one" approach, he called it. For example, Ward said, elevating the streetcar track could allow for trains to transport residents while also providing flood protection.

AECOM's plan also clearly favors the preservation of industrial jobs in and around Sunset Park and Red Hook. It says:

"The residents of Southwest Brooklyn need improved access to the right kind of jobs. This means jobs similar to the shipping industry jobs that built this part of Brooklyn: industrial jobs that are often union, do not require a college degree but can support a family and provide the opportunity for advancement. The industrial area of Sunset Park has an active industrial base and the potential to add 40,000 new jobs within the next 20 years. This needs to be protected and nurtured to provide opportunity for neighboring immigrant and/or Person of Color communities such as Red Hook and the residential portion of Sunset Park."

Ward said that while AECOM's new report merely presents a framework to inform future development, the problems it seeks to address — gentrification, a lack of job access, transportation deserts, climate-related flooding and large-scale population growth — are already present in Red Hook and Sunset Park.

"These questions are upon us," he said. The question now, he continued, is how the city will respond.

Pictured at top: a rendering of a possible future Red Hook. Images courtesy of AECOM