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June 8, 2006
Gehry Gets Extension on WTC Arts Center
WNYC Radio News
Another reminder that NY City is due to be awash in Frank Gehrys:
The Lower Manhattan development corporation gave architect Frank Gehry an extra year on his contract to design a performing arts center for the World Trade Center site.
Gehry was hired in 2004 to design the arts center, which has no announced budget or opening date. Madelyn Wils, an LMDC board member and former chair of a downtown community board, said plans to relocate part of a new transit hub on the arts center's site would indefinitely put off the project.
The LMDC says it hopes to conduct some construction work on the arts center in tandem with the work on the temporary entrances for the transit hub, and avoid significant delays.
NoLandGrab: Bruce Ratner hired Frank Gehry to soothe the cultural critics who are quick to point out that Ratner's previous projects are the architectural equivalent of muzak.
Now Frank Gehry's IAC HQ on the Westside of Manhattan is under construction and work on the Beekman Tower (another Ratner project) is about to begin, while the WTC arts center and the Brooklyn Arts District Theater for a New Audience, in addition to Ratner's 16-high-rise/arena mega-project, are on the drawing board (have we forgotten any?).
As the starchitect becomes the flavor du jour in Gotham, is it possible that New Yorkers will soon tire of the Gehry glut?
Posted by lumi at June 8, 2006 8:01 AM