“When it comes to sharing information with the public and governmental bodies, there’s no such thing as too much, as far as we are concerned."

Tale of Two Renderings

... A Forest City Ratner spokesman did not respond to a request for comment from The Brooklyn Paper...

...As soon as Caring Bruce Ratner said the Nets weren't for sale and were still on their way to Brooklyn, I immediately imagined the team bus making a U-turn and heading for Newark...

Site 5 "central" to AY goal, but delay was expected, says ESDC
Atlantic Yards Report

The new renderings produced by Frank Gehry do not include Site 5, the tower on the wedge of land between Pacific Street and Atlantic, Flatbush, and Fourth avenues, currently home to P.C. Richard and Modell's. Previous renderings (right) did include Site 5.

The General Project Plan approved by the Empire State Development Corporation in December 2006 suggested that Site 5 was a priority:
The development of both Site 5 and Building 1, with high density buildings, is central to the goal of the Project to transform this very public and prominent area by creating architecturally significant buildings that would ring, and be connected to, the transit hub, and by developing uses that would activate and create a vibrant streetscape experience for the public.

Status of Site 5

Based on the renderings, my surmise is that either the building has been dropped, or its construction has been postponed. I asked ESDC spokesman Warner Johnston for information.

He responded, "Site 5 was never contemplated to be one of the first buildings and will be done in a future phase."

He's right that that buildings on the arena block, rather than across Flatbush Avenue, were the first buildings expected in Phase 1--though Site 5 has long been part of Phase . Still, the absence of a Gehry rendering, much less a mention by developer Forest City Ratner of Site 5 in Monday's press release, is reason to wonder about the timetable, as was its omission at an Investor Day discussion last October. (FCR told Crain's the building would be developed separately.)
...

New Port Authority Chief Not So Sure About This Atlantic Yards
New York Magazine's Daily Intel. — Alec Appelbaum

Chris Ward, due to take over the Port Authority this month, suggests to us that he thinks Bruce Ratner should consider recruiting architects other than Frank Gehry for the Atlantic Yards. “Flatbush and Atlantic is a totally underused area and a major transportation hub, and I hope we don't lock ourselves into a design that does not allow other architecture or public space,” says Ward. That design is entirely Gehry's; even after Ratner admitted his multi-tower vision might not attract financing, public officials have kept the architect front and center. “Bruce, with his optimism, is probably feeling that he doesn't have to worry about those contingencies,” Ward continues. “But it would be worthwhile to pay attention to the real-estate risks there.”
...

Ward will have a lot of influence over state spending if the developer needs a cash influx.

Full article.

Increasingly Cautious Lenders Delay Mixed-Use Development
Investor's Business Daily
by Brad Kelly

Shy lenders are trying to avoid mingling with "mixed use." They're putting brakes on developments that blend offices and stores with condominiums, apartments and hotels.

Before the housing bubble's pop and a crunch in credit, developers drew up many mixed-use plans. They were a way to enliven urban blocks and use space economically.

But now it's harder to find lenders who'll back all parts of a project. They vary in which parts of mixed-use they fear.
Some consider office and residential aspects to be higher-risk, says Scott Lynn, a principal at Dallas investment bank Metropolitan Capital Advisors. It's far tougher today, he says, to get financing for mixed-use plans that are part residential, vs. a sole-use retail property.

"Banks are terrified of the residential market and see retail or hotel projects as a safer loan," he said, citing better assurance of income in the latter categories.
...

Developers across the U.S. are delaying mixed-use projects as lenders back away, concerned that risks outweigh returns. High construction costs and worsening fundamentals are jeopardizing major plans.
...

Two months ago in New York, Forest City Ratner Cos. warned of difficulties with office and residential parts of Atlantic Yards, a $4 billion, 22-acre Brooklyn project. Given lack of demand in both niches, the firm said, it would be hard to get enough leasing commitments to secure financing. This week it issued new designs and outlined a 10-year construction schedule that does include offices and residences.

Full article.

Missing green roof joins list of promises broken; will it impact EIS lawsuit?

In the list of Atlantic Yards promises broken, the newly-revealed loss of a green roof (3+ acres) on the arena follows 1) the decision to make promised publicly-accessible open space on the arena private and 2) the decision to move the project's flagship tower (then called "Miss Brooklyn"), promised to not block views of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank's clock tower, so it would block such views, even with a reduction in height.

The difference might be that the green roof was relied on significantly in the Empire State Development Corporation's environmental review because it would help with stormwater management and thus help prevent against CSOs (combined sewer overflows).

Does its loss invalidate the Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which has been challenged in state court? Unclear. The case was dismissed and is now on appeal, with arguments to be heard in September.
...

From the FEIS chapter on Infrastructure:
Includes detention tanks in Arena block and LIRR, seasonal retention in Arena block, and Arena green roof.

From the chapter on Landscape Design: The proposed publicly accessible open space and the arena’s green roof would absorb some of the rainwater runoff that would otherwise flow directly into the City’s water drainage system.

From the chapter on Open Space:
In addition, approximately one acre of private open space intended for use by the project site tenants would be built on a portion of the roof of the proposed arena.... This green space would be designed with detention and retention basins to limit the amount of runoff that flows directly into the City’s water drainage system (see Chapter 11, “Infrastructure,” for discussion of green design features).

From the Appendix

Here are some excerpts from the report submitted by FCR's consultants, Hydroqual:

The Atlantic Yards plan employs a variety of technologies and stormwater management strategies to meet the FCR goal of not affecting water quality in the Gowanus Canal or East River as compared to the project no-build condition in the planning years 2010 and 2016. These include:
• On-site detention and retention tanks for stormwater with multi-level discharge points to optimize storage
...
• Use of green roof on the arena to intercept portions of runoff from reaching the sewer system during rain events.

FCR retained several consultants to address different aspects of the design related to wastewater and stormwater:
• Judith Nitsch Engineering (JNE) provided engineering and architectural services regarding site design and stormwater management strategies for the project site.... In addition to detention/retention of stormwater, the use of green roofs on the arena as an additional stormwater management feature was evaluated by JNE using computational methods that are applicable at the site level.

Full article.

...Moderator Greg David, editor of Crain’s New York Business, and City Comptroller (and mayoral candidate) William Thompson urged that the project proceed, while Julia Vitullo-Martin of the Manhattan Institute (who called the project "corporate socialism") and Brad Lander of the Pratt Center for Community Development endorsed a rethink, albeit for somewhat different reasons.

Still, Thompson acknowledged, “I’m not sure what that project is any longer”and even dangled the hint that it might be revived by bringing in additional developers, as the city comes to the belated realization that single-developer projects pose certain dangers. He also agreed that most projects should go through ULURP, the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, rather than state review...

(Emphasis added)

Frank Gehry's new Miss Brooklyn - B1
Pasilalinic-Sympathetic Compass

...no one has really covered the Frank Gehry side of this entire disaster of a project, nor has it really been formally critiqued from an aesthetic/design standpoint (though No Land Grab did an admirable job looking at Gehry from an environmental standpoint, which encompasses part of my argument). After the release of the new images of what used to be Miss Brooklyn (and is now simply “B1”) I was entertained. I thought some clever artist had come up with a creative visual pun- showing how the “Atlantic Yards” project was falling in on itself, and they’d made a shoddy model with inwardly collapsing structures to signify this.

I had no idea this wasn’t a joke until I read another few articles featuring the photos and realized this wasn’t a satirical piece.
...

I’d like to address the issue from a side I am yet to really see- why is Frank Gehry, a Canadian-born architect with a long history of poor designs trying to bring a Jenga-like tower into Brooklyn? I work as a graphic designer and went to school for the arts. I absolutely love some modern architecture. I have a great deal of difficulty calling Gehry an architect.

Architecture is defined by efficiently using materials to create structures that fulfill needs. An architect is also an engineer; they must be able to balance aesthetics and beauty with functionality. They must have a knowledge of the space they are about to take on- where it is, what is around it, what their future building or structure will be used for, how best to make it accessible, yet pleasing. A sculptor, by contrast, takes raw materials and creates a piece that can exist in any number of environments. An architect must first consider their environment and create something to exist within it.
...

Frank Gehry seems to think that his works, which I would sooner call sculptures rather than buildings (as a building implies functionality) do not have to exist in accordance with anything but his own vision, and often become alien eyesores amid their surroundings. His ideology would seem as flimsy and haphazard as the models he builds. In 2005, Sydney Pollack filmed a documentary titled “The Sketches of Frank Gehry” which is touted as giving great insight into the way Gehry creates about his deconstructivist forms. I was surprised to find out how vague his ‘sketches’ are, reminiscent of gesture drawings rather than anything even resembling buildings. I was also surprised to find that his method stressed design over function. Every building the man makes seems to start with him playing with paper, foil and popsicle sticks, which would explain why so many of his buildings have required costly alterations once complete to actually make them usable.

Suddenly, all the controversy regarding the poor craftsmanship of his buildings– the stark, often jarring disjointed feeling his structures have when finally built in their respective environments– became understandable. The man creates in a vacuum. He plays and fiddles with paper and cardboard and wonders “does this need to be more corrugated?” before he EVER is heard questioning “but will this allow for proper runoff during a torrential downpour?” The movie waxes on about Gehry’s frustration at trying to achieve a painterly surface, his fight against having to use computers or technology, and ultimately portrays him as an arrogant man determined to leave a mark in the architectural community, regardless of cost, client needs or environmental factors.

A review of the construction process of some of Gehry's past projects have revealed his true colors, from his personal manner of conducting himself, to his steadfast resolve never to compromise on his designs. Gehry not only builds unique, ugly buildings that mar neighborhoods, he often fails to construct them well...

...So what sort of faith are we supposed to have in Miss Brooklyn/B1/Jenga Towers? We’ve been misled from the beginning- Forest City Ratner falsely claimed Gehry was from Brooklyn (he’s Canadian) in a bid to win public accolade, budgets have been blown up for the project from the beginning (the publicly funded arena which had started at $435 million , to $647 million last year, is now hovering around a healthy $950 million) and while subsidized housing is being scaled back, at least we’ll still have hoops!

“B1” is a monstrosity- it looks like a child was building a diorama for a school project when someone bumped into the table before glue set. How the public is even supposed to tell what is what amazes me- I have a trained eye and I can’t make out what the mass of toothpicks at the base of the structure is. I am insulted that Gehry is attempting to use vapid, hollow artist statements to justify a design that he clearly wasn’t expecting to have to defend.

Gehry's defense of the red and pink horror (B2) that towers beside the gold cardboard-box was one of the most patronizing statements I’ve heard issued from the FCR/Gehry camp. The pink and red is supposedly there to “speak to the residential fabric of the neighborhood.” And we, as Brooklynites, are not supposed to know any better, because clearly we do not understand art, and this is great; the man understands our residential fabric! Clearly he understands it better than myself, because last time I looked around the Atlantic Yards footprint, I saw brownstones, row houses, limestone and granite facades and accents. But then again, I’m not even sure if Frank Gehry has even been in Brooklyn. Much has already been written about how Gehry's proposed buildings clash with everything that currently exists in the surrounding neighborhood. I really can’t quite figure out how metallic blue, pink, red, silver, toothpicks, gold and a structure that looks like it barely survived an earthquake speak to Brooklyn’s residential fabric. Apparently I am not the only one who is wondering about this.

But the good news is the new AY design is “more festive” than Miss Brooklyn was. Maybe festivity will get you an anchor tenant this time! But I severely doubt it, because while Forest City Ratner is looking to get $4 billion to complete its Atlantic Yards project, much of which is subsidized funding- for just $49.88 , I can get a bunch of my friends together and we too, if only for an afternoon, can pretend to be architects. And fortunately for Gehry, they even ship to Canada.

Frank 0. Gehry & Associates Inc
1520-B Cloverfield Boulevard Santa Monica, CA 90404 USA
tel 310 828 6088 fax 310 828 2098

Full article.

AY Image Gallery 2006 vs. Image Gallery 2008
Is the Atlantic Yards project really progressing? The current Image Gallery has the exact same renderings by landscape architect Laurie Olin that were unveiled in May 2006 (bottom). Also, it's a smaller gallery because it lacks any images of Site 5, Phase 2, or neighborhood perspectives, flawed as they may be.

Click to enlarge

Nets owner-builder says team grows in Brooklyn, not Newark

...The release of the new design comes less than a week after sources told The Star-Ledger that Newark Mayor Cory Booker and the developer of the city's Prudential Center, Jeff Vanderbeek, are trying to assemble a group of investors to buy the Nets and move them to Newark.

State Senate President Richard Codey said he did not believe the Brooklyn arena could open in two years, given the delays it has faced so far and the turmoil in the real estate market.

Ratner bought the team in 2004 with plans to move it to New York City.

"Four years later, we're getting a rendering?" Codey said yesterday. "It's becoming ridiculous. They're not going to be playing in Brooklyn in 2010."

The Essex County executive, Joseph DiVincenzo, suggested Ratner should take on a large-scale development in Newark.

"Instead of him fighting with the constituents there in Brooklyn we would welcome him here in Newark," DiVincenzo said.

Esmeralda Diaz Cameron, a city spokeswoman, said Newark "would love to have the New Jersey Nets call the city of Newark home."
...

Full article.

Give heave-ho to 'Lego' building, say Atlantic Yards critics

Call it a scrap heap, a life-size land of Legos or, as one critic described it, a post-apocalyptic nightmare - just don't call it fit for Kings County.

One day after the release of scaled-back new designs for the controversial Atlantic Yards project, New Yorkers took a bite out of the spiraling, Lego-like remake of the signature 620-foot Miss Brooklyn building.

"You're kidding, right?" said Anthony Lomastro, 62, when shown renderings of the wild-eyed, glass-and-steel skyscraper, now called Building One. "That looks like it's falling down instead of going up. It's awful."
...

"It looks ugly," said Joseph Charles, 19, of East Flatbush, who said he supports the project. "It looks like scrap metal. The whole NBA thing is good, but not like this."

Crown Heights resident Brian King professed his support for the ambitious project, insisting the 22-acre complex promised to bring needed jobs and basketball. But the architecture? Fat chance, said King.

"It looks like milk crates," said King, 36, before name-dropping another building with similar features. "There's a building on the West Side that looks like that - but better. This one looks like ... a post-apocalyptic Earth or something."

"Why not? It looks fun," said Prospect Heights resident Colin McCabe, 31. "I could see this being like the Empire State Building, with all the lighting schemes. You could light it up at night, and it could be part of the skyline."

Spokesmen for Gehry did not respond to calls.

Atlantic Yards Loses Green Roof for Arena, 2016 Completion Date
by Matthew Schuerman

NEW YORK, NY May 06, 2008 -- Forest City Ratner, the company developing the 22 acres over Brooklyn's Atlantic railyards , says it needs two more years to finish the massive arena and high rise project. It's pushing back its completion date from 2016 to 2018, this as critics continue to wonder whether developer Bruce Ratner has the financing he needs to do the job.

The news came during a roll-out of a redesign of the first phase of the Atlantic Yards, which includes the basketball arena, and two buildings. WNYC's Matthew Scheuermann [sic] discusses the changes with All Things Considered host Amy Eddings.

Opponents say Ratner's time line for Atlantic Yards is pie in the sky
By Jotham Sederstrom

Opponents of Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards panned the rosy picture described Sunday by developer Bruce Ratner, calling his10-year timetable "a departure from reality."

"His project is in serious jeopardy no matter how he spins it," Daniel Goldstein of the anti-Brooklyn Yards group Develop, Don't Destroy Brooklyn said of Ratner's Op-Ed piece in yesterday's Daily News.

In it, Ratner claims his entire NBA basketball arena and skyscraper project will be finished by 2018. Goldstein said a lack of committed financing - including housing bonds - and ballooning construction costs could drag the project into a 20-year ordeal.

"When he says he plans to complete his project in 2018, it's simply not credible," Goldstein said. "It means nothing."

Councilwoman Letitia James (D-Brooklyn) said Ratner offered no new explanation on how he plans to finance the increasingly costly project.

"It's the same plan without definitive financing," said James.
...

James Caldwell, president of the nonprofit Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development, said he continues to back Ratner and the development plan.

"I feel better, especially with the way the economy is right now, that everything is going ahead as planned.

Ratner Extends End Date for Atlantic Yards Project
by Matthew Schuerman

NEW YORK, NY May 05, 2008 —Developer Bruce Ratner is giving himself two more years to finish the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, from 2016,to 2018, because he's having trouble acquiring the land for the massive project...

Continue reading.

The new ‘Miss Brooklyn’

“Miss Brooklyn” is dead — but Bruce Ratner has released new renderings (above) of the 511-foot tower that he hopes will take her place.

Ratner has said he won’t build the Frank Gehry–designed tower, now called “Building B-1,” until he finds an anchor tenant. And he told the New York Times last month that the entire Atlantic Yards project consists of the publicly financed basketball arena (which has taken on even more of Gehry’s signature look) and two smaller buildings around it.

But this weekend, he did an about-face an op-ed in the Daily News .
...

Ratner’s op-ed claimed that Atlantic Yards was right on target, though it repeated that the Miss Brooklyn tower had been eliminated until an anchor tenant is found.

In a subsequent press release issued by Ratner’s company on Monday, he called Gehry’s new designs “elegant.”That echoes what the starchitect told The Brooklyn Paper back in April, when he said that the iconic tower at the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues would “look better than anyone imagines.”

Did Gehry live up to his promise? Is the new non–Miss Brooklyn better than the original? See The Brooklyn Paper this week for full coverage. But in the meantime, please offer your comments below.

Click this link to comment.

Atlantic Yards' Miss Brooklyn is slashed more than 100 feet in massive redo
By Jotham Sederstrom

Miss Brooklyn, the Frank Gehry-designed signature tower of the controversial Atlantic Yards project, has been dumped.
Originally envisioned as a 620-foot residential and commercial tower, the newly named "B1" - or Building One - will be slashed to 511 feet and feature commercial office space only, Gehry said yesterday.

"My enthusiasm for Atlantic Yards has grown and grown until arriving at our current design, which works better with the surrounding area than it ever had before," said Gehry of new designs obtained exclusively by the Daily News.
"Miss Brooklyn, now called Building One, has been slimmed down and has become more festive, resulting in a very unique office building," he said.

"I've tried to give it some energy and excitement as it meshes with the arena design."
...

...The 34-story structure - once expected to rise higher than the Williamsburgh Savings Bank - will now be dwarfed by it. The sleek Miss Brooklyn is replaced by an asymmetrical design that rises like a spiraling Lego structure, edges askew.

The videos include speeches by Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, Councilwoman Letitia James and rally emcee and Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats President Chris Owens.

Click to YouTube

NoLandGrab

Monday-Morning Tabloid War??

Yikes, a tabloid war broke out this morning over, of all things, Bruce Ratner's controversial Atlantic Yards project!

So Miss Brooklyn shaved her head and changed her name, a couple of buildings seem to be missing from the new architectural drawings (including all of Phase 2), there's a rumble in the "temporary" surface parking lot, but is that any reason to go mano-a-mano over a bunch of buildings?

It is if the project includes the use of eminent domain, the most expensive arena (EVER!) and many high-rise towers on 22-acres nestled in the heart of Brownstone Brooklyn, and is facing an uncertain economic climate and mounting delays.

Never mind that Bruce Ratner, who truthfully has trouble telling the truth, is waging a serious publicity campaign, promising to build the entire project in a whopping ten years, flashing his self-proclaimed "progressive" credentials and staging counter-protests.

Does this smack of desperation and vitriol on Ratner's part? Are project critics sensing vulnerability and stepping up their own pr campaign to expose more of the underbelly of the project that's gobbling up Brooklyn?

All we know is that Brooklynites woke up today to two distinct visions of the controversial Atlantic Yards megaproject.
...

Continue reading.

The Furture's 'Blight'
Nightmare Vision of B'klyn Arena

Forget Atlantic Yards - try "Atlantic Lots."

Renderings commissioned by the Municipal Art Society and obtained by The Post reveal for the first time how Bruce Ratner's controversial project in Brooklyn could look - and remain for many years - should the developer continue facing massive delays.

And this vision of the state-approved project isn't attractive - unless parking spaces turn you on.

PHOTO GALLERY: The Atlantic Yards

Renowned architect Frank Gehry's breathtaking 22-acre vision of an NBA arena in Prospect Heights surrounded by 16 monolithic brick, glass and steel high-rises is drastically downsized.

Instead of Gehry's bold new Brooklyn skyline, the independent renderings portray a vision of urban blight: only the planned arena near Atlantic and Flatbush avenues and a lone adjacent residential/office tower remain, surrounded by a series of large "temporary" surface parking and other empty space.

The Municipal Art Society says it commissioned a prominent architecture team - that wished to remain anonymous - to dramatize the impact of the project on surrounding neighborhoods and to get the state to rethink its approval of Atlantic Yards.

"We're concerned that because the project can only be built when the market is ready that the area will be blighted with parking and vacant lots until then, which is bad for Brooklyn," said MAS President Kent Barwick.

"Atlantic Yards is looking more like Atlantic Lots," he added.
...

Continue reading