Description: Highest and Best Use examines the ongoing effects of the 2004 rezoning of Downtown Brooklyn. The rash of lucrative residential developments have pushed out long-time residents and overtaxed area resources at an alarming pace, while commercial space needs continue to be underserved. The opening of the area’s air rights has set off a height race among developers, with each successive new building breaking the height record of the one built immediately before it.
The images in this series stretch the facades of these new residential towers to excessive length, straining the fidelity of the original photographic sources and flattening their perspective. The title of the piece is a real estate valuation term invoked by Tucker Reed, President of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, during a press conference while the group was promoting its assessment of the rezoning in 2014.
This is an ongoing series; a new image will be generated for each building that breaks the current height record for the borough.