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Developers of the Long Island Rail Road terminal made a “mistake” when they installed massive, tomb-like bollards in front of their new train station earlier this year — a mistake that Forest City Ratner says it will not make across the street at the Barclays Center.
In a bombshell dropped at a public meeting on Wednesday night about the plaza that will sit outside the Barclays Center, Forest City Ratner officials said the LIRR’s designers blew it on the excessive, granite, sarcophagus-style counter-terrorism bollards outside the building.
The revelation came when a questioner asked about a rendering of the Barclays Center plaza — which depicted small, unassuming security poles surrounding the arena.
“At the Atlantic Terminal station, they have these giant boulders,” the man said, gesturing by spacing his hands widely apart.
Jane Marshall, a Forest City Ratner spokeswoman, shot back.
“We are not making that mistake — these [in the Barclays Center rendering] are very simple, standard bollards,” she said. “We’re not putting big granite coffins up.”
Marshall’s audience at Borough Hall burst out in laughter, most likely because seemingly everyone — including an expert in counter-terrorism, members of City Council, Long Island Rail Road President Helena Williams, the NYPD’s own assessment, and now the Atlantic Yards developer — thinks that the 52-inch-high rocks are ridiculous.
“You do not see that sort of monstrosity in front of the White House or the Capitol do you?” said Lionel Rawlins, a former Marine and military instructor, about the bollards earlier this year. “I have been in counter-terrorism for a long time and have never seen such monstrosity — anywhere.”
The architectural firm that designed the terminal, John di Domenico and Parters, continues to elude phone calls seeking answers about the bollards.
©2010 Community Newspaper Group
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