Gothamist: Unexpected Bid for Atlantic Railyards

Charles

Sun, 18 Sep 2005 11:39:58 -0500

After years of traffic congestion and driving delays on the Alantic Ave. Mall we are now told that an even larger area of our neighborhood will be a nightmare of traffic jams for more than four years.And would someone please tell me where the owners of the 18,000 cars coming into the area to these games will park? And what about the tenants of these 60 story buildings will park.The plans call for a parking garage with a capacity of only 5,000 cars... My wife and I are new home owners and to think that our investment could be harmed by a project of this size makes us ill...

hijiki

Fri, 08 Jul 2005 06:56:47 -0500

i live in prospect hieghts too, but i don't want a vote. 'democratizing' projects like this would only paralyze them. we'd end up with the lowest common denominator. i'd rather have community leaders who can make wise decisions free of corruption and who will listen to the honest concerns of the people they represent. that's how democracy works in the real world. logan, your world already exists in eastern europe. plenty of boring, functional apartment blocks there that have no style whatsoever. see why it does matter what they look like? and you're wrong, true architecture never goes out of style... name one celebrated architect of gehry's stature who's work is 'out'.

ratnerville

Fri, 08 Jul 2005 01:37:22 -0500

OassisNY said it best. Gehry came up with an "undulating" obnoxious mess over a two year period. What Extell has shown is an early stage model done in a few weeks. the architectural design isn't there yet as far as I can tell. give it some time to flesh it self out. leaving the neighborhood intact should be primary. and the Extell plan wouuld go through ULURP where architectural issues would be worked out. 42 days for bid submission, is ludicrous and irresponsible of that thug Kalikow. ESPECIALLY when he's been sitting on Bruce Ratner's lap for at least 2 years.

OasisNY

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 21:31:30 -0500

Vote? Democracy - hah, that's a good one. So Brooklyn should be happy with a carbon-copy of what Frank Gehry has been slapping up for 15-odd years now? Given the fact that Extell was given all of 7 weeks to throw their bid together, it's a wonder that they even had time to produce a model at all. Of course, the MTA wouldn't want a real bidding process when they could just force working people to pay higher fares.

logan

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 16:22:06 -0500

The problem, bob, is that people can be forced to give up their property for what is actually not good for the community. I like that this plan only uses the rail yard areas, leaving the residential blocks alone. It doesn't matter if the buildings look boring. It matters if they work well. All buildings go out of style sooner or later -- Gehry's context-insensitive monsters go sooner than most. Is there someplace we can vote on this? I live in Brooklyn. I want a vote.

bob denver

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 11:52:06 -0500

Looks like a string of boxcars. People don't want to be loaded like cattle into a 1970's style urban plan like this. Gehry should win. If people don't want to sell their buildings then the whole thing should be called off.

hr

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 11:04:47 -0500

aren't those all projects, section 8 & low-income housing on the left side of Atlantic Ave there where all those new buildings are going up?

eddie

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 10:46:55 -0500

and miss out on all the fun news?!..get real, Frank Gehry is here to stay.

hijiki

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 10:37:04 -0500

i'm with jesus. brooklyn developers have an awful track record. that atlantic center mall is a cobbled mess of the cheapest materials. look at those arches... the spans aren't even consistent. and that pile of prefab junk they just built over the train station... brooklyn deserves thoughtful design and pride in craftsmanship, not these vertical strip malls and cul de sacs.

teddie

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 10:12:13 -0500

Then maybe you should start living under a rock, Eddie.

eddie

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 09:54:10 -0500

Frank Gehry, Frank Gehry, Frank Gehry...I am so sick of hearing about this guy.

Captain Midnight

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 09:35:18 -0500

I'm sorry, but it still looks the the Great Wall of Brooklyn.

jesus christo

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 09:15:06 -0500

great, just another trite and unoriginal project - why didn't they get an architect of the caliber to come up with a design that would, even if smaller in scope, at least rival those of ghery? this plan looks just seems to be a continuation of the dull architecture that defines the high rise buildings in the borough--from the countless identical housing projects to the jehova witness buildings in DUMBO. if it's going to be smaller, fine, but jesus, come up with something interesting.

Joe

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 08:51:49 -0500

Thank God a developer stepped up to provide an alternate plan for the Atlantic Yards. Ratner is a modern Robert Moses--he has no sense of proportion, no sense of community. I have lived in Brooklyn my entire life, and I can't imagine living elsewhere. But should Ratner prevail, my home borough will forever be destroyed. I think that Manhattan-sized projects should be left in Manhattan. Joe