Watching controlled building demolitions is fun, and kinda hypnotic. The idea of more parkland on the already fun Governors Island is even more fun. Put them together and you have double fun an upcoming building implosion to make room for a new park on Governors Island!
Because we all love explosions, but there aren’t enough controlled ones to keep people satisfied, you gotta take your controlled demolitions where you can. According to the Governors Island blog, the utilitarian-named Building 877 on the southern end of the island has been judged to be outside of the island’s historic district, doesn’t comply with modern building codes and is full of “out of date materials” (asbestos?) so it has a date with dynamite early morning June 9.
Even better, if you’re not doing anything on that day, a Sunday, the implosion will be visible from the Staten Island Ferry and the Battery in Manhattan. And Battery Park is a pretty nice place to spend a day on a Sunday. Of course, if you can’t make it over there but still want to see the implosion, you’re in luck, because it’s going to be live streamed over at the Governors Island blog.
As for what happens after the implosion, there’s plans to put a park in the place where Building 877 stood, and the artist’s rendering of the space on the site right now shows kids playing baseball. Hooray for baseball! Death to old, out of date buildings in the way of baseball!