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January 20, 2009
A short history of Atlantic Yards orchestration: condos added, 8% scaleback, Miss Brooklyn cuts, and the arena redesign
Atlantic Yards Report
Much in the Atlantic Yards saga, I suspect, has been strategized in Forest City Ratner's offices at 1 MetroTech.
Consider the 12/10/03 press conference at which public officials praised the project, and continue through exclusives bestowed on news organizations, For example: the 7/5/05 release to the Times of new Frank Gehry designs (Instant Skyline Added to Arena Plan, which, alarming readers with its visuals, backfired somewhat) and Bruce Ratner's 5/4/08 op-ed in the New York Daily News (Atlantic Yards dead? Dream on), which was, to say the least, factually challenged).
But some episodes have been truly orchestrated, a term I'll reserve for a sequence in which community or political leaders provide (or are said to provide) cover for something the developer likely wanted to do all along.
Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz's attempt to play architectural adviser is only the latest. But it is the least effective, given that the public and press have woken up somewhat.
Click here to read about Forest City Ratner's brilliant pr coups: the 50/50 bait and switch, the phantom scaleback, the one-foot-smaller-than Billyburg ploy, and the company's new spokesman for "value engineering."
Posted by lumi at January 20, 2009 5:01 AM