Desktop Day: Gehry, Thy Name is Eminent Domain

This piece of graphic art from the Atlantic Yards footprint will brighten up any pc desktop. If you have not done so, please let us know what size monitor you use by voting in our desktop poll on the right. Instructions Left-click on the image first to open up the large version. Windows PC: Right-click on the large image and select 'set as desktop background'. You can also right-click and 'save as', then use your desktop properties settings to add the file you just saved and format it how you prefer. There's more info on customising your PC desktop here.

Mac: Macintosh instructions can be found here.

Miss Brooklyn(s) in Britain

After years of often rancorous debate, Frank Gehry's scheme for the Brighton and Hove seafront in Blighty is a go. Back in 2003, the Independent's Jay Merrick predicted that "[t]he Californian's vision will launch a thousand metaphors: crumpled trousers patched with Shreddies, ice lollies jammed into shattered Cornettos...an expletive-cum-exclamation mark marking the end of the promenade." The two towers (reduced from the originally planned four) have also been called "transvestites caught in a gale" ...but that was before Brad Pitt got involved. Images from the Regency Society.

Gehry, the Guardian and Atlantic Yards

In the Guardian, Ed Pilkington takes a look at Gehry's IAC building and gives the Yards a wee mention:

"As the project's lead architect, Gehry is at the centre of the [Atlantic Yards] dispute. On the one hand, he is being tugged by a highly organised protest movement that has managed to whittle down some of the more ambitious elements of his design, if not kill it off altogether. On the other, he is having to please a famously hard-nosed developer, Bruce Ratner, who will only stomach so much risk-taking from an architect. It doesn't bode particularly well for the outcome that Gehry has christened the tallest building in the scheme, a 511ft tower of glass and metal, 'Miss Brooklyn'. He says it is his 'ego trip.

"It is a gamble indeed. Gehry has finally arrived in New York. But when Atlantic Yards is completed in 2017, will he wish he had never done so?"