The band Barenaked Ladies famously speculated on what a million dollars could buy: a little tiny fridge filled with pre-wrapped sausages, K-cars, a woman’s eternal, undying love, or fancy ketchups. Well, this isn’t the nineties anymore, and, as community leaders in Brooklyn are learning, seven figures will not be nearly enough to renovate and preserve the Brooklyn War Memorial.
New York’s WXY, lead consultants on the 2014’s Brooklyn Strand and 2013’s Brooklyn Tech Triangle master plan, led the design team and facilitated community visioning sessions for the memorial.
The memorial renovation is a component of the “Brooklyn Strand,” a project to unify the patchwork of parks, plazas, and green spaces between Brooklyn Bridge Park and Borough Hall. This month, the Mayor’s Office released The Brooklyn War Memorial Feasibility Study to delineate proposed changes to the area.
Spearheaded by the Cadman Park Conservancy, the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, and the Borough President Eric Adams, community leaders are looking to raise $11.8 million by 2019 for the renovation. Adams has allocated $1 million to the project, but other politicians, businesses, and foundations will need to come forward with the difference.
Though the memorial, in Cadman Plaza Park, sits near eight subway lines, is proximate to a year-round farmer’s market, and is often surrounded by lunching office workers, its prime location has not helped with fundraising. So far, the conservancy has received a paltry $4,060 through a May crowdfunding campaign.
WXY facilitated workshops with residents and community groups to generate ideas for the memorial and surrounding park space. Designed by New York’s Eggers and Higgins and dedicated in 1951, the memorial honors the 300,000 Brooklynites who served in World War II. Due to lack of maintenance funds, the site has been closed to the public for the past quarter century.
Currently, the memorial building contains offices and storage on the lower level, while the primary attraction, a Wall of Honor that displays the names of more than 11,500 borough residents killed in battle, occupies the main floor. The renovation of the 33,660-square-foot space would add a visitor’s center, exhibition hall, and cafe to the lower level, and a rooftop terrace that can be rented out for events. Gentle slopes will flank the entrance, inviting Strand strollers to linger around the memorial. An ADA compliant entrance ramp at the main level and elevator are planned, as well.
