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Ratner Dumps Gehry from Atlantic Yards Proposal »
June 5, 2009
Missing from the arena block: the much-touted Urban Room
Atlantic Yards Report
Also gone with architect Frank Gehry is the "Urban Room," which was advertised as one of the great public amenities of the project:
So, what's missing from the new renderings of the arena block by Ellerbe Becket released today, along with news that Frank Gehry is gone?
Oh, how about two of the four buildings on the arena block, including the office tower known as Building 1 (which, though no longer "Miss Brooklyn, " had become "very special to me," Gehry said last year) and the much-touted Urban Room, a large, glass-enclosed public space.
The Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), while calling the Urban Room (below) "a significant public amenity" in the General Project Plan it approved 12/8/06, some ten months later, in the State Funding Agreement, required developer Forest City Ratner only to provide "subway station access" to the arena, not the Urban Room "destination" (a term from the Final Environmental Impact Statement, or FEIS) that wowed some architecture critics.
Remember, ESDC CEO Marisa Lago said just last Friday that nothing in the General Project Plan had changed.
Posted by lumi at June 5, 2009 7:15 AM