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May 31, 2008
Looking Skyward in Lower Manhattan
NY Times
NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF thinks that it's a hard knocks life for Frank Gehry in New York, as project after project is dumped or "disfigured by an enormous logo."
His plan for the colossal Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn remains a pet target of grass-roots activists.
But all is not lost from cute little protests! The Beekman Tower forges on!
The design has evolved through an unusual public-private partnership. In an agreement with New York education officials, the tower’s developer, Forest City Ratner, agreed to incorporate a public elementary school into the project. Forest City was responsible for the construction of the school; the Department of Education then bought the building from the developer. (Forest City was also a development partner in the new Midtown headquarters of The New York Times Company.)The Beekman Tower is thus a curious fusion of public and private zones.
All of FCR's dealings with the government seem to be curious...it would have been nice if the Times had started out being a little more curious about Atlantic Yards.
Posted by amy at May 31, 2008 9:18 AM