{"id":4050,"date":"2009-06-09T07:21:45","date_gmt":"2009-06-09T11:21:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=4050"},"modified":"2009-06-09T19:17:56","modified_gmt":"2009-06-09T23:17:56","slug":"city-of-glass-shards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/city-of-glass-shards","title":{"rendered":"City of Glass Shards"},"content":{"rendered":"

In our last Unrequired Reading<\/a>, I noted that Frank “curved metal surfaces” Gehry had been bounced as the architect of the Atlantic Yards (AY) arena project for the Nets, in favor of a design that will shave $150-$200 million from construction costs. At the time, I laughed over the depiction of the new arena design as an “airplane hangar.”<\/p>\n

Now NYTimes’ architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff \u00e2\u20ac\u201d whom I’ve goofed on many a time<\/a> \u00e2\u20ac\u201d offers up a cri de coeur against city politics and real estate development<\/a>, treating Mr. Gehry’s dismissal by developer Forest City Ratner as a “blow to the art of architecture” and a “shameful betrayal of public trust.”<\/p>\n

Architecture, we are being told, is something decorative and expendable, a luxury we can afford only in good times, or if we happen to be very rich. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most important is to build, no matter how thoughtless or dehumanizing the results.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mr. Ouroussoff (the spelling of his name changes from byline to byline, seemingly, so if you look him up, you might try to search a variant spelling with one “s”) twice characterizes the original design for the surrounding AY buildings as evoking tumbling or falling shards of glass, as though that’s a positive thing, while the replacement design for the Nets’ arena by Ellerbe Becket goes within one sentence from “just sits there, adding nothing” to “deadly.” You really need to read it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What I find sad\/funny about this is that Mr. Ouroussoff seems only now to realize that real estate developers (including Forest City Ratner) generally don’t give a crap about architecture. They care about getting land cheap and making lots of money. And speaking of lots<\/a>. . .<\/p>\n

(Don’t get me started on how Mr. Ourousoff’s newspaper managed to demolish numerous businesses<\/a> in the process of putting up its brand new building, which was developed by . . . Forest City Ratner!)<\/p>\n

At one point, Mr. Ourousoff remarks that the abandonment of Mr. Gehry’s design is “the betrayal of a particular community,” but manages throughout the article to skirt the issue of the betrayal (and destruction) of the existing community. After all, it’s a busy intersection and, well . . .<\/p>\n

Some people argued that it was overscaled \u00e2\u20ac\u201d traffic would be a nightmare \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and that it would destroy the character of the neighborhood. But to those of us who defended it, Mr. Gehry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s design was an ingenious solution to a seemingly intractable problem, one that would provide a focal point for an area (and arguably a borough) that could use some cohesion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To me, it looks like Mr. Gehry was answering a question that no one was really asking. Except Forest City Ratner.<\/p>\n

Bonus! I’m reminded of something I read about Donald Trump in the last year or so. An interviewer asked him why he doesn’t commission big-name architects to design really fantastic buildings. He replied (I’m paraphrasing), “Why bother? Between the zoning laws and the activist groups, it all gets stripped down to a big tower anyway.” So he cuts out the middleman and goes right for the big, uninteresting tower.<\/em><\/p>\n

Double-Bonus! The best website I read about the ongoing disaster of AY is Atlantic Yards Report<\/a>. And if you’re looking for more examples of what’s lost through NYC’s gentrification, visit Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Triple-Bonus! NYmag.com offers an entertaining distillation of the article<\/a>!
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In our last Unrequired Reading, I noted that Frank “curved metal surfaces” Gehry had been bounced as the architect of the Atlantic Yards (AY) arena project for the Nets, in favor of a design that will shave $150-$200 million from construction costs. At the time, I laughed over the depiction of the new arena design … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “City of Glass Shards”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[25,46,19],"tags":[725,726,262,287],"class_list":["post-4050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-architecture","category-design","category-urban-issues","tag-atlantic-yards","tag-bruce-ratner","tag-frank-gehry","tag-nicolai-ouroussoff"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-13k","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2455,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/new-orleans-beijing-same-difference","url_meta":{"origin":4050,"position":0},"title":"New Orleans, Beijing: Same Difference","author":"Gil","date":"September 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Nicolai Ouroussoff: still here, still batshit-crazy. He asks why, if China could make a major architectural statement out of Beijing, the U.S. won't do the same in . . . New Orleans. No, really. Somehow, he misses the points that Beijing is the capital of a burgeoning world power, while\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Orleans"","block_context":{"text":"New Orleans","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/travel\/new-orleans"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3214,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/writing-on-buildings","url_meta":{"origin":4050,"position":1},"title":"Writing on Buildings","author":"Gil","date":"January 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Just because the NYTimes' architecture critic lives on another planet (lemme tell you, Nicolai: the problem with starchitecture is not that it failed to focus on public housing), that doesn't mean there isn't good writing about architecture in other newspapers. Dwell's blog offers up a bunch of them!","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5082,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-march-12-2010","url_meta":{"origin":4050,"position":2},"title":"Unrequired Reading: March 12, 2010","author":"Gil","date":"March 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"It's Unrequired Reading time! You know you wanna check out this week's load o' links! London: the past ain't what it used to be. * * * The hidden thread of Martin Scorsese. * * * I've written before about how NYTimes architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff sucks. Here's a designer's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0307273539","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3773,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/building-perspective","url_meta":{"origin":4050,"position":3},"title":"Building Perspective","author":"Gil","date":"April 9, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Nicolai Ouroussoff seems to be celebrating restraint in his review of the Standard, a new hotel on 13th St. in NYC: These are simple but powerful moves. And they are a reminder that enveloping a structure in a flamboyant wrapper is not always the most effective way to create lasting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":608,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unreal-city-under-the-brown-fog-of-a-winter-dawn","url_meta":{"origin":4050,"position":4},"title":"Unreal city, under the brown fog of a winter dawn","author":"Gil","date":"July 5, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay, I've goofed on Frank Gehry before, with his \"Ooh! Look at me! I'm using curved metal surfaces AGAIN!\" But nothing really prepared me for his inane new design for Brooklyn, centering on Bruce Ratner's new NBA arena for the Nets (guess what? It uses curved metal surfaces!) Yes, as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2110,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/towering-folly","url_meta":{"origin":4050,"position":5},"title":"Towering! Folly?","author":"Gil","date":"June 22, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"A few weeks ago, the NYTimes published a magazine supplement about architecture or something. It included this meandering ramble about building cities that have no history. 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