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September 22, 2006
Seaport’s early reviews are bad for Gehry’s tower
Downtown Express
By Ronda Kaysen
A presentation to Manhattan's Community Board 1 on construction impacts of the first Frank Gehry-designed Bruce Ratner project, planned for lower Manhattan's Beekman Street, gives Brooklyn residents who live near the Atlantic Yards project footprint a sneak peak at what's in store for their neighborhood if Atlantic Yards is built.
“It’s really going to change the neighborhood,” said Meghan French, a spokesperson of Pace University, which hosted the forum and is situated across the street from the new building.
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For many of the residents who spoke at the forum, the new tower is not such a welcome neighbor. “I am absolutely appalled that a community board that was against a 12-story building in Tribeca has allowed a 75-story building on a narrow street,” said Phylis Salom, a resident of nearby Southbridge Towers.
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And so residents heard the details of how constructing an 850-ft. building will affect their lives. For the next three and a half years, residents will navigate closed sidewalks, periodic bouts of excessive noise and a dearth of public parking.
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Beginning in February, the construction project will involve a three-month period of pile driving—an extremely noisy and disruptive foundation building process. Forest City representatives offered little solace to neighbors.“Pile driving is noisy, there’s not getting around it,” said Forest City senior vice president Joe Rechichi. “You’ll hear a boom, boom, boom and feel a vibration… it’s the course of doing business with piles.”
NoLandGrab: The article also mentions that the latest renderings were shown at last week's public forum, but no images were released to the press (the image to the right is an early rendering).
It is a testament to the pr savvy of Bruce Ratner that he and Gehry are making their mark on the Lower Manhattan skyline by building "a twisting, titanium sculpture that will rival the Woolworth Building in scale," but one has to attend a public forum to get a look at it.
Posted by lumi at September 22, 2006 7:13 AM