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May 27, 2009
Architectural firm Ellerbe Becket tapped to reevaluate Frank Gehry's Atlantic Yards arena design
NY Daily News reporter Jotham Sederstrom has some additional details about yesterday's Sports Business Journal report that Missouri-based design firm Ellerbe Becket has been working on Forest City Ratner's Nets arena:
Ellerbe Becket... was tapped last fall to reevaluate the extravagant arena design [Frank] Gehry conceived for developer Forest City Ratner to lure the NBA's New Jersey Nets to Brooklyn.
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Headquartered in Kansas City, Ellerbe Becket is known for designs that are more cost-efficient than Gehry's projects, which tend to be full of ruffles and flourishes.
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The firm, which has designed basketball arenas for the NBA's teams in Memphis and Charlotte, was hired around the same time Gehry axed nearly every one of his employees who had been working on the stalled project.A Forest City Ratner spokesman Tuesday insisted the firm had been hired to implement cost-cutting measures for the estimated $800 million arena, but observers familiar with how Frank Gehry works suspect that could soon change.
"Because Gehry's designs are fairly complex, any real changes would probably end up looking like an Ellerbe Becket project," said a former Gehry architect who worked on Atlantic Yards until being laid off late last year. "[Gehry's projects are] relatively difficult to execute."
Ratner spokesman Joe DePlasco said a reevaluation of Gehry's design would be completed by July, at which point Ratner will determine whether the world-famous architect would remain on the project.
Posted by lumi at May 27, 2009 5:35 AM