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Daily News from New York, New York • 74

Publication:
Daily Newsi
Location:
New York, New York
Issue Date:
Page:
74
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

By ERIC V. COP AGE rT -i 5 i Although the traffic above and below has changed, Brooklyn Bridge- remains most recognizable bridge in the world. The Brooklyn Bridge will shine during its coming centennial celebration, thanks in part to a $97,000 design contract for new architectural lighting on it that was approved last week by the city's Board of Estimate. The contract to execute the final design for the eventual work on the bridge's archtectual lighting was awarded to Frazer Dougherty, a Manhattan management firm. The plans are scheduled to be completed in a month and the work is scheduled to be completed by next May when centennial festivities will begin.

"Right now the lighting on the bridge is limited and the lighting system, the switch boxes and the wiring, need to be replaced," said Harvey Schultz, executive assistant to the borough president "The idea is to bring the bridge's lighting system up to modern standards." ASIDE FROM THE bright lights, the Brooklyn Bridge Centennial will be celebrated by nearly six months of festivities, performances and commemoration beginning in March with the unveiling of a U.S. stamp of the Brooklyn Bridge. "Educational material for public, private and parochial schools will be made available (by the 1983 Brooklyn Bridge Cenntenial Commission) and should be distributed befoce the big day in May," said Lenore Xooney, spokesman for Centenial Celebration. Although details of the celebration are tentative, Cooney said that the following have been confirmed: A parade over the bridge on Centennial Day, May 24, 1983. Fireworks on "The Big Day" replicating the fire showers presented upon the bridge's completion 100 years ago.

Geysers shooting from fireboats in a salute reminiscent of the U.S. Bicentennial nautical display. Fire-, boats, private vessals, military boats and other harbor craft will participate. A light and sound show visible from Fulton Ferry on the Brooklyn WBwaBi found slain near side and Peck's Slip on the Manhattan side will be shown on the bridge, (although Cooney didn't say how the film will be seen). The light show will be accompanied by a music score composed especially for the occasion and narration about the bridge's history.

A wide range of music classical, light classical, popular, folk, marching band that was popular when the bridge was being constructed, will be presented during a special music series to be held throughout the borough. And finally a series of sports competitions for youth called the "Centennial put on in cooperation with the Parks and Recreation Department Completed in 1883, the bridge was the first span to go across the East River, was the longest suspension bridge in the world at that time, and the first river crossing to have electric lights. The bridge was also called the eighth wonder of the world. In 1964, it was declared a National Historic Landmark. The body was found on the embankment off the westbound lane of the expressway, and near a playground at Marcy and Metropolitan Aves.

at about 11:30 p.m." Saturday night after detectives at the Union Ave. station received an anonymous phone call. THEY SAID the woman was wearing a short brown jacket, shoes, panties and pantyhose. She was described as about five feet tall, 120 to 130 pounds with dark brown-reddish hair. Police said that Cesarean operation scars indicated she may have had one or two children.

In the Williamburg case, police is asking anyone who might have any information to call Detective Nelson Ortiz at 963-5369. All information, they said, will be kept confidential. By SUZANNE GOLUBSKI Police are searching for clues yesterday in the strangulation of an unidentified woman whose partially clothed body was found late Saturday night in the bushes of an embankment near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in Williamsburg. The woman, described as in her 30s, and possibly either black or Hispanic, had bruises around her neck, they said. There was no apparent indication of sexual assault, police said, but they added that would have to be determined by the medical examiner.

Police initially declined to speculate if there might be any connection with a recent series of strangulations of women in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Long Island. dilute IKliS! pe'jet By JAMES HARNEY Once work does begin, estimated Schnay and Weiss, it will take from nine months to a year before the first tenants can move into apartments that will range in rent from $650 for a one-bedroom unit to $950 for three bedrooms. The finished project will contain between 85 and 100 apartment units. BACK WHEN THE redevelopment was first prop- osed, PACC and the Clinton Hill community had advocated that the hotel be converted into a co-op for middle and upper middle-income residents. However, explained Weiss, that idea had to be abandoned when housing finance subsidies grew scarce.

"The only way that this project can be financially feasible is through something called the Investment Tax Credit program, whereby the developer has to maintain ownership for at least five years and keep it as a rental development during that time before it can be converted to a co-op," Weiss said. "The community decided that it would be willing to wait the five years for the opportunity to have the co-op, if that is the only way it can be done," he added. Designed by Manhattan-based architects Beyer Blinder Belle, the plan calls for the restoration of the facade of the Victorian-style hotel and of its once-elegant lobby. Plans for rooftop penthouse apartments, initially opposed by Community Board 2 because of fears that they would cast shadows on neighboring buildings, are still being considered. numerous issues still to be negotiated before any actual reconstruction work begins." Among the matters still to be resolved are the actual price of the property (Schnay originally bid $405,000 for it); the amount of an HPD Participation Loan to finance construction (Schnay asked for $1.4 million); and the approval of the Board of Estimate.

However, both Schnay and PACC Chairman Howard Weiss expressed confidence that the remaining hurdles could be cleared without too much difficulty now that the search for a suitable developer, which at times had been shrouded in controversy, has ended. "IT WAS OUR HOPE that the actual renovation could begin this fall because we are anxious to see the project get under way after so many years of waiting," said Weiss. "But if that is not possible before winter sets in, then at least we are glad that Schnay has agreed to take steps to see that the building does not create a danger for the residents of the community." Portions of the parapet high atop the roof of the aging seven-story, city-owned structure have fallen the past posing a threat to children who play in an adjacent lot Schnay pointed out that another motivation for moving quickly to safeguard the hotel from further deterioration was economics: "It will save us from having to do a much more expensive rehabilitation job when we do go in there." The old Mohawk Hotel in Clinton Hill, once one of Brooklyn's most exclusive addresses but now just an empty, rotting shell, could begin a new life as a luxury apartment building as early as the spring of 1984, its newly-named developer said yesterday. Abram Schnay, head of Abram Schnay and Sons Co. of Elmhurst Queens, said that he would send work crews to the site of the Mohawk, 369-377 Washington and three neighboring vacant brownstones on St James Place "sometime in the next month" to do structural reinforcement work that will keep the decaying buildings from crumbling further until renovation work begins.

Schnay and Sons was chosen last week by the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development to work on the $6 million Mohawk redevelopment, ending five years of negotiations between HPD and the Clinton Hill-based Pratt Area Community Council (PACQ about who would be the developer. SCHNAY AND SONS, the developer favored all along by the PACC, beat out two Long Island-based firms, Zaffuto Construction of Lynbrook and Mohawk Development of Valley Stream, to win the contract "Naturally, we're very pleased about it (being chosen by HPD)," Schnay said. "However, there are.

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Pages Available:
18,843,435
Years Available:
1919-2024