Barclays Finally Going Vertical

The first steel for Barclays Center has been delivered and will be erected starting Tuesday, meaning the Nets new home will finally go "vertical", finally see "steel in the sky".  The steel will initially be used for beams, girders and trusses for the main arena, façade support and the canopy.

"The installation of steel is always a major milestone for a construction project," said Bruce Ratner, who's building the nearly $1 billion arena, the world's most expensive. "With the foundation work largely done, we are now poised to go vertical. Over the next several months, the Barclays Center will begin to take on its iconic shape."

The company that's providing the burnished steel "skin" of the arena has said its product will be going up in "December/January".  According to Ratner, the ESDC and Mikhail Prokhorov's Onexim Group, the arena is on schedule to be completed in late spring/early summer 2012...and on budget.

Ratner, Prokhorov and Barclays CEO Bob Diamond all gathered in the owner's box at the Prudential Center Tuesday night.

• NETS: Steel for the Barclays Center in Brooklyn Begins to go Vertical - New Jersey Nets
• Barclays Center Construction Update - Barclays Center
• Steel Going Up At Barclay’s - Al Iannazzone - In the 'Zzone
• Nets Brooklyn arena finally taking shape - Rich Calder - New York Post
• Hoop Dreams: Steel Erection Going Up at Ratner's Barclays Center - Matt Chaban - New York Observer
• Ratner is finally a man of steel as first girders go up - Gary Buiso - Brooklyn Paper
  
• Brooklyn Eagle, Bay Ridge Eagle Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Eagle
• Steel Beams Rise At Site Of New Brooklyn Arena (Video) - NY1
• The Barclays Center is Brooklyn's New Man of Steel - Joey Arak & Will Femia - Curbed