Ghery Officially Off Barclay Center Designs

The Barclay Center, which is to be the Nets new basketball arena had originally intended to be the main focal point and anchor of Frank Ghery's sprawling 22-acre Atlantic Yards complex located in central Brooklyn. Now it seems that though Ghery will be master planner for the site, the "starchitects" firm had been replaced by Ellerbe Becket as designer of the arena itself.

One reason that seems very likely is that Ghery's proposal as usual would end up being way to pricey and indeed Forest City Ratner, the developers said in the statement. “The current economic climate is not right for this design, and with Frank’s understanding, the arena is undergoing a redesign that will make it more limited in scope.” So what happened to his magic "Digital Project" software? According to the Times, the arena is now expected to cost $800 million, down from a projected $1 billion.

So as the situation stands right now, Ghery's initial design (topmost) will be replaced with the Ellerbe Becket design (below) which bears a close resemblance to their Conseco Fieldhouse, arena of the Indiana Pacers.

I am a little disappointed that in light of the current economy, Mr Ghery was not able to find a way to create a design that is a little more affordable to the city.I guess he hasn't been using his own software he tauted could help him come in under budget for any project.
Still, I know as architects we don't particularly like to downgrade a design to make it cheaper but what was a no-no a few years ago is workable today if you want to have work.




Images obtained from: archpaper.com/e-board
For more info check: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/nyregion/05gehry.html?_r=1&hp

Gehry To Design Eisenhower Memorial

Regardless of whatever problems "star architect" Frank Gehry might be having with the Beekman Tower project and constant issues of being over budget, his brand is something that many cities seem to seek out. Washington has recently been added to that list as Gehry was selected from a short list of firms, that included Ron Krueck of Krueck & Sexton, Rob Rogers and Jonathan Marvel of Rogers Marvel Architects, and Peter Walker of PWP Landscape Architecture, to design a memorial to US president Dwight Eisenhower.

The site for the memorial, which will be Gehry's first project in Washington, is a four acre parcel between 4th and 6th Streets along Independence Avenue right by the Smithsonian air and space museum. At a projected budget of $90-120m, the project will consist of a civic plaza that will serve as both memorial to the 34th president and gathering ground for the public.

The 12-member commission, which selected Gehry, was created by Congress in 1999 and includes David Eisenhower, grandson of the president, and its chairman is lawyer Rocco C. Siciliano who who earned a Bronze Star in World War II and was an assistant to Eisenhower in the White House. Siciliano stated last week that, "We were looking for creativity and looking for ingenuity. We wanted a firm that knows how to bring in the public, with an emphasis on young people. We know it wouldn't be a massive facility."He also added that, "It's appropriate to have one of today's most outstanding architects design a memorial for one of our country's greatest leaders."

The use of the land has been approved by Congress, the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission. The project is also being sponsored by the National Park Service, which will maintain and manage the site.

Though I am very excited about all the development going on around the area which includes the proposed Black History museum and would like to see how it all comes together, I'm not sure that Gehry is quite the right choice for Washington. Being true to himself and the way he designs, Frank Gehry finds it hard to relate to site context and the Washington mall area is not the kind of location where you just plop down anything. I fear the memorial will have little to do with Eisenhower and more to do with Gehry trying to put his signature mark on Washington.





Some article information has been obtained from: www.guardian.co.uk and www.washingtonpost.com

Trouble For Gehry's Beekman Tower

I posted an article on the 18th of last month on Gehry's Beekman tower and how he had utilized his "Digital Project" software to ensure that the design would come in under budget. Unfortunately, it seems that even his magic software can't save the tower from effects of the economic meltdown in the country right now.

For the past week, rumors have continued to circulate that construction at the tower in the upper part of the Financial District is to be halted. The 76-story luxury rental building (with stores and a school in its base) had its signature steel facade delivered to the site at the beginning of the month with a lot of apparent activity seen around the area. So hearing that construction will be halted has taken everyone by surprise.

According to a spokesperson for developer Forest City Ratner, "Given the current economy, we are conducting a study to assess costs, risks and overall timing. Work is continuing on the building including on the school and we should have some conclusive answers shortly." Some of these assessments include having the building topout below its 36th floor and not the 40th.

Developers should really stop the horrid habit of chopping off projects halfway and leaving projects that they feel are products of a recession but are really monuments to their inefficiency. Didn't realize how much it would cost or have a contingency plan for if costs exceed the budget, which always happens anyway.




Image obtained from www.curbed.com

Gehry's Software Maintains Budget On New Projects

It seems that Frank Gehry has developed an interesting software called, "Digital Project" which he describes as a powerful tool for architects to help keep construction costs down. Though the software is really just getting public attention, it is not entirely new. Gehry first developed digital project in the early 90's and further refined it in 1997 when designing and specifying the titanium panels for the celebrated Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao.

With the crumbling economy now, the spotlight is on Gehry and Digital project as he uses it for his latest design, The new Beekman Tower, a $680 million, 904 unit and 76 storey building in New York set to topout mid 2010 and be a significant contribution to New York city's skyline. With the building’s distinctly bumpy silhouette, “the idea I was trying to achieve was a fabric, so it would catch the light,” Mr. Gehry said. Using the software, fabricators have been able to produced a facade for this tower with various textures at a price that Mr. Gehry says does not exceed what a developer would pay to build a conventional boxy building of similar dimensions.

The main point of this program is to model every component of the building in 3D, and allow engineers and contractors to resolve cost issues and work out how final duct placement will work with the building form before construction commences. According to Gehry, this has helped to avoid expensive work change orders, almost removing the need for architects to include an additional cost for "contingencies" which always come from construction errors helping keep projects within initial budget. Still, many other architects have reacted differently to the program. While acknowledging that the Gehry software is impressive, Carl Galioto of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, a firm that has designed many skyscrapers, says that it is very hard to learn and three or four times as expensive as a conventional modeling program which on average costs about $5,000.

This may be a good tool to have right now if Mr Gehry would be kind enough to simplify it a bit so that those of us who did not write the program might be able to use it. Still, I don't think that even his "Digital Project" can ensure that Gehry can develop a design that is guaranteed to be weather resistant which is a problem some of his latest projects have had.




Image obtained from: www.archinect.com and www.nytimes.com respectively
For more information, check: www.nytimes.com/2008/05/31/arts/design/31beek.html

Another Gehry Monstrocity

Princeton University's science majors started classes on Thursday the 11th of September but they also got a tutorial on how Frank Gehry seems to always throw up all over a site, totally disregard budgets and still wins acclaim and gratitude for it.
The $76 million dollar (and counting), 87,000 square foot project houses the University's collections for astrophysics, biology, Geo-science, chemistry, math, physics and statistics, student classrooms and lecture halls.

Taking slightly over four years from ground breaking to top-out, this building required 90,000 pounds of embossed stainless steel and 620 pounds of clay brick which were combined with glass, steel and stucco to "attempt" to reflect the design of surrounding buildings. The atrium, just inside the front door expands into a wide open space, giving the visitor views of all parts of the building with walls painted all sorts of colors from tangerine to blueberry. The group study room on the top level looks out onto the building's roofs and the rest of the campus through a prism like array of windows.

In putting up its new Gehry designed "Lewis Library," Princeton endured its share of challenges. It paid to construct models of the building to give the subcontractors a chance to practice, it fired a contractor halfway through the project when the building was already past due and recently learned that some contractors bribed their way onto the job site.

But the project has finally been completed and Princeton is very satisfied though I can't imagine why. This building looks like it was thrown together to see just how many completely different materials could be connected together without having the entire ensemble come crashing down. The concept of using glass, steel and stucco was to have the building relate with those surrounding it but when did you ever see a Gehry design blend in with its surroundings? You would have a better chance of seeing Ray Lewis participating in the cirque de soleil, than a Gehry design that didn't look like it was just dropped there from outer space.

The main questions I want to ask are, how energy efficient is this building and will it withstand the weather? I think these are very relevant questions for Mr. Gehry especially in the aftermath of his designs for the Ray and Maria Stata Center at MIT that leaked once the rains began.
Well, Gehry has done it again and I guess I shouldn't be whining about it. That's his trademark design and if Princeton got it then they specifically asked for it.


Images obtained from arcspace.com, chronicle.com/blogs/architecture