WNYC's Matt Schuerman broke the story,
the Times Fort Greene/Clinton Hill blog's Andy
Newman confirmed it, and in the print edition of the paper Charles Bagli take
a broader, historical look at the dumping of Frank Gehry from the entire
Atlantic Yards proposal. What does it mean? It means that despite Forest City
Ratner's best effort to pretend otherwise, we've all got no idea what this project
is or what it would like. It means the fig
leaf of starchitecture is gone, and developer's got no new clothes.
Norman
Oder wonders, as do we, how Forest City flacks can realistically say the design
specifications are all the same if the original architect and designer is gone?
From the Times:
Gehry
Is Out as Designer of Project in Brooklyn
A 2006 version of Frank Gehry's design for Nets Arena and Atlantic Yards.
An award-winning architect, Mr. Gehry will not be designing any of the 17
buildings planned for the 22-acre development in Brooklyn on which he has
labored for the past six years, a spokesman for the architect confirmed Wednesday.
Last week, the Atlantic Yards developer Bruce C. Ratner revealed that Mr.
Gehry had been replaced by the firm Ellerbe Becket as the architect for
the project’s linchpin: a basketball arena for the Nets at the intersection
of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues.
Now comes official word that he will not be the architect for any of the
residential or other commercial buildings either. His designs just cost too
much, the developer said.
“We do not anticipate that Mr. Gehry will be designing any of the individual
buildings,” Joe DePlasco, a spokesman for Mr. Ratner, said Wednesday.
He conceded that the announcement issued last week “should’ve
been clearer.” But, he added, Mr. Gehry’s master plan for the
development and his guidelines remain in place.
...
The developer cited the “economic climate” as the reason to switch
architects. The new arena is expected to cost about $800 million, or $200
million less than Mr. Gehry’s design. In the initial renderings, the
arena looks like an airplane hangar.
The economic climate excuse is a crutch, there are bigger reasons Gehry was dumped,
such as his
plans became unrealistic years ago. The article continues:
Mr. Ratner, who has been plagued by lawsuits and a flagging economy, has
already delayed the office building and most, if not all, of 6,000 planned
apartments — 40 percent of which were set aside for low-, moderate- and
middle-income families. He is racing to start building the arena by the end
of the year to qualify for tax-exempt financing.
Critics, and even some supporters, say that Mr. Gehry’s departure
contributes to a sense that Mr. Ratner is slowly stripping away the very things
that garnered support for his ambitious project — world-class architecture,
affordable housing and an unusual arena that fit into an urban landscape.
Mr. Gehry, who has already been paid tens of millions of dollars for his
work on Atlantic Yards, was a key marketing element for the development from
the start. He and an early model of the basketball arena were prominent props
(along with Jay-Z
and Bernard King) at a pep rally on Dec. 10, 2003, at Brooklyn Borough Hall,
where Mr. Ratner unveiled his original plan shortly after buying the Nets.
Promotional materials distributed in the neighborhood featured Mr. Gehry’s
involvement. And Atlantic Yards’s “general project plan”
from December 2006 stated: “It is currently anticipated that the buildings
would be based on designs from Frank Gehry, a world-renowned architect.”
Andy Newman contributed reporting.
