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Atlantic Yards: The Future Of Tomorrow, Today, But Mostly, Let's Say, Next Year. Or Later.

Photo: Tracy Collins/threece

We've already seen mockups of the post-Gehry Atlantic Yards design, but this one... well, it's lit up! Barclays, who now owns most of the post-financial crisis world, has its own "Barclays Center" letter blocks forming a V around the plaza, but most interesting is the evidence of the gentrification most feared the complex would bring to the neighborhood: if you look closely, those are all white people milling around the structure. Little, tiny, plastic white people pushing out the lower tax brackets!

Really, these models are just the latest barrage of architectural pornography, since the beleaguered and underfunded project has slowed to a crawl since the gung-ho early days, including the lawsuit that sought to halt it altogether (even though that died in the New York Supreme Court with a win for Ratner and the Yards). Now slated to open in 2011, the home of the soon-to-be Brooklyn Nets may just throw off enough ambient light to scare aware the packs of rats currently holding court in the development's footprint. Surely, co-owner Jay-Z can drive them into the Gowanus Canal with his sweet, sweet beats.

Tags:   2011, architecture, atlantic yards, barclays center, brooklyn, canal, gehry, gowanus, jay z, nets, ratner, rats