Toll Ahead
2008, aluminum sign posted on existing site, 12” x 18”
Warning sign posted of impending toll ahead. Sited on 1st and Bond Streets in Brooklyn, NY, and directly across the street from the future
Toll Brothers construction site; a proposed 500-unit luxury condominium building. The site boasts a water front view of the infamous polluted Gowanus Canal, and is host to Arsenic, Barium, Beryllium, Chromium, Creosote, Mercury, PCB’s, and Vinyl Chloride among its long list of carcinogens. Environmental and community health issues have taken a back seat to the drive for development. This construction site is located in the Gowanus neighborhood, an area of mixed use, with industry, housing projects, and modest single and 2-family homes. Connected by several bridges that cross the canal are the surrounding gentrified neighborhoods of Carroll Gardens and Park Slope, with building heights averaging 3 and 4 stories. The infrastructure of this low lying area is already overburdened as seen in its frequent flooding (both water and sewage), narrow streets used as trucking thoroughfares, and overcrowding schools.