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June 13, 2009
Gehry too costly for major New York development
International Construction Review (iCON)
Famous architect Frank Gehry will now not be designing any of the 17 buildings planned for the US$4 billion Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn.
Gehry has laboured for the past six years on the 22-acre project in the borough of New York City but he has been judged too expensive to hire for the individual buildings. Gehry’s original masterplan for the overall development remains in place and he has already earned millions of dollars from the project.
Last week, the developer, Bruce C. Ratner, owner of Forest City Ratner of Cleveland, Ohio, cited the “economic climate” as the reason to switch architects for the project’s lynchpin, a basketball arena for the Nets at the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues. The Barclays Center basketball arena will now be designed by the architectural firm Ellerbe Becket for about $800 million, $200 million less than Gehry’s design.
Nor will Gehry be the architect for any of the other high-rise residential developments, or other commercial buildings. Again, cost is the issue, the developer told the New York Times on Wednesday, June 10.
Mr. Ratner, who has been plagued by lawsuits and a flagging economy, has already delayed the office building and most, if not all, of 6,000 planned apartments - 40 per cent of which were set aside for low-, moderate- and middle-income families. He is racing to start building the arena by the end of the year to qualify for tax-exempt financing.
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Critics say Gehry’s departure contributes to a sense that Ratner is stripping away the things that garnered support for his ambitious project — world-class architecture, affordable housing and an unusual arena that fit into an urban landscape.
Posted by steve at June 13, 2009 8:35 AM