Atlantic Yards Arena: Subject to Change
The architecture team of Ellerbe Becket and SHoP, which designed the Barclays Center arena for the Atlantic Yards development, held a public meeting Monday evening to discuss the new renderings of the arena that were released last week. The biggest news from the meeting was that the current renderings will drastically change: more buildings will…
The architecture team of Ellerbe Becket and SHoP, which designed the Barclays Center arena for the Atlantic Yards development, held a public meeting Monday evening to discuss the new renderings of the arena that were released last week. The biggest news from the meeting was that the current renderings will drastically change: more buildings will be added, such as the “Miss Brooklyn Tower” at the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic, which, in Frank Gehry’s scrapped design, was a gateway to the rest of the project. Other open plazas in the current rendering could become residential towers, but all of this is contingent on the economy. If the economy improves, Forest City Ratner will incorporate these addenda.
Bait and Switch? Designer Admits Rendering Will Change [Brooklyn Paper]
Closing Bell: DDDB’s Letter to SHoP [Brownstoner]
IBO Reports Net Loss from Atlantic Yards Arena [Brownstoner]
Ourousoff Weighs In on Barclay’s Center Design [Brownstoner]
New Barclay’s Center Design Revealed [Brownstoner]
Welcome to the FantasyDome
Gehry is the emperor with no clothes. Overrated and applauded because he’s different. Different is not enough. Undulations are a waste of potential useful space. Have to wear a hard hat when walking by and dodge the falling pieces. Please, almost anyone else but Gehry. As long as the stadium looks better than the detention centers– sorry, I meant malls– across the street, we’ll be able to live with it.
architect66- thank you. I agreed with everything you said. I know as an artist I liked the Gehry Design. The Shop design feels to me like a throwaway.The Ellerbe-Becket design was so pedestrian that the bar wasn’t set very high for anything after that. And I think that’s what annoys me so much about SHop- they really didn’t try very hard.
And maybe the other problem is that stadiums and arenas maybe aren’t urban by nature and that’s why they are so difficult to fit. Perhaps that’s why most of the more successful stadiums in NYC are more on the outskirts or in less dense areas. Yankee Stadium is in a dense area but in the Bronx and close to the river, Keyspan is i Coney Island, Shea out in Queens. But the Ratner arena would be smack dab in the middle of a true urban center.
bxgirl – I don’t believe I have ever commented on the aesthetics of either the Gehry images or the SHoP images. The thing for me about AY is that some people want an arena there so badly that they are willing to sacrifice just about anything to get it. I think that the General Project Plan is unwise, and does not give enough back to the public, and that the costs of the project as planned will outweigh the public benefits, especially when one considers the potential for the site. But obviously not everyone agrees.
Since you asked about a design aesthetic, I like buildings that serve their purpose well, and express that service through their structure. In the case of the arena, I think both the SHoP proposal and the Gehry proposal serve their master well in that they both aspire to be notable works of civic architecture – you only need to look at the Ellerbe Becket response to see how a mediocre building would utterly fail at that location. But on the other hand, both projects are like beautifully designed and crafted dresses – they can be gorgeous as ideas, but they cannot succeed unless they fit the model perfectly.
In this case, the stadium (both the Gehry and the SHoP version) is forced to stand pretty much alone due to the planning priorities of the developer. That may be OK in the suburbs, but it is not the cure for what ails our Brooklyn.
@havelc – Look at the three blank sides facing the streets. Look at the blank plaza which will be mostly a bus and valet drop off. Architects after years of suburban stadiums can’t seem to do urban. I hate the process that has brought us Atlantic Yards, but if we’re going to get it, then put retail around the base, create moments of surprise, make connections to existing and future projects so that it’s not an isolated wicker basket of a building. My $.02
jmcg- what is it that you like about it? What is it that you are looking for in the design aesthetic for a building?
architect66?
The architecture is a diversion. The central problem with the project is not how the arena ‘looks.’ We all have our varying opinions about the aesthetics, but the real issue is the process (corrupt), the overall planning (terrible), the lack of proper infrastructure and traffic planning (minimal), and the giveaways to the developer.
I like the building but I am just an architect!
Let’s build this bad boy!
A stadium built with private funds, on private land acquired without the (mis)use of eminent domain, would be OK with me. I don’t happen to think spectator sports arenas are a good land use in terms of how they interact with their surroundings, but if the developer were doing it on his own dime, I would gladly keep my opinion to myself.