View of Atlantic Yards from Flatbush Avenue (Gehry Partners)

NEW YORK, NY May 05, 2008 —Developer Bruce Ratner is giving himself two more years to finish the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, from 2016,to 2018, because he's having trouble acquiring the land for the massive project.

Ratner also unveiled a new design for the two buildings and the arena which make up the first phase. The signature building, Miss Brooklyn, has been renamed Building One, and scaled back by more than 100 feet. As part of an agreement made more than a year ago, it will no longer tower over the landmark Williamsburg Bank Building.

Property owners and tenants have taken Ratner's firm to court over the use of eminent domain. Three lawsuits are still pending or in the works. A coalition of neighborhood and civic groups led by the Municipal Art Society are calling on Governor Paterson to make sure the 22-acre site doesn't become a parking lot while Ratner works out the details of the project's later phases.

New images of the planned Atlantic Yards project from Gehry Partners

An image of an earlier Miss Brooklyn design from Gehry Partners