The project, announced in 2003, was supposed to take a decade. Then it was supposed to be finished by 2016. Now the target date is 2019, but most people believe it would take much longer. Contracts allow the project to linger 25 years.

The much-touted original project architect, Frank Gehry, was dropped in order to "value-engineer" the Barclays Center arena, designed by the firm Ellerbe Becket, which designed Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, with a pre-rusted metal "skin" by SHoP, a buzzy New York firm. SHoP is also designing the first residential tower, which would be the tallest building ever built via modular construction.

Early reviews of the arena have ranged from rhapsodic to mixed, though mostly positive. Still, it's difficult to evaluate the entire unbuilt arena block, much less the full project. Initial arena operations provoked a couple of surprises: less traffic than feared, but a shut down of one major street, at least in the early weeks, and leaking bass from certain concerts. There's still labor unrest, as the photo below indicates.

The project, which received official approvals in December 2006, was changed somewhat and was re-approved in September 2009 by the unelected Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC). After the dismissal of major lawsuits, the groundbreaking for the arena was held on March 11, 2010. The arena opened Sept. 28, 2012, though controversy lingers: the state agency and developer Forest City Ratner lost a lawsuit filed by community groups, and the ESDC must conduct a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement regarding the impact of a potential 25-year buildout.

"It may surprise some given my developer DNA, that I identify more with Jane Jacobs than Robert Moses," declared MaryAnne Gilmartin, the new CEO of Forest City Ratner. Does the Atlantic Yards project bear that out? 

Or can inclusion of mixed-use development be Jacobsian in itself? After all, as critic Paul Goldberger has written, following Jacobs today has less to do with "a physical model for city form than a perceptual model of skepticism."



In 2-2.5 hours, we'll first start in nearby Fort Greene getting a sense of the the crossroads location and the history of development around the site. We'll then walk to the arena plaza--officially temporary--with its important new subway entrance to the Atlantic Avenue transit hub.

Among the issues: the scale of the project, the role of "smart growth," transportation access and traffic challenges, interim surface parking; the provision of open space (initially designed by Laurie Olin), the claims of blight (is the neighborhood blighted?),  the provision of affordable housing, and developer Forest City Ratner's history in Brooklyn, including two malls near the project site. (One sits on land once proposed for a new Brooklyn Dodgers stadium.) 

We'll see the buildings that are left, as well as evidence of the ones demolished. We'll also see the new businesses that are trying to take advantage of the arena, as well as sites that likely will have new operators in the near future. We'll continue to the rest of the project site, including the parking lot, the under-construction railyard, and the adjacent historic district.

Proponents tout "jobs, housing, and hoops," including a restoration of Brooklyn to the major league status it lost when the baseball Dodgers left for Los Angeles in 1957. They also point to the need to develop over the MTA's Vanderbilt Yard, a functioning railyard but a gap between gentrifying Prospect Heights and Fort Greene. 

The project would be very dense, involving 6430 apartments. Among them would be 2250 subsidized rentals, part of a negotiation with the housing advocacy group ACORN, which has generated significant political support for the project. But there's little chance that the project benefits would be delivered within a decade, the official timetable, or even in the configuration promised.


 

Details

Meeting place TBD.