Unstable Ground

Inside the Van Alen Institute’s Brooklyn storefront, the tenor of a community conversation belied the celebrations outside. As part of the institute’s annual block party, members of Gowanus Neighborhood Coalition for Justice (GNCJ) and an interested mix of public housing residents and built environment professionals had gathered to discuss the consequences of a rezoning plan approved by the City Council in 2021, which swiftly led to a glut of luxury housing development in the area. “The weight of these buildings is on unstable ground,” cautioned one participant. It was a reminder few in attendance needed: the previous day’s historic deluge hit Gowanus especially hard, where entire streets disappeared underwater; indeed, the skies cleared just minutes before the event’s start. Artists Juanli Carrión and Rodolfo Kusulas’s installation With Your Voice appeared to have been hurriedly installed along a blocked-off stretch of Bond Street. Resembling both megaphones and cartoon ninja turtles, the objects purport to amplify the voices of locals who would prefer an alternative future than the pricey high-rises topping out across the neighborhood. But the inclusion of QR code-summoned “gowanimals”—accessible at the artwork’s several sites—landed like an inharmonious improvisation. Back inside, GNCJ member and recent David Prize recipient Karen Blondel provided insight pointed to planning professionals at the urging of moderator Lynn Neuman. “We can’t offload our environmental justice problems,” Blondel noted of a plan included in the rezoning that would send ten times the area’s current sewer overflow to Red Hook. “It’s another part of redlining if you ask me.” Left unstated was Van Alen’s own somewhat awkward position in all this; the non-profit organization (it was formerly the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects) is among Gowanus’s more recent transplants, after selling its West 22nd Street building in 2018. Should the institute prove instrumental in putting the community’s health before the unsustainable growth in its proximity, then Gowanus residents will have reason to party for years to come.