Now that star architect Frank Gehry is out as designer for the Nets’ planned Brooklyn arena, Borough President Marty Markowitz is flip-flopping and claiming it’s for the best.
In December 2003, when developer Bruce Ratner first unveiled his plans for the Atlantic Yards project in Prospect Heights, Markowitz called the Gehry design “world class.”
But yesterday, a day after Ratner announced that Missouri-based Ellerbe Becket had been tapped to replace Gehry so arena costs could be shaved, Markowitz told The Post he now believes Gehry’s glass-and-steel design was “too ultramodern.”
“I think the new design is actually better for Brooklyn,” said Markowitz, the project’s biggest booster.
Gehry declined comment.
Given the tough economic climate, Ratner wants a cheaper arena design to shave costs from $950 million to $800 million.
Mayor Bloomberg yesterday said that from a business side, he understood why.
“Frank Gehry, who is a genius, designed a spectacular [arena],” the mayor said on his radio show. “But I think Ratner came to the conclusion, in this day and age, you just cannot finance something as complex to build.”
“There’s no such thing as a straight wall with Frank. Frank is into curves.”
Meanwhile, the activist group Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn mocked the planned Barclays Center for now resembling an “airplane hangar,” adding that the entire project needs to be resubmitted for state approval because it is vastly different than what was approved in 2006.
But Empire State Development Corp. President Marisa Lago told The Post the redesign includes “all of the design standards” originally approved.