Online Petition to Prevent Demolition of Ward's Bakery

As Forest City Ratner stands ready to start demolishing buildings in the Atlantic Yards project footprint, No Land Grab reports a new online petition concerning one of those buildings: The historic Ward's Bakery on Pacific Street. The petition reads:

To: Mayor Michael Bloomberg

The Ward's Bakery at 800 Pacific Street is a gem of historic industrial architecture. Completed in 1911, it's builder, George Ward, had taken his architects to Europe for inspiration in its design.

The building is graced with rows of Greco-Roman inspired arches, embellished with a delicate band of a classic wave motif, and clothed entirely in gleaming white terra cotta tile.

Ward's Bakery is a magnificent candidate for adaptive reuse and would yield amazing living and/or workspaces. The success of such conversions has been demonstrated again and again in former industrial enclaves, such as SOHO, Tribeca, and the meat-packing district.

Forest City Ratner is poised to demolish this building, even while their proposed project is still being litigated and may never materialize, leaving us with a wasteland of demolition sites.

We urge you intervene immediately and save this irreplaceable historic treasure for the delight of generations to come.

The petition can be viewed and/or signed here. For more information on the building and adaptive reuse of historic buildings generally, check BrooklynSpeaks.

[Photo courtesy of benben/flickr]