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November 27, 2006
Gehry's working on “Atlantic Center overbuild” (for 2000+ residents); ESDC punts
Atlantic Yards Report brings you another Norman Oder exclusive:
Though city officials haven't said so publicly, newly released documents show they’ve examined plans by Forest City Ratner for three new towers over the developer’s much-derided Atlantic Center mall--and Atlantic Yards architect Frank Gehry has it as part of his assignment.
Here's the outline of the story of how all the players involved are trying to make Atlantic Yards and the Atlantic Center overbuild appear to be separate projects, while a glimpse behind the scenes, brought to you by another one of Norman Oder's Freedom of Information Law request, tells a different story. [For the complete story accompanied by the numbers, don't waste your time here, just surf on over to Atlantic Yards Report.]
What do we know? * Developer Forest City Ratner has additional air rights over the Atlantic Center Mall. [Forest City Ratner Atlantic Yards Development Group President Jim Stuckey likes to point out that has been on the table all along.] * The Atlantic Center overbuild was studied in the Downtown Brooklyn Plan Environmental Impact Statement. The hitch is that the composition of the Downtown Brooklyn Plan has totally changed since the plan was studied — much of the commercial space is being built and planned as residential space.
Though Ratner and his City Planners aren't being specific, a couple of hints have been dropped. * In January, 2006 starchitect Frank Gehry mentioned designing 20 buildings? * In May, 2006 one model of the project showed three towers over Atlantic Center Mall. The only reporter who has publicly mentioned the connection is Norman Oder.
What does the Emprire State Development Corporation have to say about the accompanying Atlantic Center overbuild? * "The proposed project would further the City’s policy of promoting transit-oriented development." * That's it... there's nothing addressing how thousands of additional residents (as opposed to office workers as originally studied in the Downtown Brooklyn Plan) will impact the area.
What do Ratner and Gehry have to say?
* Nothing much.
* But wait, a recently released Atlantic Yards meeting agenda, from September, 2005, was headlined by a "Review of Atlantic Center overbuild."
What have we learned? * Bureaucratically speaking, the two projects are separate, but they are being conceived, and even designed by the same architect, as one.
NoLandGrab; The only way anyone is supposed be able to fathom the final size of Bruce Ratner's plans for his "Atlantic Empire" is pick through every public statement and city document, as Norman Oder has.
One thing that is slightly off-topic, but may be worth mentioning, is that the checklist including the "Atlantic Center overbuild" shows that the NYC Department of City Planning (DCP) has been involved with the project all along, as Forest City Ratner has claimed. However, if this checklist is any indication, the DCP appears to be tinkering around the edges with the details of the project and has had no ability to influence the fact that the project proposes residential density of historic proportions.
Links on Atlantic Yards's historical density:
Atlantic Yards: Staving Off a Scar for Decades by Ron Shiffman
The Real Estate Observer, Prisoner of Atlantic Avenue
Atlantic Yards Report, Extreme density: Atlantic Yards plan would dwarf Battery Park City, other projects
Posted by lumi at November 27, 2006 8:40 AM