Ratner Cans Gehry For Good
Yesterday Forest City Ratner made official what everybody already knew: Architect Frank Gehry, his name having been prostituted to sell a sham project to the public, will have nothing to do with the design of any of the buildings in the Atlantic Yards footprint. We do not anticipate that Mr. Gehry will be designing any…
Yesterday Forest City Ratner made official what everybody already knew: Architect Frank Gehry, his name having been prostituted to sell a sham project to the public, will have nothing to do with the design of any of the buildings in the Atlantic Yards footprint. We do not anticipate that Mr. Gehry will be designing any of the individual buildings, said Joe DePlasco, a spokesman for Mr. Ratner. Jettisoning Mr. Gehry is expected to generate $200 million in savings for the developer. But don’t cry any tears for Gehry: The Times reports that he’s already been paid “tens of millions of dollars” for his work up to this point.
Gehry Is Out as Designer of Project in Brooklyn [NY Times]
Photo by Tracy Collins
fsrg
I don’t understand your point and I don’t that you do either. You keep speaking on behalf of NIMBY and saying that they are plain wrong. But you can only speak for yourself
The developers and the politicians promoted this as a great additiona to Brooklyn. A sports, entertainment and cultural stadium, housing, employmnet and a retail center. It would be a world famous building on par to the Sydney Opera House that Brooklynites might boast off. This isn’t going to happen particularly after this latest debacle
The objections are based on congestion and the quality of life in the surrouding neighborhoods. (I frankly was down with having a Gehery building in Brooklyn, better than a non-descript building were cost is the only criteria)
But dismissing critics as just NIMBY is forgetting that this is their back yard., not the visitors that use the stadium for special events.
Mediocre architecture and neglectful city planning is accepted in America. The determining factor is always the bottom line. Everyone will have to live with what ever is built on this site. Every new building that aspects to greatness is controversial, whether it is cost, looks or mechanical problems. But at the end of the day there sits an iconic momument. The latest ‘artist’s rendering’ look like a box of steel, concrete and glass not something that makes this world a better place.
Fsrg, it’s late, I’m tired, but I have to say, that was total and pure hooey. How you could extrapolate that mess from the DDDB post is beyond me. I’m sure we’ll get a chance to do it again, so I won’t bother to go point by point now. I totally disagree with you. No amens here.
Amen….and hallelujah fsrq.
Amen fsrg, amen.
I actually respect DDDB post – it finally includes some long missing honesty –
You see DDDB is simply a NIMBY organization and today’s post comes closest to admitting it.
It doesnt matter that people (in Brooklyn and NYC) like seeing professional basketball and other mass entertainment events like concerts, circuses, comedians, etc….Just dont put it in my backyard – We dont care if the best place in NYC and maybe in the country is at AY (b/c of the convergence of so many train lines), we dont care that in the alternative that people will be driving all over the city and inner suburbs to these kind of places , creating pollution and traffic – as long as our little neighborhood (if you want to call that $hithole a neighborhood) is preserved just as we liked it when we moved here (2yrs ago) we dont care about anyone else.
And it doesnt matter that if you build large residential bldsgs and offices at AY, you can maximize the mass transit and pedestrian options, reducing sprawl, traffic, pollution etc…. We want things the way we want them – to hell with the general good!
When I read DDDB post I have to say AMEN – finally a bit of clarity about what they are really about…..
As for AY – there was no bait and switch – it was simply a case of stall, mislead, exaggerate and sue – that plus a financial meltdown and the NIMBYs won a big victory – but the real tragedy isnt that Gehery is out (I frankly thought his stuff was ugly anyway – and I werent all the NIMBYs screaming how ugly it all was too?) – no the real tragedy is that all the delay and frivolous litigation will result in, is years more with a ugly hole at Atlantic & Flatbush and then we will have years of an arena surrounded by parking lots and it will probably be another 50 years before we have anything to be proud of in the heart of our city.
As usual – lies, exaggerations and general F-U-D results in the worst outcome possible – it isnt that there wasnt anything to yell about or demand when it came to AY – its that NIMBY egomaniacs couldnt see the real issues through the lenses of their selfish agenda – and btw go back and look at my posts even 3 years ago on this – I always predicted this was a destinct possibility.
Nothing snappy left
I find I’m running on fumes
Give me a good book
BrooklynGreene That last bit of doggerel sounded almost like a haikmerick 🙂 (don’t ask me. i don’t know)
There once was a dream come from Ratner
That the community knew was disaster
It was a scheme
To increase his esteem
And make FCR our pay master.
********
I thought I would visit a limerick
The haiku, a tiresome gimmerick.
My husband is Irish
I thought I’d go fish
Looking for words rhymed with orange.
> Would you award BrooklynGreene the blue ribbon in the
> Urban Planning Haiku division already?
Mekka-lekka hi mekka hiney ho!
The wish is granted, long live SnarkSlope.