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BREAKING: Ratner’s pre-fab tower!

By Daniel Bush
for The Brooklyn Paper
Enlarge this image
SHoP Architects
The first residential building at Atlantic Yards will rise at the corner of Dean and Flatbush avenues. It will be the tallest pre-fabricated building in the world (until a larger Atlantic Yards building is constructed a block away in a few years).
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SHoP Architects
Eventually, the complex of three pre-fab buildings will surround the Barclays Center arena.
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SHoP Architects
The tallest pre-fab building in the world won’t be built for a few years.
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SHoP Architects
Here’s how the first residential building (seen in the background) will stand up to the arena and another proposed tower.

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Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner will build the world’s tallest pre-fabricated tower as the first residential building inside his mega-project, dealing a blow to labor unions and architecture enthusiasts, but jumpstarting his stalled development.

Renderings released by SHoP Architects today show a 33-story residential tower at the corner of Dean Street and Flatbush Avenue, just south of the under-construction Barclays Center.

B&R Electronics

Construction is expected to begin next year, Ratner said.

Pre-fabricated buildings are controversial because they require far less labor than from-scratch construction. Labor unions were main supporters of Ratner during the approval process for the 16-ower project in 2006, but have signaled that they would oppose a pre-fabricated building.

Two more pre-fab buildings — one even taller than the first — will follow, Ratner said.

Check back for more on this breaking story.

Reach reporter Daniel Bush at dbush@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-2531.

©2011 Community Newspaper Group

→Downtown: ‘Occupy’ the subway! Anti-Wall Street protesters go underground

Reader Feedback

ed from PH says:
Looks great to me!! Bring it on I am so excited about the new arena project it's making all those NIMBY's look like FREAKS!
Nov. 17, 2011, 2:22 pm
tx from Park Slope says:
"Pre-fabricated buildings are controversial because they require far more labor than from-scratch construction."

Don't you mean that "they require far *less* labor".
Nov. 17, 2011, 2:58 pm
J from Fort Greene says:
We dont need another manhattan.
Nov. 17, 2011, 3 pm
wkgreen from Park Slope says:
Bruce Ratner is master of the bait and switch. He promises exciting architecture and lots of local employment in construction to gain a sweet deal from the city and then delivers garbage, that a large area of Brooklyn is left holding, and a fraction the jobs. He plays us for chumps.

After the retail that he has already built there and the new arena that will open next year, this residential building will be nothing more than the bland leading the bland leading the bland that promises still more traffic that downtown Brooklyn will never be able to absorb.
Nov. 17, 2011, 3:06 pm
winner from Prospect Heights says:
Get over it, wkgreen. Either that or you should have ponied up the money and built something yourself.
Nov. 17, 2011, 3:26 pm
UmadBro? from wat says:
Disgusting.
Nov. 17, 2011, 3:43 pm
Jet Jones from Park Slope. says:
The lack of congestion in the pictures is humorous.
Nov. 17, 2011, 3:46 pm
Paul from Pk Slope says:
So, "winner", you're OK with the fact that your grandkids are going to be paying off the bonds that are going into Ratner's pocket for this boondoggle?

Winning like Charlie Sheen!
Nov. 17, 2011, 3:57 pm
TheTheSlope from Park Slope says:
@ ed from PH:
The only time anyone will post positive comments about anything FCR is involved in when FCR employees post themselves..... another sh-t project that NYC or NYS will have to support as the anchor tenant or the project will go bankrupt..... YAWN..... who gives a Flying F**K?
Nov. 17, 2011, 4:02 pm
johnny from bk heights says:
cool. i've always wanted to ice skate on the sidewalk.
Nov. 17, 2011, 4:05 pm
al pankin from downtown says:
looks great..it's a good idea, keep the construction cost affordable and get the housing built.
no one will ever remembers the winers who write comments in this paper anyway.
Nov. 17, 2011, 4:50 pm
Dennis sinneD from Williamsburg says:
Sigh, Brooklynites. Muthuflowering Sigh. As we write, NYPD belts and bloodies, and we look at "pre-fabrication." Ever wonder the connections?

More than it has in all its fabled history, Brooklyn will be a battleground, my friends, for all our sins, for Real.
Nov. 17, 2011, 4:54 pm
wkgreen from Park Slope says:
@ winner from Prospect Heights:

"you should have ponied up the money"

I did. And if you pay taxes in NYC, then so did you. We just don't get any say in how it's spent.
Nov. 17, 2011, 4:58 pm
judahspechal from bedstuy says:
just like the arena an ugly piece of s##t. Thanks obstruction. You've done great for FCR
Nov. 17, 2011, 5:33 pm
you are from lame says:
What arena have you ever seen that is beautiful? It's a f*cking ARENA!
Nov. 17, 2011, 6 pm
Dennis sinneD from Williamsburg says:
I'm not intimate with this project like the way people here are--I wonder, while the entire process drained its blood, was there ever a counter-proposal that proximate communities endorsed?
Nov. 17, 2011, 6:50 pm
henry ford from bay ridge says:
@dennis: Yeah, the counter proposal was a hole in the ground, with a train yard at the bottom.
Nov. 17, 2011, 7:50 pm
Cynthia from Clinton Hill says:
Thats it? No big deal.
Nov. 17, 2011, 7:55 pm
daniel from slope says:
Dennis, yes, there was a proposal and the developer who proposed to develop the rail yards, Extell, offered 3x the amount Ratner did for the rail yards development rights.

see:

http://dddb.net/php/community/extell.php

Henry, sorry you are incorrect.
Nov. 17, 2011, 8:35 pm
Dennis sinneD from Williamsburg says:
Thank you, Daniel. I'll peek at it. I'm glad there was a counter-proposqal at all. Up here in Williamsburg we had our own contentious "New Domino" debate but the most perplexing part of it was how the whole thing lacked counter-proposals. Whereas I'm always inclined to think any thing touched by luxury condo developers is Bizarro Midas, I'm likewise unconvinced by obstructionism for obstructionism's sake. One of the more unfortunate aspects of the public dialogue was the demonization of the Hispanic quarters agreeing with "New Domino" for an affordable housing percentage, job placement and support of local community organization initiatives--what was expected if there was such a lack of counter-proposal? The entire exercise of demonizing people for supporting a position without enticing them with superior counter-position was truly counter-productive here.
Nov. 17, 2011, 10:35 pm
harriet from brooklyn says:
It's ugly. Brooklyn can do much better.
Nov. 18, 2011, 12:12 am
Doug from P Slope says:
Can't we get a cool-signature building in Brooklyn? We need something iconic in stature not this generic-bland kind of building. Why settle for mediocrity
Nov. 18, 2011, 9:46 pm
Marc from Windsor Terrace says:
Supporters of Ratner's mega-project should have gotten the job promises in writing with huge penalties for bate-and-switch tactics like off-site construction of the modular units by non-union labor. I hope that the groups being bought off by Walmart take heed when negotiating their payoffs.
Nov. 18, 2011, 10:47 pm

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