|
||||||||||
|
Continuing Sagas: Hudson Yards, Atlantic Lots, and Nouvel's Towerby Sandy Ikeda
Seems like every time I turn around, something interesting is happening at Hudson Yards. A couple of months ago, the MTA, which owns the 26-acre rail yards, chose Tishman Speyer as the principal developer. Then a couple of weeks ago, it was all gloom and doom as Tishman Speyer dropped out, having gotten cold feet in a chilly financial market. But earlier this week Related/Goldman Sachs came to the rescue, pleased as punch to be getting a second chance after having been passed over on the first go-around. You can read about it here. Here's a link to the Related Web site where you can download a fact sheet on the project, and here is the MTA site showing all five original presentations. Since my first post in this blog was about Hudson Yards, I looked back to refresh my memory about the Related concept. Their proposal was neither my favorite — that went to Brookfield for what I thought was its greater effort to integrate into the existing street grid — nor my least favorite, which was Extell's high-modernist wind-tunnel. Unfortunately, it's almost surely the case that whatever their original vision was, or however it may have changed in the meantime, what finally gets built will bear little resemblance to it. And given what's been happening there lately, it's even problematic whether Related/Goldman Sachs (or anyone else) will be the eventual builder. *** Before Related/Goldman Sachs came riding in on their (very large) white horse, Mayor Bloomberg was reportedly becoming ever more testy in public, according to the Times, which described his recent demeanor as "short-tempered, scolding, even petulant." He still has pretty good reason to be, last week's good news about Hudson Yards notwithstanding. Consider that in the past six months, not only has the latter been on-again off-again, but other Far West Side mega-projects have fallen through, including the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center expansion, construction of the Penn/Moynihan Station/Madison Square Garden, and the loss of a proposed No. 7 subway station. Not to mention cutbacks and delays downtown at Ground Zero and the Fulton subway station, and in Brooklyn at Atlantic Yards (see below). And let's not forget his thwarted (despite his denials to the contrary) ambitions for the presidency. Perhaps the prospect of becoming the next governor of New York may cheer him up. *** Speaking of Atlantic Yards, the Municipal Art Society prepared a sobering slideshow called "Atlantic Lots" depicting the Forest City Ratner/Frank Gehry project 1) as it is now, 2) fully built out, and 3) partially built out. The first series shows the huge border vacuum created by the rail yards themselves, much like Hudson Yards, though without the additional border created by the Hudson River. The second strikingly conveys, in the context of the surrounding neighborhood, the "Emerald-City-turned-inside-out look" typical of mega-projects these days, again, much like Related's Hudson Yards proposal. The third, and most frightening, series shows the most likely scenario in the short and perhaps even long term. The arena-in-a-parking-lot look echoes the very Meadowlands Arena, nestled in the New Jersey swampland, that the NBA Nets have been trying so desperately to leave. And I'm sure FCR didn't pitch this thing to New York State authorities as substituting one huge border vacuum for another. Frank Gehry's architectural response at Atlantic Yards to the shaky economy has been to radically alter the centerpiece of the complex, Miss Brooklyn. This Sun article discusses the changes and contains illustrations. Looking at this thing, what can you say but — Frank Gehry! *** Following up on an earlier post — "CB5 v. Jean Nouvel" — I'm encouraged that the tower that Mr. Nouvel's has designed for the Museum of Modern Art on West 53rd Street was approved unanimously by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, according to a recent Sun article, over the protests of the local community board and block associations. It now has to pass the City Council.
Culture of Congestion Homepage 
|
September 11 Health Bill Stalls; One Backer Blames City Hall Low-Price Laptops Tested at City Schools New Policy Is Sought in Albany After Report on Silver's Travel Bed Bug Boom Is a Boost To One Sector Solons Busy Outside Office, New Income Report Shows Atlantic Yard Project Suffers a Setback Feingold Bill Would Limit Searches of Travelers' Laptops Palin, McCain Decry 'Gotcha' Journalism Gates Calls for a Balanced Military Dispute Over Witness Disrupts Stevens Trial Heart Patients Need Screening For Depression Little Progress Made in Effort To Restore Everglades New York Film Festival Goes Around the World and Back A British Artist Plumbs the Politics of Hunger Barbet Schroeder Can't Be Killed |
Print
Send
RSS
 |