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September 29, 2006
City follows Ratner lead
Brooklyn Papers
By Gersh Kuntzman
Was the 8% scaleback conspiracy or coincidence?
Just weeks after Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner floated a plan to trim the size of his 8.65-million-square-foot mega-project by 6- to 8 percent, the City Planning Commission rubberstamped that notion on Wednesday.
...
“A lot of this was precooked,” a real estate executive who works with Forest City Ratner told the New York Times after a commission hearing on Monday.
And what happened to the idea of shaving down Miss Brooklyn?
The City decided it was fine the way it is:
As it did with its recommendation for the modest size reduction in the overall project, the commission endorsed Forest City Ratner’s intention to keep the project’s spiritual centerpiece, the “Miss Brooklyn” tower at the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic avenues, at 620 feet.
...even though project supporters have been publicly calling for a scaleback:
That was somewhat surprising, given that even project supporters like Borough President Markowitz have called for that building to be trimmed so it would not detract from the 512-foot Williamsburgh Savings Bank tower nearby.
It looks like the starchitect won this round:
Earlier this month, the Times reported that Atlantic Yards architect Frank Gehry “has objected to any changes in his design for Miss Brooklyn.”
Posted by lumi at September 29, 2006 9:17 AM