The captains of architecture and engineering practices across the New York region were already enduring hard times in the past year, and didn’t need reminders of how bad things were. But in June came news that one of the region’s most ambitious design efforts was retreating.
Forest City Ratner Cos. – developer for the $4.9 billion, 7-million-sq-ft, 17-building Atlantic Yards complex in Brooklyn, that was to be anchored by a transcendent sports arena design – announced it was no longer using “starchitect” Frank Gehry and his firm, Gehry Partners, to design buildings in the project in favor of others who will shepherd more modest plans. The developer blamed the sour economy, strained budgets, and litigation aiming to derail the effort. It all had made Gehry’s grand but costly approach just not right for the times.