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June 5, 2009
Gehry's design was impossible, so dropping him wasn't just cost; what do MAS and RPA say now?
Atlantic Yards Report
AYR has more on the latest Atlantic Yards bait 'n' switch.
None of the news coverage this morning notices that, as I pointed out last night, the rendering omits the much-touted Urban Room, a large, glass-enclosed public space.
Given the hold-up in constructing the flagship Building 1 (formerly Miss Brooklyn), the Urban Room became an impossibility and, I'd contend, so became Gehry's design. His arena, as the New York Times's architecture critics rhapsodically reminded us, was to be different.
Herbert Muschamp: Instead of sitting isolated in a parking lot, the stadium will be tucked into the urban fabric, just as buildings surround a Baroque square. The arena becomes a stage, with the towers around extending the bleachers to the sky.
Nicolai Ouroussoff: If a new model is ever going to emerge, it may well be in Brooklyn, where Frank Gehry is designing a stadium for the Nets that will be embedded in layers upon layers of housing.
Not anymore. And even though the Ellerbe Becket arena would be more expensive, at $800 million, than the $637.2 million Gehry arena approved in 2006, at least it doesn't have Building 1. Given that Forest City has been working with Ellerbe Becket for three years, did the developer--when the plan was approved in 2006--really intend to build the Gehry design?
NoLandGrab: We have to admit, we're really looking forward to Nic Ourousoff's review of the Conseco Fieldhouse, um, we mean, new Barclays Center.
Posted by eric at June 5, 2009 10:16 AM