It was only on Monday that we
found out that only two plans had been submitted in response to a call for plans to refurbish Dumbo's beautiful 1870s
Tobacco Warehouse, and already one of them has been selected. Happily (happily, right?) it's not the one with the giant gold-clad
pyramid. The
Brooklyn Eagle reports that the proposal submitted by
St. Ann's Warehouse, the performance space and theater producer/presenter currently located in a non-Civil War-era warehouse right across Water Street from the Tobacco Warehouse, has been conditionally chosen by the board of Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation—the structure lies within the park's geographic and bureaucratic jurisdiction.
The BE points out that the two finalists were selected from a pool of over 1,400 proposals, though really the St. Ann's plan makes so much sense that this whole process seems like just a formality. Their plan includes two performance spaces in the larger part of the warehouse, which will be enclosed, and a public, open air triangular courtyard space along Water Street. Construction better begin soon if the project is going to make its projected completion date of spring 2013. Dumbo could really use more construction.