From Atlantic Yards to Pacific Park

NEW YORK CITY—As one of the first publicly announced moves under the new partnership between Forest City Ratner Cos. and Greenland USA, the mega-project known for nearly a decade as Atlantic Yards has been renamed Pacific Park Brooklyn. CookFox Architects has been tapped to design the next two multifamily towers at the mixed-use development in Downtown Brooklyn. It will also include an eight-acre open space to be designed by Thomas Balsley Associates and to be known as Pacific Park, after Pacific Street, which runs through the center of the project.

“While we just closed with our partner Greenland USA, we have been working collaboratively for many months in anticipation of breaking ground on three new buildings over the next year,” says MaryAnne Gilmartin, CEO of FCRC and co-head of Greenland Forest City Partners with Greenland USA CEO I-Fei Chang. “We understand greatly the need to bring housing to market quickly, especially affordable housing, and are very excited by the preliminary designs generated by our new partner, CookFox and Thomas Balsley Associates.”

In common with SHoP Architects' work on the Barclays Center arena as well as a pair of adjacent apartment properties, CookFox “appreciates the need to contextualize these buildings to create a great sense of place while also complementing the neighborhoods that they will join,” Gilmartin adds. “We were looking for Brooklyn sensibility that could combine park space, interesting materials, scale and an appreciation of nature within an urban environment. The early design work does that wonderfully.”

CookFox has already begun design work on 535 Carlton Ave., which will have approximately 300 units at Carlton Avenue and Dean Street. It will be a 100% affordable rental for low-, moderate- and middle-income New Yorkers. 550 Vanderbilt Ave. will contain approximately 275 units at Vanderbilt Avenue and Dean Street and will be a condominium building. Greenland Forest City expects to begin construction on 535 Carlton this December, with 550 Vanderbilt beginning soon thereafter.