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June 4, 2009
Developer Drops Gehry Design for Brooklyn Arena
The New York Times
by Charles V. Bagli
Big breaking news from The Times: Frank Gehry is officially no longer the architect for the Atlantic Yards basketball arena. We'll have more as this develops, but suffice it to say, this is just one more bait and switch courtesy of Forest City Ratner.
Frank Gehry is out as the architect for the Barclays Center, an exotic, $1 billion glass-walled arena that is the centerpiece of the long-delayed and financially challenged Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn, according to government officials and real estate executives who have been briefed on the plans.
The design by Mr. Gehry, the award-winning architect behind the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, has been replaced with a less-expensive, $800 million arena.
The new design comes from Ellerbe Becket, an architectural firm based in Kansas City, Mo., that specializes in convention centers, stadiums and arenas, and designed Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, where the Indiana Pacers play. Officials who have seen the design for the Brooklyn arena say that while it resembles Conseco Fieldhouse, it also bears a likeness to an “airplane hangar.”
Posted by eric at June 4, 2009 4:59 PM