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Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn is dead, says its architect Frank Gehry BY JOTHAM SEDERSTROM DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Updated Tuesday, March 24th 2009, 6:49PM Rendering of aerial view of Bruce Ratner's proposed Atlantic yards development, which has been trapped in limbo for months and is likely dead, accordingto its architect, Frank Gehry. The multi-billion Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn is dead, according to one who should know: the "starchitect"who was going to build it. Asked by a trade paper about "unrealized commissions" he most wishes had been built, famed 80-year-old architect FrankGehry brought up Atlantic Yards. "I don't think it's going to happen," he told the Architect's Newspaper in an interview publishedonline. The comment suggests the troubled relationship between Gehry and developer Bruce Ratner is over. "While Ratner's project is a big questionmark, it appears to be clear that his star architect - a key selling point for the project, its sponsors and Barclays bank - is no longer working on theproject," said Daniel Goldstein, a member of the anti-Yards group Develop Don't Destroy. Ratner's controversial $4.2 billion project has beenstalled because the bad economy has dried up financing. Gehry's Los Angeles-based design firm laid off all two dozen employees working on the AtlanticYards project in November. The sprawling project included a NBA basketball arena and five soaring Lego-like towers. A second phase of 11 towers, affordablehousing and public space was also planned but never finalized. Mayor Bloomberg this week suggested the project may still get built - but on a smaller scale andwithout Gehry. "It would be sad if Atlantic Yards gets built without the Gehry design, which would've been phenomenal for this city," Bloombergsaid. "I gather at this point it looks like that the only ways Ratner's going to get that done is to do it at a lower cost and not to do everything atthe same time."
