SHoP principal Gregg Pasquarelli and a rendering of Dean Street, site of the future AY apartment building

Forest City Ratner has tapped architectural firm ShoP to design B2, the first apartment building planned for Atlantic Yards, along Dean Street, the Observer reported. When SHoP principal Gregg Pasquarelli unveiled new designs in September for the public plaza at the foot of the Barclays Center Arena, he said he would love to design some of the project’s buildings. At Tuesday’s Brooklyn Real Estate Roundtable, Forest City Ratner executive vice president MaryAnne Gilmartin emphasized the affordable housing elements of the company’s master plan for the 22-acre Atlantic Yards site, The Real Deal reported. [more]

A long, circuitous and, some say, torturous path remains for Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner of Forest City Ratner Companies until the project can begin construction. After six years of planning and maneuvers, including ditching starchitect Frank Gehry and snagging funds from an eccentric Russian billionaire with a legendary penchant for basketball, sources say that the developer has already sunk $300 million into the project. The polarizing Ratner told Crain’s that while one of the biggest points of contention on the project is his lack of transparency with his plans, he doesn’t see the need to remedy the situation. “Why should people get to see plans?” Ratner said. “This isn’t a public project. We will follow the guidelines,” such as land use regulations.

Gregg Pasquarelli, founding principal of new Atlantic Yards Nets arena designer SHoP Architects, told the New York Observer that the firm was hoping to use Ellerbe Becket’s design as a starting point to “push the building into the next realm of architecture.” Pasquarelli said the firm decided to go ahead with the project, despite the criticism the architects knew it would face, because they were convinced, after meeting with Bruce Ratner, that he “really wanted to make a great building.” The firm would also be interested in designing some of the buildings around the arena, Pasquarelli said, and it might still be possible to nestle the arena inside towers, a feature of Frank Gehry’s original design. But tighter zoning envelopes make it increasingly harder to do cutting edge designs in New York, Pasquarelli said.

Yesterday the office of Bruce Ratner, Atlantic Yards developer and Forest City Ratner Companies CEO, released renderings of a new design for the stadium he hopes to develop at Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn. As so often in New York, it represents an odd, even cynical, compromise. You may recall that the original stadium, a shimmering and iconic titanium mirage, was designed by Frank Gehry. Immediately controversial and expensive, it divided New York between those who opposed it in the name of preserving Brooklyn’s small-town spirit and those who loudly endorsed it in the name of progressive architecture. All of that was rendered moot, however, when Gehry was unceremoniously fired from the development back in June. Whatever one thought of his design — and some of us thought very little of it — at least it had guts and personality to spare. (See rendering of the new space after the jump.) [more]

Atlantic Yards developer Forest City Ratner has hired architecture firm SHoP to assist in designing the Nets basketball arena planned for the project, a source informed of the decision told the New York Observer. Forest City Ratner dropped starchitect Frank Gehry from the project in early June, hiring design firm Ellerbe Becket to complete the arena. SHoP, which has been hired for design projects including a remake of South Street Seaport and an East River esplanade, will be assisting Ellerbe. [more]