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March 25, 2009
GAME OVER FOR NETS' ATLANTIC YARDS: GEHRY
New York Post
by Rich Calder
In an interview with The Architect's Newspaper, Frank Gehry yesterday referred to Bruce Ratner's $4 billion plan to bring an NBA arena and 16 residential-office towers to Prospect Heights as one of several "unrealized commissions" he most wishes had been built.
"I don't think it's going to happen . . . That would be devastating to me," he said.
Ratner said in a statement last night that it is "understandable" that Gehry and "others have concerns about this project happening in the worst economic environment since the Great Depression," but the developer promised "Atlantic Yards will get built."
Gehry later backtracked through a publicist, saying his comments to the trade publication were "misconstrued as a prediction" about the project and that he remains "hopeful it will come to fruition."
...A Ratner spokesman yesterday said Gehry was still the project's "lead architect," but opponents of the controversial development said they doubt the architect is still involved because of his remarks about the project.
"If they're saying he is the lead architect, he seems to be leading them nowhere," said Daniel Goldstein, a spokesman for the group Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn.
Posted by eric at March 25, 2009 10:23 AM