By Dennis Holt
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

BROOKLYN — It was with mixed emotions that I read last week, right before Christmas, that all the legal papers for the Atlantic Yards project had been signed and executed. By one account, there were 640 documents.

I thought about how anti-climatic and dusty the signing of all those papers must have been. Among all the parties present, however, one must have been able to hear sighs of relief.

Such a setting could not have been imagined more than six years ago when the Frank Gehry models were first revealed to a packed room at Borough Hall.

People had a hard time believing their eyes about the models of the tall building that was then named “Miss Brooklyn,� the arena itself and a few adjoining buildings. Even for those who considered themselves visionaries, it wasn’t easy to imagine those buildings placed near the rather mundane and rundown intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues.

(One took photos in hand the next day and went down to that intersection to try to put some reality into the whole thing. You didn’t realize that day that the word “blight� would be such a critical thing in the coming years, but you also knew you were looking at blight, however it might be defined.)

But the excitement and awe were in the air that December day in 2003 at Borough Hall as most people saw Gehry for the first time, a man a good many of those in the room may not have even heard about before then.

The emotion was so high that it wouldn’t have been too shocking if someone had quoted this line from Shakespeare’s King Henry IV: “A good plot, good friends and full of expectation; an excellent plot, very good friends.�

Few people there could have foreseen the bitterness and anger that lay in the future for this project. Fewer still could have foreseen the shouting matches that were to take place in the many upcoming required public hearings — more taking place on this proposal than in any proposal in Brooklyn’s history.

So what can we expect to see there, on that plot, as it were? We know that the shape and form of the arena is going to be different from what Gehry designed. Still, most were surprised to see how attractive and compelling the new design for the arena is, once it was unveiled.

As for the “Miss Brooklyn� building, it has to wait for Forest City to convince someone to set up shop at that site — an anchor tenant, as it were. Although the original design will no longer be used, there is no reason Bruce Ratner can’t return to Gehry for another shot at that building.

It could be a memorable building at a memorable site. One should keep in mind that within 10 years, much of what people will see within a half mile will be new and different, This includes the Flatbush Avenue Extension, which by then will become a fashionable boulevard.

Yes, this is a very excellent plot.

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