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No matter how many times it gets redesigned, it won't change my position on this. The whole project is part of eminent domain abuse, which should be outlawed rather than allowed for. The arena is nothing more than a trojan horse for what Bruce Ratner is really buildings, which is another fortress-like complex. Let's not forget that it's located by an intersection that is already a problem in which the arena will make it worse. It's already been found that professional sports facilities do not help the areas they are in especially because they are private business. When is Ratner going to pay us all back for his other projects such as Metro Tech Center or either of his malls? Until then, he shouldn't be given anything for this. As a matter of fact, no more corporate welfare for him or any other businessman who wants it. If they want the money, they have to get it themselves rather than at the expense of the taxpayer.

Paul Goldberger, responding to Brian Lehrer's limited summary of the fiscal impact from new taxes and direct subsidies, suggested that "it appears to be on the fence economically."

That's only true if you look at the expected new revenues and direct costs Lehrer mentioned.

A closer look at the IBO report suggests the lost opportunity costs would make it a significant loss for the city (another $180M), plus a loss to the state and MTA.
http://atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.com/2009/09/net-gain-to-ratner-loss-to-public-ibo.html

Moreover, those numbers all contrast with Forest City Ratner's ridiculously rosy projections.
http://atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.com/2006/03/6-billion-lie-why-ratners-fiscal-claim.html

Considering what was there before, I think it adds
something exciting! a breath of fresh air. I'm a designer and have lived in the area for over thirty years.

The new design is a great improvement over that airplane hangar thing they were offering us after the Gehry design was canceled. It's impossible to be certain about it until we see what the inside will be like, but at least it shows some imagination and the real architectural ambition that 211st century Brooklyn (and New York as a whole) deserve.

I'd still like to see the rest of the Atlantic Yards project stopped, though. It was a sweetheart deal that didn't yield all the money it should have for the MTA, and its impact on the area's neighborhoods is still questionable at best.

As for the arena, if the Nets actually make it there, I hope there will be an attempt to rename the team and reclaim the name "Dodgers" for Brooklyn. If MLB and the NFL can share the name "Giants" between San Francisco and New York, I don't see why MLB and the NBA can't share the name "Dodgers" between Los Angeles and Brooklyn.

Looks like a talking grilled cheese. Let the Nets play at the Rock.

Although this version is formally interesting, it's essentially a typical stadium with a plaza in front. What was provocative about Gehry's design was how he created a public path up and around the building with moments where you could see inside. It's what he did at Disney Hall in LA and it's a brilliant idea. A design of a building shouldn't be divorced from its urban context.

The design shouldn't be the main issue here. I don't care what it looks like, people need to consider the impact on the neighborhood its going to land in. (I think it looks like a wacky spaceship). People will want to drive to it, this will create traffic in an area that already has terrible traffic patterns. I can't imagine how crazy Atlantic is going to become.

any large construction project would create jobs for the construction unions, duh.

Why are architects afraid to design magnificent buildings? Why must we always be assaulted with their stupid "concepts"?

Architecture is dead in the water.

How can Brooklyn let him build this thing. Nice to kick out the poor so that you ca build another arena where it may create 10-15 FT jobs and a pile of low paying PT jobs.

Weird.

THE RATNER ARENA

A whale that swallows

With avid ease

Tax-free bonds

And subsidies.

This new designs does nothing to become a dual use space which will bring people together as a new public space. It looks like a big advertisement, which we don't need in the area. We need more public space that focuses on people and community.

FUGLY! I'm with comment #5, looks like a roach.

did they steal this design from the "Back to the Future" movie? Very suspicious... ;)

There is nothing taken from brooklyn's architecture in this laughable attempt at design...

The arena is a occludes the real issue of the yards implications to the organic structure of the surrounding neighborhoods.

I doubt the arena would look anything like this. Ratner will probably need to put huge lighted advertisements to raise money.

in thirty years, this design will be mocked like shea stadium was mocked in its last years. just like how shea was heralded as a great piece of architecture in the early 60s.

The new design is irrelevant.

What about the picture released to the media and printed in the NY Times?

There were these glowing red streaks on the avenues that made the stadium look more attractive.

It was clearly graphic editorializing.

Without all of that fake color, I think the arena would look much worse.

- Ben

it looks like a cylon centurion. Its head..

SHoP?! they are incredible, local and amazing. i hope they get it, then i can go work for them...really, everything they have done is fantastic, best of luck to them. i hated the project, but now that it's SHoP, i'm loving it, and i live down the street...hope they do the whole project...a bit surprised by the "Barclay's" involvement, were they always funding this?

maybe we can call this the Cockroach Arena...

it looks like a purse that's fallen over, and look there's even a coin that's spilled out. It's wonderful that they have decided to show the symbolism.

I see some indication on the Barclay's website of the social considerations integrated into the design - public access at the ground level, activities year-round - but where are the environmental considerations? There is no discussion of the impact on local energy or water systems and the mitigation planned to minimize the building's environmental footprint. With such a large roof and lower buildings to the south, it would be a shame not to include some photovoltaic modules, for instance...contemporary architectural design needs to address more than form alone!

The design of the arena shouldn't be considered in a vacuum. Despite the NYT print headline, "New Design for the Atlantic Yards Project Restores a Bit of the Old," there's no design for the arena block (the rest of Phase 1) or Phase 2. Even Times critic Nicolai Ouroussoff suggested that the arena may be a standalone.

That casts the projected benefits--including elimination of blight and new open space/affordable housing--in considerable doubt.

The NYC Independent Budget Office today reported that NYC would lose nearly $40 million over 30 years on the arena--in contrast to the modest gains the IBO projected in 2005--and also would forego an additional $180 million in lost potential revenues. Meanwhile, a mix of subsidies and tax breaks mean $726 million in benefits to developer Forest City Ratner. See:
http://atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.com/2009/09/net-gain-to-ratner-loss-to-public-ibo.html

While the IBO did not calculate the costs and benefits of the project as a whole, it acknowledged that there are considerable doubts about the claimed ten-year timetable. Meanwhile, an analysis from a real estate consultant suggests that the project would take at least 20 years, not ten--and developer Bruce Ratner's response in the Times is quite weak. See:
http://atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.com/2009/09/cbn-analysis-says-ay-would-take-20.html

The new design looks like a giagantic George Foreman Grill from the aerial images I've seen. If this is the best they can do, then the current state of architectural design and vision is indeed poor.