A distinctive feature of the new $825-million Barclays Center in Brooklyn is its "pre-weathered" facade of rusted steel panels that give the 675,000-sq-ft arena a been-there-all-along air. The unusual curtain wall of the structure, set to open this fall as the home for the National Basketball Association's Nets, has called for pioneering fabrication techniques on a project that has sometimes progressed by trial and error.
The toughened exterior is also a fitting motif for a development that has endured and been shaped by a host of setbacks that included delays, budget cuts, design changes, legal battles and project team overhauls—not to mention a schedule so tight that it kicked off in March 2010 while some residents fighting eviction still lived in a building smack in the middle of the site.