Barclays Center
620 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217
The arena Brooklyn got was not Frank Gehry's earlier concept. Amid the 2008-2009 financing constraints, Forest City Ratner replaced it with a separate design by SHoP Architects and Ellerbe Becket. The building that opened September 21, 2012, followed that 2009 design closely.
What got built
This photograph was verified against the project and published with recorded first-party, public-domain, or reusable-license rights. How the visual evidence works.
What changed
- Frank Gehry's original Atlantic Yards arena concept, part of his 2003 to 2006 master plan, included a rooftop park open to residents of the complex, ringed by a running track, and convertible to an ice rink.
- Forest City Ratner scaled back the wider Gehry plan starting in February 2008 and eliminated the Miss Brooklyn tower by January 2009. The arena concept was subsequently replaced, rather than merely value-engineered into the SHoP/Ellerbe Becket design.
- A separate arena design by SHoP Architects and Ellerbe Becket, with a 12,000-panel preweathered-steel exterior, was unveiled in September 2009. Contemporary figures described an $800 million projection and a later roughly $1 billion estimate; they are dated estimates, not one final audited cost.
- Barclays Center opened September 21, 2012, matching the SHoP and Ellerbe Becket design shown in 2009. No sourced evidence was found of a further material change between the 2009 renderings and the completed arena.
Why there is nothing to explain
The built arena follows the SHoP Architects and Ellerbe Becket replacement design published in 2009. That scheme replaced Frank Gehry's earlier concept amid dated financing and cost constraints; it should not be described as a simple value-engineering of Gehry's design.
Details
- Status
- Built, and it follows the rendering.
- Where
- Brooklyn, NY
- Neighborhood
- Prospect Heights
- Developer
- Forest City Ratner (Bruce Ratner), with Mikhail Prokhorov joining as principal owner in September 2009
- Architect
- SHoP Architects and Ellerbe Becket (built design); original concept by Frank Gehry
- Rendering credit
- SHoP Architects and Ellerbe Becket, for Forest City Ratner
- The built result
- Photographed by Weber Areiv, 2023-06-27
Sources
- SHoP Architects: Barclays Center shoparc.com
- Wikipedia: Barclays Center en.wikipedia.org
- Empire State Development: Atlantic Yards project record esd.ny.gov
- Barclays Center: official venue site barclayscenter.com
Research checked . Status and figures are updated when a source changes.
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