New Barclays Renderings
by Mark Ginocchio
Sep 9, 2009 Brooklyn, Bruce Ratner, Develop Don't Destroy
9/9/09 will not only be known as Beatles day around the planet. Forest City Ratner has released their latest iteration of renderings for the Barclays Center, the prospective future home of the Brooklyn Nets. The designs are a collaboration of architectural firms Ellerbe Becket and SHoP Architects.
In a statement found on the Barclays Center web site Nets owner Bruce Ratner said:
“The Barclays Center will quickly become an iconic part of the Brooklyn landscape. The design is elegant and intimate and also a bold architectural statement that will nicely complement the surrounding buildings and neighborhoods. The Barclays Center will be innovative in its look and use of materials, including weathered steel and glass, and will be the best place in the world to watch a basketball game and other forms of sports and entertainment.”
Project oppoents Develop Don’t Design Brooklyn have already weighed in on the design. “It’s all lipstick on a corrupt pig, window-dressing on a boondoggle,” DDDB spokesman Daniel Goldstein said in a statement today. The statement also notes how the renderings only include the arena and not the rest of the proposed development.
Yesterday, Nets CEO Bret Yormark told Fox Business News he expects ownership will receive the financing it needs to start construction before the end of the year, with a move to Brooklyn likely for the 2011-12 season. There are still a ton of legal obstacles to overcome, most notably a hearing up in Albany on October 14 on the eminent domain issues connected to the project.
More renderings after the jump.
September 9th, 2009 at 12:55 PM
as much as I want the nets in new jersey, this is an exceptional opportunity for the team, because izod cannot even compare. Brooklyn isn’t too bad from Central jERSEY if you just take 78, and the people there are welcoming and prideful, so it wo’t be so bad. The arena looks nice
September 9th, 2009 at 3:42 PM
Looks awesome. Might transfer my Knicks season tickets to the Net if this goes through and LeBron stays home…Go-Go Devin Harris
Nets’ News
September 9th, 2009 at 4:17 PM
Being from NJ i am completely disgusted with the Nets moving to Brooklyn to begin with… but this is getting ridiculous. They have come up new designs at least three times, and there is a perfectly good arena in Newark that would love to have NBA bball.
September 9th, 2009 at 4:39 PM
Chad, in my opinion, David Stern and the NBA are going to do whatever it takes to keep the Nets out of the Prudential Center. It’s not because Newark is a poor basketball location, but there is no way David Stern is going to allow one of his franchises to play in a stadium that was designed for hockey first, plus the capacity is only 18,000. Also the Devils own the place, and with the barbs going back and forth between them and the Nets, Neward is all but dead. On paper the move looks smart, but when you start looking at it in depth, it just can’t happen.
September 9th, 2009 at 4:48 PM
For me, it’s all about access. The Nets, which have roots in Long Island and New York, have continually closed themselves off to bringing in fans from those areas because the Izod Center is inaccessible. The Rock would be better, but a move to Brooklyn would be the best of all worlds. You can bring in people from NYC, the boroughs, Long Island very directly, while people from NJ can take either the PATH or NJ Transit and then another transfer on top of that. It’s not like there aren’t a ton of NJ residents who don’t commute to Lower Manhattan every day and this is another 10 minutes on top of that. It also opens the team up to markets in Westchester and Fairfield County, CT where Metro-North and a subway ride will get you to Brooklyn in about an hour and a half – the same amount of time it takes those people to get to the Bronx and Queens respectively for Yankees and Mets games.
September 9th, 2009 at 11:26 PM
I wish the nets could at least keep NJ in their name. Even when they do move to brookyln. I want them to be from my state.
October 7th, 2009 at 6:13 AM
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