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November 21, 2009
Ratner and Gehry Party Ruined by Atlantic Yards
The proposed Atlantic Yards project cast a pall over the celebration between the starchitect who was canned from the project and developer Bruce Ratner during the topping-off ceremony for the Beekman Tower.
The New York Observer - Gehry Gets Topped Out in Lower Manhattan
By Eliot Brown
Developer Bruce Ratner (left) took some time away Thursday from fretting over his planned Atlantic Yards project to host a topping out soirée for his Frank Gehry-designed Beekman apartment tower, capping the vertical rise of what is to be the tallest residential building in the city.
Filling half of Beekman Street at the Lower Manhattan tower's base, Mr. Ratner and a host of union officials and others involved in the project all lauded the development--started pre-Lehman crash, when filling a luxury tower at high rates seemed a bit more realistic--before hoisting a concrete bucket up 867 feet to the building's top.
(In the meantime, the Atlantic Yards project was hit with another lawsuit.)
Gothamist - Ratner And Gehry's Beekman Tower Topped Off
Yesterday, developer Bruce Ratner and architect Frank Gehry celebrated the "topping off" of the 76-story Beekman Tower in lower Manhattan. A 10-pound bucket of concrete was lifted 900 feet onto the roof of the 1.1 million square foot skyscraper, which will have rental apartments, a pre-K through 8th grade public school, an ambulatory care center for NY Downtown Hospital, retail space, and public plazas.
Gehry, whose presence in Ratner's in-limbo Atlantic Yards project has been diminished, was in high spirits—he apparently pointed to the top of the building and said, "No Viagra." (It's his tallest building.) He told the Observer's Eliot Brown, "First of all, it’s a New York building, and so I respected the body of the New York skyscraper...We built many models of this. I holed myself up two days in a tall hotel room here and just looked at the skyline while I was designing it.” He also said the tower's undulation was inspired by Bernini.
While it may have been triumphant for Ratner to see progress on the skyscraper, he was served with another lawsuit to block the development of Atlantic Yards.
The New York Observer - rank Gehry Will Wait to Ascend His Own Tower
By Reid Pillifant
At a topping-off ceremony for his Beekman Tower yesterday, 80-year old architect Frank Gehry took to the podium and made one of those slightly randy jokes that men can get away with when they're 80. Mr. Gehry pointed his finger upright toward the 76-tower residential complex and bluntly proclaimed: "No Viagra."
Mr. Gehry said he will wait awhile to see the view from what will eventually be the tallest residential building in Manhattan. "I can't wait till it's finished. I have height freights, I'm not going to go up. I'll wait till the real elevators are in," he said. The Pritzker-prize winner told Eliot Brown that his tallest building prior to the Beekman Tower was only about 40 stories. Eliot has a slideshow of the ceremony, which was the first time Mr. Gehry has been seen in public with Bruce Ratner since Mr. Ratner scrapped his plans for Atlantic Yards.
While Mr. Gehry seemd to have a good time, the day was probably less enjoyable for Bruce Ratner, who now has another Atlantic Yards lawsuit to litigate.
Posted by steve at November 21, 2009 5:44 AM