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June 11, 2009

Gehry Is Out as Designer of Project in Brooklyn

The NY Times
By Charles V. Bagli

Two days ago, WNYC reporter Matthew Schuerman had an off-the-record scoop that architect Frank Gehry was off the Atlantic Yards project. Today, the Times finally nailed down the story, resulting in an on-the-record admission from a Forest City Ratner PR flack.

Atlantic Yards is really through with Frank Gehry.

An award-winning architect, Mr. Gehry will not be designing any of the 17 buildings planned for the 22-acre development in Brooklyn on which he has labored for the past six years, a spokesman for the architect confirmed Wednesday.
...
“We do not anticipate that Mr. Gehry will be designing any of the individual buildings,” Joe DePlasco, a spokesman for Mr. Ratner, said Wednesday.

He conceded that the announcement issued last week “should’ve been clearer.” But, he added, Mr. Gehry’s master plan for the development and his guidelines remain in place.

article

NoLandGrab: The lede could just have easily read, "Frank Gehry is really through with Atlantic Yards," which would make Gehry the lucky one.

Come on, SURRENDER BRUCE and put Brooklyn out of your misery.

Atlantic Yards Report, Gehry's gone from AY completely, so how do the design specifications remain in place?

Norman Oder examines PR flack Joe DePlasco's claim that "all of the design specifications that [Frank Gehry] developed, and which were approved, remain in place."

Maybe those specs remain in place, but that doesn't mean they're realistic.

There's no Urban Room if there's no Building 1, so this excerpt from the Design Guidelines attached to the Modified General Project Plan seems rather quaint:

ii. The Urban Room shall include a café or other eating and drinking establishment and shall incorporate an entrance to the Atlantic Yards transit hub as well as provide entrances to Building 1 (other than entrances to residential uses) and the Arena...

Gehry, suggested TIME critic Richard Lacayo, had gone from master planner to master fig leaf. How exactly the design specifications he developed might persist should be an ongoing question.

NoLandGrab: Or DePlasco could be ducking the truth, which, these days, is pretty much his job.

Posted by lumi at June 11, 2009 6:11 AM