Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Bruce Ratner: the Ed Wood of Developers?

He's a horrible developer, but he makes for entertaining commentary, this from dddb :



Then he disses his starchitect-for-hire Frank Gehry (and all architects, for that matter, who fritter away their time on that nonsense work of theirs):
"I'm proud of both of these [Atlantic Terminal Mall and Metrotech], because the jobs they create number one and number two they save people money and allow people to buy good quality goods at lower prices and this serves a large part of Brooklyn. So, you know, those who focus on the architecture are frankly misguided about what's really important in this world,” says Ratner...

Ever seen the prices at the Atlantic Center Mall Pathmark?!

(On his Atlantic Yards Report Norman Oder takes a decidely less tongue-in-cheek look at the NY1 interview with Ratner, and concludes that it may be a "soft release" for a future announcement that Gehry is no longer so involved with the project, "Ratner lowers our architectural expections; will Gehry ease away?")

Then NY1 tells us that even though Bruce Ratner wants to remake 22-acres—at the crossroads of Brooklyn—according to his specifications, he is modest and subdued because, well, he doesn't put his name on his buildings:

...Perhaps that feeling stems from Ratner’s own personal style. There is a lack of ostentation, reflected in his office, also reflected in the absence of his name on his buildings.
Oh, and have you heard, Ratner is "progressive*":
...He headed off to Harvard, and then Columbia Law School, which Ratner calls the three most important years of his life.

"I was there when the buildings were taken,” says Ratner. “I didn't take over any buildings but I was what one would call fairly progressive*."

Well, Mr. Ratner, you're certainly trying very hard to "take over buildings" now.

(*He kept using that word. We do not think it means what he thinks it means.)




Its sort of like the old Mystery Science Theater 2000 - except Atlantic Yards is the crappy film, Ratner the washed up actor - its just no fun without the commentary.

Just imagine what sort of films Ed Wood would have made if he had the subsidies of Bruce Ratner...

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