Here's Coney Island v 2.1
Monday, November 13, 2006, by Robert
Here to make the start of the new work week interesting is Coney Island v 2.1, the successor to last fall's "glam rock" v 1.0 remake plans and to this summer's released-by-mistake v 2.0 beta "easy listening" effort, this release falling somewhere between the two. (A couple of the renderings, like the one with the pumpkin-ass bikini, have already been seen, but not in their full sized glory.) Shopping mall developer Thor Equities is promoting a roller coaster that would run "in and out of the proposed buildings." The $1.5 billion project would also include "the first multi-story carousel ever built in the Northeast" and an indoor water park:
Light and water shows – with virtual whales and mermaids dancing 150 feet in the air through a cascading waterfall -- will greet visitors at Surf Avenue and Stillwell Walk...Surf Avenue itself will be transformed...to the area's main pedestrian thoroughfare, marked by larger than life iconic street furniture, such as a mermaid swimming in a martini glass and a tattooed elephant roaming the streets.
Oh, and the release also mentions, in passing, "hotels, retail, a limited amount of residential housing and a variety of culinary options." The plan would include up to
four highrises--two hotels, a time-share and a condo building of
up to 40 stories. No renderings of those babies are included. The design comes from
Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects. More drawings after the jump.
·
A $1.5 vision for Coney Island [Sun]
·
The Coney Island Vision We Couldn't Make Up [Curbed]
·
New Look Coney Island: Glam Rock or Easy Listening? [Curbed]
it's horrible, it looks like Universal City Walk! barf barf barf! They completely took away the grit and the old-school appeal that makes Coney interesting.
This is horrendous. Looks like an open air LA mall. Or that Universal City Walk thing in Orlando. Is there any way to stop this?
jack-o-lantern bikini bottoms... maybe it's not so bad!
Can't wait. Gonna be awesome.
Look, much as I love Old-School Brooklyn, Coney Island is a pit. Maybe this isn't the BEST way to go, a tumble-down amusement poark, bad food, and that god-foresaken "bazaar" across Surf Avenue are simply a mess.
Why does "old" New York always have to mean dangerous & disgusting?
EEK had conceptual designs on their site a while ago and removed them. The tallest was an elliptical tower with a few odd recesses in it, looked kind of cool.
That's just it.. "old New York is simply dangerous and disgusting". If you want a taste of old New York, why not move to downtown St. Louis or Detroit (rated no.1 and 2 most exciting and energetic cities by the F.B.I.).
Welcome to the 21st Century.
I like how Batman is just sort of hanging out in the last picture.
Actually, he kind of looks miffed at that Asian guy and his kid...
"Thor wants to spend $1.5 billion to restore the amusement district to its former glory, transforming it from a place to spend a summer afternoon into a year-round destination, and giving it the feel of Las Vegas, Orlando, or Atlantic City."
how wonderful.
As long as it doesn't feel like the shithole it's been for decades, anything will be an improvement. I wish Thor the best of luck.
I am always amazed by people like #1 (smitty) that want to go back to some magical past that no longer exists. The reality is that the real estate investment firm purchased the site and they want to make money and make sure that not only a bunch of old-time dreamers come to the site, but thousands if not millions of city residents and tourists. And most people expect to see 21st century level of attractions. The company wants to make sure that instead of driving to some other park in New Jersey or upstate NY, people would be willing to come to Coney Island. I think we should all hope that they build fast. Will certainly be better than now.
they can have all the parachute-sized mermaids they want, but until they find a way to get people out to coney island as fast as brooklynites claim to be able to travel to the outer reaches of the borough, nobody's coming
Don't elephants have enough problems without us tattooing them?
Atlantic City...yea that's something to aspire to.
#13 You are completely wrong. Don't you know history? Millions of people would go to Coney Island! Haven't you seen photo's? Didn't you ever hear of 'making a day' out of a day? Are you afraid of a little travel? Do you hang out in the same 4 block radius all the time?
I think they should do it. I hate to see how quickly the entire area is falling apart, and the present amusement park owners seem to be sitting on their collective butts letting the place go to rot. Amend and move on.
Have you guys BEEN to Orlando's CityWalk? Or the one in LA? They are HORRIBLE. It is nothing to aspire to.
I welcome when things get better, but right now it seems to me that things are just not as sincere as they used to be.
It looks all very Alexis Rockman pre-apocalyptic.
www.forgotten-ny.com
#18 (smitty): I cannot imagine that Orlando CityWalk is any worse than Coney Island in its current form (old, dirty and unattractive).
I bet people like you will never be happy no matter what is proposed to be built there.
#12 (LEO) I'm amazed that you think there's some kind of divine right to development; that's there's something intrinsically good about making money. Maybe that's how you justify your existance, but there's a way to preserve the amazing character of a place like Coney Island and bring it into the 21st Century. Making it like every other shitty development is not the way to bring people in. Making it unique and interesting and connected to it's past, is.
13: Yeah, as if schlepping by car for an hour or two to the Jersey Shore or the equivalent isn't a pain in the ass either.
If they build it, the people will come.
#22 I don't think there's a divine right of development. But they purchased the site that is in pretty bad condition. Coney Island has been in this conditions for dozens of years. Major after major could not do much to improve it. No plan will be universally accepted. I lived in Brooklyn near Coney Island for many years. And I think building a modern amuzement park with give an enormous boost to the area and to Brooklyn as a borough. Once again, people will go to Coney Island on weekends. It will become the place of excitement for the first time in many years.
I wonder if they could get Frank Gehry to design a new aquarium? His architecture always reminds me of aquaria.
smitty - have you BEEN to Coney Island recently? Really, CityWalk is an improvement.
Cait - I do like that miffed Batman is just hanging around, too!
This is for smitty who wants to go back to the glory days of Coney Island.
Cheer to the sound of 3 small Bud bottles griped by 3 fingers. (cling..cling..cling..cling).
Warriors... come out to play..yay!
Warriors... come out to play..yay!
Warriors... come out to play..yay!
Oh Coney Island and its glory days. Can you dig it?
I'm not sure how making any part of New York more like Orlando can be considered an improvement. The developers have a cultural obligation to honor the history of this place. OK, maybe not the more recent crime riddled history, but something that doesn't feel like culturally bereft mall/food court/chain store wasteland of the rest of the country. This is New York. We deserve better. We are better. Let people go to LA for this kind of soul destruction.
I'm all for some big shiny new construction at Cony Island- it' shistory is as a commercial playground, and I something bright and garish would be a homage to it's tradition. That said, I don't think the architects of Metrotech are the best ones to do it. My utopian vision of ConyIsland 2.0 would involve tons of amazing neon by brooklyn artists at Lite Bright Neon and the sideshow banners by Marie Roberts. And lots of those weird art installations that Creative Time commissioned for the area. Flashy? Yes! Generic glass strip-mall? No way!
i'm a coney resident, and it's fucked. we've lived through cycles. let it be glitzy and state-of-the-art (again), then let it crumble again. but anything's an improvement on the neighborhood now.
Leo (#24) says, "Once again, people will go to Coney Island on weekends. It will become the place of excitement for the first time in many years."
What Coney Island have you been going to (or not going to)? There are *thousands upon thousands* of people there on the weekends. In fact, I can't imagine that there could be any *more* people there, at the beach, on the boardwalk, in the parks.
Now if you're talking about white people with a lot of money to spend... No, maybe there are not as many as Thor would like. But that's another argument.
I'm a lifelong Coney Island resident! I'm all for the redevelopement of Coney island but...those renderings were gawdy and garish. Old Coney Island had a quaintness that I think should be incorporated in any future designs.
It's all good though...my equity has doubled in the last three years; keep it coming!!!
Hmmm, let's see, I wonder who's going to be patronizing the New and Improved Coney Island?? My guess is it will be the same low-life trash that's been going there for the past 20 years. "Save a Landmark and brighten the lives of illegal immigrants" - that's the American way.
P.S
Why should there be any White People? Last time I counted there 3 of us.
"This is New York. We deserve better. We are better."
You're so cute when you're smug.
once again developers come up with overthetop theme park trash.. just boring really. Its a characature without the omage to its history. I would like to also see more artists included. When will this pop trend end?
This is complete trash. Kudos to posters upthread (I'm looking at you #30) who pointed out that there ARE thousands and thousands of people populating Coney Island any summer day you choose. These developers want a Coney Island filled with white tourists willing to drop $4 for a bottle of water, not the ethnic, anything goes family spot it is now. This is just another shitty gentrification project designed to make Coney Island exclusive and too expensive for its current population. Bah.
New York City is urban chic. Capitalize on that. Show some glam, some sophistication, some edge. You can do much better than this.
Try to get the feel of Coney Island in your heart. Think about the tastes and scents and memories. Talk with the folks who grew up there, and were taken there as children. Feel the love. Go for the nostalgia--there's so little left. Maybe you can get to the place where the reality of Coney Island is transposed into the dream of Coney Island.
"Go for the nostalgia"? For nostalgia your audience is the people who experienced it the first time around. In this case (and I'm talking about the true "glory days" of Coney Island, not the still-functioning-but-what-a-craphole years of Coney Island in the late 60's and 70's) those people are mostly dead, or at least long gone from Brooklyn. They certainly aren't the target audience.
You want to know why Las Vegas looks the way it does? Because regardless of what anyone says about it, people like it that way. They like the cheap absurdity of it all dressed up in a thin facade of faux sophistication. It sells. See also Universal Studios etc. It's ugly and stupid, yeah, and we're only going to see more of it until people stop buying it. So far that day isn't even on the horizon.
anyway you look at it, this is a great invesment for the area and the firm. it is time for a change that would benifit for all....
I am looking forward to a clean and new Coney Island. I wil take my son there and feel safe and much more sanitary. Keep the plan going.
Brooklyn born Kirkula!
Sure, you think redeveloping it is great until your property taxes of rent sky rocket and you can't afford to live there, or some developer comes in and takes your neighborhood away to make luxury housing. What I like about Coney Island and have liked for the entire time I have lived in NYC is that it's YUPPIE-FREE on most days and I don't have to deal with the same douche bags who have infiltrated the LES. And I *wasn't* there the first time around, I'm only 30, but I find the plans to simply be par for the course of what's happening all over NYC, it's gonna be like the midwestern 'burbs everywhere eventually, just a LOT more expensive, so I think I'm just gonna MOVE back to the midwest and pay $350 for a 900 sq foot apartment instead of waiting for TGI Friday's to come to me.
Looks like the aftermath of a futuristic hot dog eating contest. (By this I mean the emesis that follows.)
It's what the boardwalk will look like after a good puking by a binger fed on a diet of "Downtown Disney".
George C. Tilyou is rolling over in his grave.
Looks like the aftermath of a futuristic hot dog eating contest. (By this I
mean the emesis that follows.)
It's what the boardwalk will look like after a good puking by a binger fed
on a diet of "Downtown Disney".
George C. Tilyou is rolling over in his grave.
It looks like Times Square at Coney Island.
On the one hand, the drawings do not look like anyplace I would want to visit. On the other hand, they do reflect a lot of Coney Island history.
The three amusement parks -- Steeplechase Park, Luna Park, and Dreamland -- that made Coney Island a legend were nothing if not glitzy. By some reports, their electric lights were so bright that Coney Island could be seen by ships at sea 20 miles away. The architecture was nothing if not garish, and the attractions sometimes bizarre -- a nursery for premature babies was once a big draw. The parks were bitterly competitive: Luna Park's big draw was a ride to the moon; a year later their competitors matched it.
Coney Island as a residential neighborhood reflects the destruction of the amusement parks. The first huge apartment buildings were built on the ruins of Luna Park. (The New York Aquarium replaced Dreamland and KeySpan Park stands on the site of Steeplechase Park.)
In other words, if we want Coney Island to return to its glory as an amusement area, we need to tolerate a large amount of glitz and flash, the modern version of what built the place a century ago. Will it attract the tacky and tasteless, perhaps even the illgal immigrant? Of course! This is what Coney Island is for.
I live in Coney Island, year after year its the same old things crappy amusements, crappy games, crappy people trying to make money from nothing. The cyclone was a good example 2 years ago it was $5 now $6. When all this cool "glitzy" things come to Coney Island how much do u think the cyclone will be? I'm happy for somethings to change but we all must remember what Coney Island was built on and thats the beach , in one of Thor's pics (not listed here) it shows some building on the boardwalk but one thing was missing and that was the beach, if someone can confirm the beach is going to be there it will be greatly appreciated , any ways i got alot of questions like If the beach is going to be there what if Thor buys that too at puts admission on it? and what if the park ends up like 6 flags where u pay admission and ten go check out the park, thats horrible u don't know what you are paying for. also lets not forget the Coney Island hero dick ziggen, who founded the performing arts in Coney Island, Thor put him on there board as a political move to win over the residents of Coney Island. Where is the sideshow and museum going to go when Thor develop Coney? Hey i'm for change but i don't want Coney getting screwed over
It's a new millenium and I think we should take risks. A lot of big amusement parks are growing with time, we shouldn't knock an idea until it plays out. It looks crazy but once it's done might be exciting. This may also give great new job opportunities for everyone.
These pictures make me dizzy - so much going on, all of it ugly and really, not at all fun-looking. Thor Equities wants to leach all of the FUN and CHARACTER out of Coney, just like developers are doing all over NYC. If I wanted malls I'd have stayed in the midwest instead of uprooting myself 25 years ago!
I come to Coney Island every summer, sit on the train for over an hour (each way) to take a walk on the beach, have a beer at Ruby's and chit chat with people who are so different than stuffy Manhattanites ... what I like most about Coney is that people there talk to you, you ain't just another paying customer. Yeah, I will dearly miss Ruby's but if this project creates many good paying jobs for Brooklyn residents, I am OK with it. in any case, it is over so fughetaboudit.
I do believe that coney island needs reconditioning but I don't believe that Thors way is the way to go. Why can't we reconstruct what is already there. This place has been a part of many lives and families for 40 plus years. It just needs a face lift, not a money hugry overhual. Thors plans would take away the coney Island that has been known for years of past and present. Rebuild and restore. You will never change the area or enviromantal aspects, only the lot you paid for. Rethinking should be priority.
How can you say what Thor Equities is doing is right! They're a bunch of idiots! Look at that ! THAT IS NOT CONEY ISLAND!
Full content feed
