Saving the BK Heights Promenade Taken On By National Organization

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — A national organization that seeks to save landmarks from demolition has joined the effort to save the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, which could be shut down for at least six years in the city's plans to rebuild the Brooklyn Queens Expressway.

The Cultural Landscape Foundation, based in Washington, D.C., designated the promenade a "threatened nationally significant landscape" with its program "Landslide," which monitors and brings awareness to endangered landscapes nationwide.

"TCLF will work with the site stewards on regulatory and communications strategies to benefit the Brooklyn Promenade," the organization said.

The designation comes after local groups like the Brooklyn Heights Association's opposition to the city's preferred plan to rebuild the 1.5-mile stretch of the BQE triple cantilever, which support the promenade. The plans would close down the promenade's beloved walking route for at least six years to build a temporary six-lane highway above it as construction on the BQE is completed.

TCLF is also overseeing "Landslide sites" throughout the other boroughs, including the Hall of Fame for Great Americans in the Bronx, Battery Park City and the Elizabeth Street Garden in lower Manhattan, Greacre Park in midtown, Isham Park in northern Manhattan and two Staten Island sites. The organization also pointed to its "instrumental" role in preventing the demolition of the Frick Collection’s Russell Page-designed viewing garden on East 70th Street.

Photo by Erik Pendzich/Shutterstock.