Barclays’ New Look

It’s a whole new ball game for the developer of the multibillion Atlantic Yards project in New York, who unveiled a third set of plans for a basketball arena in as many years following overwhelmingly negative reactions to a previous design.

Forest City Ratner’s Barclays Center, which will house the NBA’s New Jersey Nets, recently underwent a redesign by a team including sports architecture firm Ellerbe Becket and N.Y. boutique firm SHoP Architects.

The new renderings include lots of glass and weathered steel panels encasing the venue in a basketweave-like cocoon.

“The Barclays Center will quickly become an iconic part of the Brooklyn
landscape,” Forest City head Bruce Ratner said in a statement. “The design is elegant and intimate and also a bold architectural statement that will nicely complement the surrounding buildings and neighborhoods.”

While the development was originally set to feature an arena designed by Frank Gehry, Forest City cut ties with the celebrity architect earlier this year in an apparent cost-cutting measure.

Ellerbe Becket was tapped at that point, but the firm’s designs for a curved-roof structure were likened to an airport hangar and widely panned by critics.

Forest City needs final approval from the Empire State Development Corp. before it can even begin to raise nearly $700 million in tax-exempt financing for the project, the New York Times reported.

However, even if the funds are available, the developer faces a tight deadline in the coming months.

Forest City must break ground on the arena before Dec. 31 in order to be able to use tax-exempt bonds to fund the construction, and still faces an October Court of Appeals hearing regarding the use of eminent domain in Atlantic Yards.