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November 20, 2007
What's right with this picture? For West Side yards, the market speaks
Atlantic Yards Report
What a difference a few years make. The city's market-driven effort to develop the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's West Side yards continues in blinding contrast to its fait accompli with the MTA's Vanderbilt Yard in Brooklyn.
Four years ago, the city announced its support of a deal for the 22-acre Atlantic Yards project over and beyond the railyard; crucially, the latter would occupy less than 40 percent of the site. The New York Times offered further anointment with a rapturous review (A Garden of Eden Grows in Brooklyn) by architecture critic Herbert Muschamp.
But, hey, that's no way to develop railyards, is it? PlaNYC 2030 says there should be much more community consultation. Real estate usually generates a better deal when there's an open bidding process. And the design of megaprojects generally improves when there's a detailed request for proposals and an opportunity for the public and interested parties to weigh in.
So today it was big news that five developers had released their plans for the Hudson Yards.
Norman Oder explains how the response to develop the Hudson Yards:
- contradicts legal arguments made by the Empire State Development Corporation,
- is being handled differently by the media, and
- is free and open to the public for viewing.
NoLandGrab: Is it just us, or is anyone else thinking that Forest City didn't submit a bid for the Hudson Yards because it WASN'T a backroom deal?
Posted by lumi at November 20, 2007 6:15 AM