« Readers respond to Bruce Ratner’s Yards failure | Main | Public Hearing Scheduled for 80 Dekalb Financing »
April 4, 2008
Beekman school, Gehry’s tower pushed back a year
Downtown Express
By Julie Shapiro
Developer Bruce Ratner finally sent Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver a writen response, explaining when the eagerly awaited public school at the Gehry-designed Beekman St. tower might open:
Ratner’s letter came more than a month after Silver inquired about the lack of progress on the Beekman St. site, which has been at a standstill since last fall. The school will sit in the base of a 76-story mixed-use tower, designed by Frank Gehry. Downtown Express first reported last September that Forest City Ratner was having trouble financing Gehry’s complicated design.
“When we initially conceived this project in 2005, the financial markets and economic environment were exceptionally strong,” Ratner wrote to Silver. “Today, unfortunately, the markets have shifted and the availability of capital has tightened. This tightening caused us to delay construction of Beekman.”
Ratner called the delay on the school “terribly frustrating,” but added, “We believe it is better to delay the opening than to risk opening the school prematurely.”
NoLandGrab: Why would ANYONE open a school prematurely?
The new pre-K to 8 school will have 630 seats, which are badly needed in the community. As recently as several weeks ago, Ratner representatives were assuring C.B. 1 that the school would open on time, but they have refused to attend a public meeting for months.
The day after Ratner sent his letter, Forest City closed on $680 million in construction financing for the project, allaying fears that the project would not go forward at all. Community members had been particularly worried after the New York Times reported two weeks ago that almost all of Ratner’s $4 billion Gehry-designed Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn could be delayed for years. Ratner also blamed the economic slowdown for that change of plans.
The $680 million will cover the complete construction costs for the Beekman project, said Joyce Baumgarten, a Ratner spokesperson.
“They can stop worrying,” she said of the community. “It looks like tahe dates we have now are fixed…. Now it’s on schedule.”
For those of you who've been wondering why a building that is slated to receive Liberty Bond financing hasn't even been revealed publicly:
Usually, concrete buildings like the Beekman St. tower can rise one story every two to three days, said Josh Rosenbloom, director of city operations for the Construction Center. Construction workers build floor-plate molds once and then use them to pour concrete for each floor.
“But the way Gehry designed it, no two floor plates were the same,” Rosenbloom said at a Community Board 1 Quality of Life Committee meeting. That means that workers would have to build new molds for each floor, substantially drawing out the construction.
To cut the costs and lengthy schedule of this process, Ratner is simplifying the design, Rosenbloom said.
Asked if Ratner and Gehry have resolved the design debate, Rosenbloom replied that he did not know.
Baumgarten said Monday that the design would be unveiled in four to six weeks. She said the design is complete but she could not comment on it. Older versions show a wavy structure with an undulating facade.
NoLandGrab: The inclusion of a public school in Bruce Ratner's Gehry-designed tower in Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's district has been widely seen as a key to Silver's support for Atlantic Yards.
Posted by lumi at April 4, 2008 5:52 AM