Much ado over at Coney Island. Yesterday, we learned that the city may buy developer Joe Sitt's ten acres at the site, and now the Municipal Art Society has released images of the expert crowd-sourced re-imagining of the 25-acre area (these came from the Architect's Newspaper). Here's a description of Imagine Coney, per Curbed:
The concept calls for Coney Island to become the main stage for New York City, providing a platform for small and large performances and events in coordination with its role as an amusement destination. The concept, which would include a variety of indoor and outdoor facilities, can be implemented immediately (Summer 2009) and would take advantage of the parcels of undeveloped land in Coney Island, much of which is now vacant or operating as street-level parking.
Gone, you'll see, is the grit (save for those Geisha girls with pasties), replaced by what looks like a combination of a perpetual Mermaid Parade and some Gehry/Foster+Partners types of buildings; are starchitects headed for Coney, too? Proposals include a hall of holograms; a cable car ride floating "through the clouds;” a vaudeville/circus along the shore; or a kind of real space internet cyber city, among many other ideas. It all seems a little meta: a theme park version of a theme park. What do you think?
Fanciful Visions for Coney Island’s Future [NY Times]
New Vision for Coney [NY Post]
Meet Coney Island V. 4.0: The 'Imagine Coney' Edition [Curbed]
