Dope vs. Gehry: Smackdown!!!

Calling all armchair architecture critics! Your assistance is urgently needed.

Lumi at NoLandGrab remarked on the striking similarity between the model of Atlantic Yards featured in my earlier parody post about the project, and the actual model constructed by Frank Gehry.

Frankly, I'm insulted by the comparison. I don't think they're similar at all. I think mine is MUCH BETTER!

I realize I don't know the first thing about architecture, but Frank Gehry doesn't know the first thing about designing an entire neighborhood, or "reinveinting" the fourth largest city in the country, so we're even in my book.

But I'll let the readers decide. Unlike the Borough of Brooklyn, this is a democracy. Let me know which design you like better and why. Extra points for hoidy toidy descriptive adjectives that make you sound like a New York times critic.

Gehry's Model	Dope's Model

Comments

[Dope on the Ropes]

My BEEP is the fairest of them all.

You're right Lucy. Marty is fair. You always have a choice - his way or the highway.

And if you don't like it you should go live in Suburban Brooklyn.

Why waste the effort and expense of moving? All we have to do is wait and the suburbs will come to us.

And Gehry deserves every penny that Ratner pays him.
Gehry certainly has generated lots of publicity for the AY project. I just wonder if its the kind of publicity Ratner wanted.

Lucy, I'll put you down as a vote for Gehry.

That makes it two for Dope, one tie and one for Gehry.

[lucy koteen]

Ok you Big Dope,
I'm going to bypass the obvious gimmick here and sidestep to this obvious insult to my home spot
"Unlike the Borough of Brooklyn, this is a democracy." What makes you say that I do not live in a Democracy? My BEEP is the fairest of them all. And if you don't like it you should go live in Suburban Brooklyn.

And Gehry deserves every penny that Ratner pays him.

[OasisNY]

This war was over before it even started. DOPE's design is obviously superior:

1) DOPE's use of actual "big boxes" pays homage to the banal intrusion of "big box" retailers on Brooklyn's formerly mom'n'pop mercantile landscape.

2) DOPE's witty employ of a geodesic starburst casts subtle but poignant scorn on the culture's misplaced worship of the big-name "starchitect" at the expense of actual innovative design work.

3) DOPE's use of ill-formed blacked-out squares, rather than real windows, evokes the soulless vernacular of modern urban architecture, while casting witty aspersion on the utter lack of transparency in the Atlantic Yards development process.

4) Gehry's model betrays not genius, but the fact that he accidentally placed it in the microwave with the Velveeta destined for his nachos, pushed "high power" and "15 seconds" and "start," and only realized his mistake at the first whiff of melting polystyrene. But given the MTA's absurdly narrow window for the submission of proposals, he had no time to rebuild his model.

Feel free to remit my hoity-toity points via PayPal.

[Ratnerville]

dope wins. humor wins over the tension of negative space every time!

[Steve-o]

Well, your stuff looks more like buildings. I'd call that a plus in your favor, but then again... I imagine that would be too banal for some.

On a more pure level, I find both to be messy and crude, so I'd say it's a draw. But then, that's really a win for Dope, when you consider that Dope hobbled together some random materials with no training in architecture and no real serious intent. Gehery on the other hand is experienced, trained, and well-paid. And his nightmare vision for Brooklyn is no better than Dope's boxes onna table...