« Debating the Design Depression: Austerity vs Extravagance | Main | Looking at the 33rd district race, AY, and some undercurrents »
April 23, 2009
Gehry says he always works "tight to the bone," so why did arena cost go up 50%?
Atlantic Yards Report
As Frank Gehry continues to shape his own legend, Atlantic Yards watchdog Norman Oder is still trying to get answers about the true cost of the planned Nets arena.
Though Gehry didn't mention Atlantic Yards during the interview [on the radio show Design and Architecture], AY-watchers would be most intrigued by his comments at about 17:50:
For me, I've always felt that if I didn't work very tight to the bone--and tight to the bone means, If a client gives you a program, and they have a budget, and that program and budget will build X, then you have to stay close to that to be successful. And then if you kept doing that, then people would come back and hire you again, because they knew you were going to do that. That's been my ethic. Now there are a few buildings that sometimes you have clients that want to... be excessive, for their own reasons. I tend to stay away from those projects. I've had a few from time to time. Most of them never got built, like a big house in Cleveland.
So, that begs the question: how did the projected cost of the Atlantic Yards arena skyrocket from $637.2 million in December 2006 to $950 million in March 2008?
And why are others, not Gehry, trying to value-engineer the cost in half?
Posted by lumi at April 23, 2009 6:50 AM