http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/...ds_arena_.html
Brooklynites call foul on new designs for Atlantic Yards arena project
BY Ben Chapman and Jotham Sederstrom
June 10th 2009
New designs for a proposed NBA basketball arena at the controversial Atlantic Yards site received overwhelmingly poor reviews Tuesday from disappointed Brooklynites.
Described alternately as an airplane hangar and a suburban big-box chain store, designs commissioned by Forest City Ratner got failing grades, even from supporters of the project.
"It looks like an airplane hangar from the '50s - not a good look," said Joe Voden, 40, of Prospect Heights, a supporter of the $4.2 billion project who opposes the new design.
The designs, which a Ratner spokesman and the new architect insisted are not final, are a far cry from the glitzy glass-enclosed arena envisioned by original architect Frank Gehry, who announced last week that he would no longer be involved in the project.
Architecture firm Ellerbe Becket was quietly tapped last year to create a less costly arena, which Ratner officials insisted would retain some of the Gehry flourishes.
And as recently as last Thursday, Ratner officials claimed that the Gehry designs would be used as a "blueprint" for the new arena, the estimated cost of which had soared to a whopping $950 million.
Not so, said Geoffrey Soffer, a television casting director who moved to Prospect Heights from Hell's Kitchen two years ago to live next to what he thought would be a work of art.
"These are obviously two very different designs," said Soffer, 32, who bought a condo nearby. "We've been duped."
For Ron Karp, a Sheepshead Bay resident who was shopping at the nearby Atlantic Terminal Mall Tuesday, the new designs reminded him of the great outdoors, for better or worse.
"It looks like a barn that should have horses and cows out front," cracked Karp, 62, a supporter of the project. "It looks like something you would see when driving upstate."
The design had the opposite effect for Bedford-Stuyvesant resident James Taylor, who noted the new arena design's orange facade looked similar to that of a familiar nationwide retail chain.
"It looks a little like a Home Depot," said Taylor, 19. "It's not as extravagant as I thought it would be."
Prospect Heights writer Aharon Levy was more direct.
"The entirety of the design is dull," said Levy, 34, who is opposed to the Yards project. "It's suburban. We have [garbage] here now and in the future we're going to have [garbage]."
For one new Brooklynite, however, the arena was nothing short of inspiring, a piece of architecture like no other.
"I like the new design better," said a 27-year-old Prospect Heights bartender who grew up in Eastern Europe and gave only her first name, Izabel. "It reminds me of a train station back at home in Poland."