Pacific Park (originally Atlantic Yards)
District bounded roughly by Atlantic Avenue, Flatbush Avenue, Vanderbilt Avenue, and Dean Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217; modular tower at 461 Dean Street approximate location
Frank Gehry's original renderings showed 16 towers plus an arena, including the signature Miss Brooklyn office tower. What has risen is a smaller, slower, differently designed district. The project remained unfinished when Empire State Development convened public workshops in 2025-2026 on its future.
What got built
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What changed
- Forest City Ratner announced the Atlantic Yards project December 10, 2003, with Frank Gehry designing the original master plan and individual buildings, including a signature tower called Miss Brooklyn.
- In February 2008, amid the slowing economy, the developer cut Miss Brooklyn's height by 109 feet. By January 2009, Miss Brooklyn was eliminated entirely and the arena design was being value engineered.
- Gehry was removed from the project in June 2009. A new arena design by SHoP Architects and Ellerbe Becket was unveiled in September 2009, replacing Gehry's original arena concept.
- The B2 tower at 461 Dean Street, designed by SHoP using modular construction, opened in November 2016, over two years later than its original targeted 2014 completion; it was only 13 percent complete as of April 2014.
- The approved plan contemplated roughly 6,430 residential units, including 2,250 affordable units, in 16 towers plus the arena (17 buildings total). The earlier wording "more than 2,250 residences" conflated the affordable-housing commitment with total residences.
- The wider redevelopment remained unfinished in 2025-2026. Empire State Development held four public workshops from fall 2025 through spring 2026 to reconsider the project's remaining sites; the 2035 affordable-housing deadline should be read as a governing commitment, not proof that buildout is on schedule.
Why it changed
The 2008 financial crisis was an important early constraint, but later ownership, financing, modular-construction, foreclosure, and legal events also shaped delivery. Empire State Development's 2025-2026 workshops reflect that the unfinished project's future remained under active reconsideration.
Details
- Status
- Built, with documented differences from the rendering.
- Where
- Brooklyn, NY
- Neighborhood
- Prospect Heights
- Developer
- Forest City Ratner, later Greenland Forest City Partners
- Architect
- Frank Gehry / Gehry Partners (original master plan); 461 Dean Street modular tower designed by SHoP Architects
- Rendering credit
- Frank Gehry / Gehry Partners, original Atlantic Yards master plan renderings published by Forest City Ratner
- The built result
- Photographed by Kidfly182, 2024-07-27
Sources
- Wikipedia: Pacific Park, Brooklyn en.wikipedia.org
- Empire State Development: Atlantic Yards project page esd.ny.gov
- Empire State Development: Atlantic Yards presentations and workshop materials esd.ny.gov
- SHoP Architects: completed Barclays Center shoparc.com
Research checked . Status and figures are updated when a source changes.
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