Ratner Unveils Arena Towers

The Barclays Center will be surrounded by three of the world's tallest modular buildings, the first of which, a 32-story apartment tower, is likely to be underway when the arena opens in 10 months. The renderings for the three, at 32, 22 and 52 stories, were unveiled Thursday by SHoP Architects, the arena's design firm.

Assuming he can get financing and union approval, the 32-story "B2" building at the arena's southeast corner will have a groundbreaking early next year and take 18 months to complete. Then, nine months after that building is complete, Forests City Ratner hopes to break ground on the next building of 52 stories at the arena's northeast corner.  The same schedule would follow for the third tower of 22 stories.

In September, Gregg Pasquarelli of SHoP called design of the prefab buildings "really hard" and "almost impossible". The tallest modular structure in the world is a 25-story dormitory in Wolverhampton, England.

• Design Unveiled for Tower at Atlantic Yards - Charles Bagli - New York Times
• Ratner unveils rendering of Atlantic Yards residential towers - Rich Calder - New York Post
• Atlantic Yards' Modular Condo Tower Will be World's Tallest - Kelsey Keith - Curbed NY
• A Modular Vision for Atlantic Yards Towers - Eliot Brown - Wall Street Journal
• Low-cost construction set for 15 Atlantic Yards towers - Teresa Agovino - Crain's New York Business
• Unions, aesthetes dunked as Ratner plans pre-fab building at Yards - Daniel Bush - Brooklyn Paper
  
• Ratner's modular tower release and the mostly compliant press: an FAQ on timing, misdirection, jobs, the lack of larger apartments, and Ratner's astounding admission - Norman Oder - Atlantic Yards Report