Atlantic Yards or Atlantic Lots?
These past few days have been a big one for Atlantic Yards news. Saturday, hundreds of protesters led by three opposition groups and several politicians rallied at the Atlantic Yards footprint, calling for a halt to demolition until developer Forest City Ratner can provide details on its plans and assurances that it has the financing…
These past few days have been a big one for Atlantic Yards news. Saturday, hundreds of protesters led by three opposition groups and several politicians rallied at the Atlantic Yards footprint, calling for a halt to demolition until developer Forest City Ratner can provide details on its plans and assurances that it has the financing to see them through. They were met by a 50 percent larger group of counter-protesters, estimated Atlantic Yards Report blogger Norman Oder, who proceeded to comment on the ethnicity, neighborhood of residence and motivation of each one. On Sunday, Bruce Ratner penned an op-ed piece in the Daily News blaming construction delays on the project’s “rigorous public review” and legal challenges waged by opponents. He said “the delays have pushed us into a time when the economy has slowed, and both financing and tenant commitments are more challenging to obtain. But contrary to rumors, large deals are still getting done, and in the past year alone we have closed on the two largest construction financing in our company’s history, totaling over $1.3 billion. Atlantic Yards will be no different.” Ratner said the company’s first goal is to break ground on the Barclays Center (Nets basketball arena) this year, then the first residential building. “As for Miss Brooklyn, Frank Gehry’s signature commercial tower, a targeted marketing campaign to identify an anchor tenant is currently underway. When that tenant is confirmed, we will finalize plans and start building,” he wrote. He said the whole thing would be completed by 2018, which opponents called crazy talk.
Today, the New York Post obtained renderings commissioned by the Municipal Arts Society depicting how the project’s footprint would look as economic woes stall its construction indefinitely. They name it “Atlantic Lots” after the sea of parking lots that surround the arena and lone tower the developer said he’d work on first. Ratner spokesman Loren Riegelhaupt responded, “Frankly, this is so far from anything even remotely resembling what we are building that it’s not worth commenting on further.” For one thing, he said, the developer would mostly likely plant trees (you know, temporarily) on that big grey slab surrounding the arena. Also today, the Daily News has an article proclaiming “Miss Brooklyn is slashed more than 100 feet in a massive redo” from 620 feet to 511 feet. That of course happened before the project was approved Dec. 2006, but the new model looks substantially different, “replaced by an asymmetrical design that rises like a spiraling Lego structure.” State officials told the newspaper Miss Brooklyn would only have 650,000 square feet of office space and no condos or hotel. But a construction timetable for the project’s signature tower was not given, and an anchor tenant still needs to be secured before it can ever get financing. They also unveiled that red building to the right of Miss Brooklyn, also a revised design. Technically, the Post and Daily News models are not competing visions, they just depict different stages of construction. As usual, the Atlantic Yards Report has a meticulous dissection of everything. And a Metro columnist says the city would be better off if the Nets just went to Newark.
Ratner: AY Dead? Dream On [Daily News]
The Future is ‘Blight’ [NY Post]
Atlantic Yards’ Miss Brooklyn is Slashed [Daily News]
Opponents say Ratner’s Time Line for AY is Pie in the Sky [Daily News]
Nets to Newark Could be a Blessing [Metro]
Bruce Ratner: Put Up or Shut Up! [Daily Gotham]
Not a Done Deal: Time Out Rally Met With Counter-Protest [Daily Gotham]
Original aerial photos in Municipal Arts Society models by Jonathan Barkey
How do I know you have a job?
If you do, you are clearly wasting your bosses time and money.
You should be fired!
Amen 7:30
here’s the kind of brain melting idiocy that pretty much sums up commenters here who can’t seem to unerstand why anyone would oppose Atlantic yards. someone above wrote:
“The fact that 400 gentrifiers could stand in the way of Atlantic Yards getting built is pretty mind blowing”
Okay. lets use your logic. There were maybe 600, or let’s say 800, people organized by Forest City Ratner out to “suppor the project.”
So, how can we possible let a project go forward that only has the support of 600-800 people? I mean, how could we, there are over 2 million people in Brooklyn, and only 600-800 support Atlantic Yards? that’s pathetic.
never mind the fact that so called “gentrifiers” are the ones pushing the project forward. its jus that they happen to sit on the Upper East Side or up in their country estates and were too busy to join their brethren in their absurd “counter protest.”
“What job are you all at right now? I’m telling your boss that you troll blogs all day! Losers”
At least we HAVE jobs. What’s your excuse?
4:27
R10 zoning doesn’t explicitly regulate height, so I don’t know where your 60-story number comes from. There would likely be few towers of that size given sky exposure constraints.
The Williamsburg Savings Bank, by the way, is constructed to about a 20.0 FAR – twice what I am proposing. 47 Plaza Street, the flatiron building of Park Slope, is for instance constructed with an above grade building area of 15 times the site. Is that such a terrible building? The Park West tower at PPW and President Street is 12 times the site. Again, what is so awful about it? There are dozens of buildings in Brooklyn Heights built to a density that exceeds anything that is allowed in Manhattan today.
You’re missing the point focusing on height and not density or the sky exposure plane regulations. The zoning code as it is was written for a reason. It’s much better to have slender, narrow towers rising to 60 stories than an entire street filled with 20-story buildings. You get much less light with the latter, which was a goal of the zoning code.
Anyway – yes, the AY development does in a small way contribute to solving the housing crisis in New York City. As I said, probably 50-100 such developments that provide a similar number of apartments would have to be built to really make a difference – but it is a step in the right direction.
Here’s an example unrelated to real estate. If, by some stroke of luck, the price of bread suddenly increased by 10 times, and I decided to start farming wheat on 100,000 acres I keep as a nature sanctuary, wouldn’t you think that would contribute to the price of bread dropping?
Let’s just say Ratner really was building 300,000 apartments instead 6,000 – you don’t think that would result in the price of apartments falling?
Think about it.
2:57
No pollution isnt a NIMBY issue at all – in fact it is a global issue – which I have to beleive you know.
and BTW – cockroaches lead to ashma far more than pollution – – ever wonder why less dense Brooklyn is hit with far more ashma then manhattan?
3:14
I think the appropriate density next to one of the largest transit hubs (by # of lines) in the U.S. – is essentially as big as can economically be built.
I am no fan of the architect or the designs for AY – but in terms of density – this area is a unique location that will never be available in NYC again – are you serious about a pedestrian & mass-transit oriented future or not – that is what density in this location is all about.
A rich mix of New Yorkers. All incomes, races, and ethnicities. Apartments will be assigned according to income, which by itself guarantees that the residents will be diverse in every way.
Really? Sounds to me like you have been smoking something good. Please to share. Based on income? Where you getting these lovely fables from? If that were the case, that would be lovely. The only income it is based on is those of rich folks. Going up?
Correction…you will have people far “worse” than what you call a nimby or yuppie. That is what is the most hilarious about your hatred, towards people you do not know thing one about.
By the way, union activity is also an amazing thing. Without unions, you and others would not have paid sick time, vacation time, lunch hours, safety rules, labor laws, holidays off, etc.
DUH. But you can be damn sure the people in the small mill towns around the country who started the unions, did not give a rat’s ass about stadiums that bring profits to a bunch of rich white guys.
Pointing out that one dddb person after 5 years might get paid, is just a ridiculous point.
I support unions. I don’t support unions bulldozing one building, just to build another. Not when they are from Jersey.
Polemicist
Just to translate your zoning technical-ese for the rest of us – “R10 is the highest density residential districting permitted in NYC. This density is found on major avenues and crosstown streets south of 96th Street in Manhattan. The permitted FAR of 10.0 can be increased to 12.0 if a large plaza, arcade or lower-income housing is provided.”
So what you are advocating would allow the entire site to be filled with 60 story towers, every one of which taller than the Williamsburg Savings Bank.
And – I may have missed this turn in the debate – is AY now about solving the housing problem for all of NYC?
BTW, the tallest buildings on PPW and Eastern Prkwy are about 15 stories. I would kiss Ratner’s feet for that kind of scale.
The fact that 400 gentrifiers could stand in the way of Atlantic Yards getting built is pretty mind blowing