Gehry Tops Out
Frank Gehry gazes up at his Beekman Tower, which topped out yesterday.
Yesterday, Bruce Ratner and Frank Gehry got together down on Beekman Street to celebrate the topping out of the Santa Monica architect’s one Ratner project that did get off the ground. The inimitable Eliot Brown stopped by to snap some pictures and discuss the condo tower with Gehry—Brown’s sorta right about that unveiling, as we were there, so it kinda happened, making us one of “those magazines”—and their discussion reminded us of two interesting facts. Read More
SHoP-ing for a Fight
SHoP's new Barclay's Center will be debated at a public hearing tonight in Brooklyn at 6 o'clock. (Courtesy Forest City Ratner)
SHoP’s new designs for the Barclay’s Center at Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards site has probably gotten the firm more attention than any of its previous ones, including its rather controversial plans for Pier 17 at the South Street Seaport. Today, Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn penned an open-letter to the firm, calling out “Mr. Sharples, Mr. Sharples, Ms. Sharples, Ms. Holden, and Mr. Pasquarelli” for signing on to “a very contentious and troubled project that faces widespread resistance from the communities it would impact—and well beyond.” Meanwhile, “Mr. Pasquarelli” sat down with the Observer to, uh, talk shop on the project and defend his firm’s involvement in the project: “We gave serious consideration as to whether we wanted to do it. And I think the thing that convinced us was, after speaking with Bruce, we were convinced he really wanted to make a great building.” SHoP and Barclay’s collaborator Ellerbe Becket will be discussing their new designs at a special hearing in Brooklyn tonight at 6 o’clock, as will DDDB, no doubt—and us. If you can’t make it for the fireworks, we’ll recount them here for you tomorrow. Or follow us on Twitter, where we’ll be live-blogging the main event.
Gehry Officially Gone
One of a handful of renderings of Ellerbe Becket's new plans for the arena that leaked to the Times. (Courtesy nytimes.com)
As we wrote in our story last week, Frank Gehry might not be involved with any buildings on the Atlantic Yards site and not just the arena. As a Forest City Ratner spokesperson told me, “Frank might design one of the buildings later, I don’t think it’s impossible. But right now, he is just the master planner.” Well, as of yesterday, WNYC reported that the it will be impossible after all: Read More
How Unappealing
Exhibit A. (horseycrazy/Flickr)
The folks over at Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn have been paper-cutting Forest City Ratner for years now, with lawsuit after lawsuit, but they may almost be out of legal options. Today, the Appellate Division of the state Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the ESDC had not erred in its environmental review filing for Atlantic Yards. Read More
Strike Two? Not So Fast
The Vanderbilt Yards await transformation. (Courtesy threecee/Flickr)
First Laurie Olin, now Frank Gehry. That was the news earlier this week when the Wall Street Journal reported that the Santa Monica-based architect had laid off “more than two dozen” staffers involved with Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project. What followed was a string of cheers predicting the troubled Brooklyn mega-development’s demise. After all, how could it go on without its signature architect?
While considering this question, I kept thinking of a comment made by Kermit Baker yesterday, during an interview about the abysmal November billings index. Given what’s going on elsewhere in the industry, the termination of a handful of architects may not signal the doomsday scenario the project’s critics would like, and instead may be one more credit-related payroll pause like many others around the nation: Read More
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