Architecture critic not crazy about Barclays Center but hates MSG

So far, the reviews for Barclays Center are mixed. The New Yorker didn't like it much but New York Magazine gave it a rave. Now comes Bloomberg News' James S. Russell who (mostly) doesn't like it, opening his review with "a frog has landed in Brooklyn."

He longs for the "lyricism" of the abandoned Frank Gehry design and thinks SHoP missed opportunities. "The exterior curviness suggests you’ll be swept theatrically to your seat," writes Russell. "The reality is an awkwardly proportioned, wedge-shaped, dark-gray lobby that introduces a shadowy no-nonsense interior in shades of gray."

Still, he likes what Bruce Ratner has done with Barclays a lot better than what James Dolan has done with Madison Square Garden. "Brooklynites might consider themselves lucky ... The Barclays Center is no Garden disaster, just an extraordinarily expensive lost opportunity."

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