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SHoP's Pasquarelli Channels Gehry's, Um, Attitude on Atlantic Yards Gig
The Observer's Eliot
Brown interviewed SHoP Architects co-founder Gregg Pasquarelli. They discussed
the Atlantic Yards job Pasquarelli's
firm took in June when Bruce Ratner called them to make something fast, better
and cheaper:
Talking
SHoP About Atlantic Yards
Is it tough being part of a project that is a target of a lot of caustic criticism?
Yeah. We gave serious consideration as to whether we wanted to do it. And I
think the thing that convinced us was, after speaking with Bruce, we were convinced
he really wanted to make a great building. … We showed Bruce—we
didn’t hold back, we said, ‘Here’s what we want to do,’
and it was daring, and, ‘What do you think?’ And he really loved
it, and was incredibly supportive and pushed us to make it as good as possible.
And even knowing that the project was going to have its critics no matter what
we designed, we felt like it’s our role as New Yorkers to try to make
it as good as we could.
Well then, SHoP took the job looking through Ratner-colored glasses, so there
was no need, then, to talk with the community, the civic organizations, the local
elected officials or to those in opposition to Atlantic Yards to gain an understanding
of their perspectives and the principles at stake over the most consistenly controversial
development plan in the city over the past six years. Sounds like SHoP may not
just aspire to Gehry-greatness, but also Gehry-size arrogance.
More from SHoP's Pasquarelli:
What’s [Bruce Ratner] like to deal with?
I like Bruce. He’s very intense. He’s very smart, and he’s
dealing with a lot of things at one time, but I know his heart is really in
making a fabulous design.
Yes, just look at the Atlantic Center Mall and Atlantic Terminal Mall and you'll
know that's true for sure. Or look at Ellerbe Becket's original design which would
have been THE arena design has Amanda Burcen and Nicolai Oouroussoff not killed
it (and SHoP wouldn't be doing this particular interview.) OR, just
listen to Ratner's articulate praise of the SHoP arena design: "It's
beautiful and cool."
More from SHoP's Pasquarelli:
Is it awkward to be designing a project that’s making
a superblock out of something that was a grid? Urban planning is generally going
the other direction.
Over a site that has that much transportation infrastructure, I think it’s
the only ethical, rational, sustainable thing to do to put density, and sometimes
density requires some superblocks.
We're curious if Pasquarelli knows how much density is proposed for the Atlantic
Yards project and therefore be able to understand that there is density and their
is non-ethical, non-rational, non-sustainable extreme
density. Furthermore, density over the proposed Atlantic Yards site
does not, in any way at all, require superblocks. That is a red herring. The superblocks
are to allow a windfall profit for Ratner and the extreme density. Finally, as
we stated in our letter to SHoP
earlier today before this interview hit the web:
Supposedly the justification for a project of this proposed scale
and use is proximity to the Atlantic Terminal transit hub, and therefore it
is trumpeted as a transit-oriented project. But Forest City Ratner plans nearly
4,000 parking spaces and enormous interim surface parking lots—where homes
and businesses once stood—that are likely to perpetuate for decades if
the developer gets control of the 22-acre site.
More from SHoP's Pasquarelli:
What was the task you were given?
The task was, ‘We need you to get up to speed as quickly as possible in
understanding what this building is and all of its constraints, and we need
you to collaborate with Ellerbe Becket. And we need you to do what you do best,
which is figure out a way to make a beautiful building, and figure out a way
to build.'
We're glad to know that this "affordable housing" project is all about
an arena.
And one final thing, which most likely explains one of the principles behind SHoP's
decision to get involved in this quagmire:
It’s kind of odd—they used to do these really boring designs,
and then suddenly with the Times building—
—Suddenly it’s Renzo, Gehry,
and SHoP.
Great company.
We’re honored to be even uttered in the same
sentence.
All pub is good pub, right?
-----------------------------
Reminder:
A Conversation with the Architects of the Barclays Center
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
Brooklyn Borough Hall, Courtroom, 2nd floor
The Empire State Development Corporation hosts a discussion on the new designs
for the Barclays Center with building architects, Bill Crockett, Director of Sports
Architecture at Ellerbe Beckett and Gregg
Pasquarelli, Founding Partner of SHoP.
Click to RSVP.
Posted: 9.14.09
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