Reference or fantasy? The (projected) ten-year Atlantic Yards timeline

[Re-published from] Monday, April 30, 2007

Reference or fantasy? The (projected) ten-year Atlantic Yards timeline

(Click to enlarge)

Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards is supposed to be completed in a decade, by 2016, according to the construction schedule (document at bottom) included in the Atlantic Yards Final Environmental Impact Statement issued by the Empire State Development Corporation.

Graphic designer Abby Weissman has combined elements of the construction schedule with the Atlantic Yards site plan. Time will tell whether it's a valid reference or a fantasy.

Project landscape architect Laurie Olin said it could take 20 years. Chuck Ratner of parent company Forest City Enterprises said it could take 15 years. Such schedules would delay the provision of promised benefits like affordable housing and open space and cause "interim surface parking" to persist.

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As of 2011

Note that the construction schedule, proposed 7/10/06, was already out of date in 2007.

As the graphic indicates, all of Phase 1, west of Sixth Avenue, was supposed to be done by now. Instead, only the arena is under construction, with a planned late summer 2012 completion.

As of now, there's no timetable for any of the towers, completion of Phase 1 could take 12 years, and the project as a whole could take 25 years, according to the Development Agreement--and there are further loopholes for delays.