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May 11, 2006
MEET MISS BROOKLYN
Gehry lightly tweaks Ratner’s ‘Yards’ plan, says boro wedding inspired tallest tower
Brooklyn Papers
By Gersh Kuntzman
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The “bride” will wear aluminum.
Architecht Frank Gehry unveiled slightly slimmed down towers and an update on the classic Brooklyn stoop, in fresh renderings for Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards mega-development revealed Thursday. He also told how he came up with the design for the project’s most controversial building — the 62-story “Miss Brooklyn Tower” — likening it to a bride.
Opponents of the 22-acre, $3.5-billion project were unimpressed.
“It’s a Frank Gehry sheen on repudiated, 1960s-style urban renewal,” said Daniel Goldstein of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn.
Discussing “Miss Brooklyn,” which would sit at the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues, Gehry said, “When we were studying Brooklyn, we happened upon a wedding, a real Brooklyn wedding. And we decided that ‘Miss Brooklyn’ was a bride.”
The renderings of Miss Brooklyn showed a shimmering, wavering, aluminum-clad tower, with a 120-foot glass-walled atrium called “the Urban Room,” a hotel in the first few floors, dozens of stories of office space, and residental condos up top.
“She’s a bride with flowing veils,” Gehry said. “OK, I got carried away. But if you’d seen that bride, you’d understand. I fell in love with her.”
Kuntzman also busts Gehry for felonius use of Jane Jacobs, as the starchitect co-opts the verbiage of the Urbanist movement to convince detractors that his latest designs sincerely embrace the principles of "usable space," "existing fabric" and "connection to the texture of existing buildings."
Posted by lumi at May 11, 2006 9:39 PM