Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Atlantic Yards now just a shadow of itself

From the NY Post:

The reeling Atlantic Yards project has come a long away from the spectacular glass-and-steel arena designed by star architect Frank Gehry and surrounded by 16 monolithic brick, glass-and-steel high-rises - but seemingly in the wrong direction.

The economic downturn has even scaled back the hopes of the project's biggest cheerleader, Borough President Marty Markowitz, who recently called for the planned future home of the NBA Nets to be substituted for one with a cheaper "brownstone" façade, and Gehry's vision for the rest of the 22-acre project in Prospect Heights is now comprised of one or two high-rises and a lot of "temporary" surface parking and other empty space.

A rendering commissioned by The Post shows a significantly scaled-back version of the controversial $4 billion project by developer Bruce Ratner, which is now on hold indefinitely because of both the credit crunch and anti-project litigation.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let's scale it down some more. How about just a basketball court with some bleachers surrounded by a park.

And in that park there should be a couple statues. Marty dressed in the full fat clown suit. Bruce Ratner shining shoes on a filthy street corner after this fiasco bankrupts his greedy ass. And mayor mike reaching one greasy hand into the taxpayer's pockets to steal the money, and throwing it away with the other greasy hand. And maybe we could have some Frank Gehry designed lampposts which will no doubt resemble sheets of aluminum foil mangled into unrecognizable eyesores.

Anonymous said...

Amen anon. Great post.

Anonymous said...

Wait until they've had the "pleasure" of experiencing one of Gerhy's leaky buildings.

Marty ought to consult with MIT
beforehand on their misfortune of having chosen Frank as their
"master builder"!

Anonymous said...

The new façade certainly looks better than Gehry's crumpled glass nonsense.

Love the Ebbets-style arches. To further Brooklynize this design, the seats should look like giant stoops, with wrought-iron handrails.