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Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park infographics: what's built/what's coming/what's missing, who's responsible, + project FAQ/timeline (pinned post)

Second look: a view of the arena and interim open space, as if a hovercraft; also, there's a new arena entrance on Sixth Avenue

Thursday I showed this new image of interim open space, looking northwest at the Atlantic Yards arena toward the corner of Dean Street (left) and Sixth Avenue. (Click to enlarge)

The comment from Eric McClure: NoLandGrab: Okay, no one loves bike parking and picnic benches more than we do, BUT THAT ILLUSTRATION MAKES THE ARENA APPEAR NO BIGGER THAN THE KEY FOOD AT FIFTH AVENUE AND STERLING PLACE! ARE THEY KIDDING?!

I'd add that the perspective is not from street level but from a hovercraft. Paging Nicolai Ouroussoff, the New York Times architecture critic, who has slammed the "distorted reality" of project renderings, but not regarding Atlantic Yards.

Also, the arena looks awfully narrow, as if it's just nudging part of the way down Dean Street. That's rather doubtful, if you look at a schematic, reproduced below.

A new entrance

The Ellerbe Becket arena design, with a facade by SHoP, was supposed to have a main entrance at the Urban Room, now an urban plaza, at the convergence of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues, along with entrances along Atlantic Avenue and also Dean Street.



Now, as the first graphic above suggests, there's an entrance--perhaps temporary--on Sixth Avenue. That's not in any of the previous renderings, or in the Design Guidelines, which state:
B. Principal entrances to the Arena shall be located through the Urban Room and on Atlantic Avenue and Dean Street.
But that does seem to leave some wiggle room.



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