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January 9, 2009
Bye-Bye Shiny Shiny
Gumby Fresh
Gumby, who only posts when he has something important to say, has spun out a must-read about the latest developments in the saga of the Atlantic Yards arena.
Can they save some money by ditching Frank Gehry's Shiny Materials? Maybe, but I'd like you to recall that the Yankees and even the Mets stadiums went over budget, and they were basically pastiches of every single other ballpark that's gone up in the past few years. Not that much Shiny there.
So here we are now, observing a rather complex game of three-dimensional chess with ugly buildings as pieces. Aesthetic considerations never really loomed large in the politicians' considerations, certainly nowhere near as much as money and jobs. It probably helped sell the project to the public, at least initially, but Ratner's always been comfortable in foisting ugly and unpopular buildings on Brooklyn when the money's right.
So let's assume that the final tab on the new uglier stadium hits $800 million. Is that what the bond market wants, is it what the politicians can support with a straight face, and will it change the dynamics of the project's legal challenges? Mr. Oder's reporting, and my hunches don't give me any grounds for optimism.
Posted by eric at January 9, 2009 12:58 PM