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March 17, 2011
Ratner Planning Prefab Alternatives For Atlantic Yards
Gothamist
by Garth Johnston
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With Frank Gehry long gone, how low-brow can Forest City Ratner take the never ending Atlantic Yards project? Well, the company is seriously considering making the project's first non-stadium building, a 34-story residential tower adjacent to the Barclay Center, the world's tallest prefabricated building.
Inspired in part by the above video of a 15-story tower going up in China over two days, the Times reports that Bruce Ratner has ordered the building's latest architect, SHoP Architects, to work on both regular and modular designs for the 400-unit building.
Assuming that the structure can support itself, withstand winds, and pass other structural tests a prefab building would be a huge boon financially for Forest City Ratner, which has had much difficulty financing the project since the markets collapsed. But, as the Gray Lady points out, those savings would come at the expense of one of the projects most consistant supporters: construction unions.
...Candace Carponter, legal director for Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, hammers the point home: “Jobs and affordable housing accounted for nearly all of the Atlantic Yards project’s promised benefits, and with Ratner’s selling-out of the unions, shelving of any office space, and the scarcity of subsidies for housing, the community is left with the arena as the primary “benefit” - if you believe a traffic-choking, noise-generating, taxpayer-money-losing white elephant is somehow beneficial.”
And that isn't even touching on the fact that prefab buildings are, with very rare exceptions, incredibly unattractive.
NoLandGrab: Is it us, or does that rendering of the last Gehry design kind of look like prefab towers that weren't anchored properly? Maybe we're getting that "world-class Frank Gehry design" after all! Though that overnight Chinese building is very reminiscent of Bruce's Atlantic Terminal illness.
Related coverage...
Brownstoner, Ratner Considers Prefab Tower for Atlantic Yards
The story says that though the move would cut costs, a prefabricated tower "is untested at that height" and the move would likely piss off construction workers, who were among the mega-project's most vocal supporters. Although the the developer has its architecture firm SHoP working on designs for both a traditional and modular building, another consideration is whether a prefab structure of this height would actually result in much of a cost savings, according to the story: "Whether taller modular buildings can be built to withstand intense wind shear and seismic forces, while retaining cost savings, is another question, because the higher a structure is built, the more bracing it would require."
About.com [Brooklyn, NY], NIMBY: Ratner Atlantic Yards to Try Building Highest Ever Prefab Apartments?!?
Oh, and BTW, this questionable building, with about 400 apartments, "would fulfill his obligation to start building affordable housing at the site," according to the Times story, Prefabricated Tower May Rise at Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards. If the first building gets an OK, rest assured that Ratner will try to build all 16 of the proposed apartment towers in the same way: pre-fab.
Iffy housing safety for poor people? Undercutting the original deal, that the Atlantic Yards would create a lot of jobs?
Everybody knows Atlantic Yards is in a financial bind. And this prefab idea is ingenious, out-of-the-box thinking. But it's bad public policy. And, in terms of possible safety issues, well, just how cynical can you get?
The Real Deal, Ratner hopes to build world's largest prefabricated tower in AY
The Times notes that by employing this relatively inexpensive method to fulfill his obligation to provide affordable housing, Ratner is neglecting a longtime support group: construction workers who were after Atlantic Yards jobs.
The Huffington Post, World's Largest Prefab Building Might Come To Atlantic Yards
However, constructing it this way also greatly reduces the number of new jobs- and creating new jobs was one Ratner's biggest selling points for the Atlantic Yards project in the first place.
Others are also concerned that the prefab option may not be quite as pretty as Frank Gehry's original design.
Posted by eric at March 17, 2011 4:00 PM