A rendering of the Barclays Center
The Barclays Center — Forest City Ratner’s massive, controversial arena and residential project in Brooklyn — has inspired many feelings, but they have generally been colorful. No more, the Wall Street Journal reported — the architecture for the residential portion of the project, unveiled last month, ends up doing something the project as a whole has never done: bore people.
Forest City hopes to work with engineering firm Arup and manufacturer XSite Modular to build the modular units they have decided on at a factory space in somewhere New York City — Forest City is looking at sites in Brooklyn, the Journal said. The units would then be shipped to the site.
This plan still requires approval from building unions, and when approved, Forest City hopes to break ground next year.
The current designs show three box-like towers in glass and steel; the apartment towers are divided to avoid building hulking towers that are out of scale with the neighborhood, the Journal said.
The problem, the Journal said, is the money saved by going with modular structures did not translate into spending more money on the architecture. In fact, the design is “the most bland statement possible,” the paper’s Robbie Whelan said. He concluded: “Great architecture is still simply too expensive for the borough, even at its most important redevelopment project.” [WSJ]
