At Hudson Yards, the bids are in. Let's get the Jets out of the way first. The team upped its offer for the West Side rail yards to $720 million yesterday (a jump of, um, $610m), announcing that it was teaming with six major real estate developers to trick out the site. The result is likely to be ugly and mean, but at least the occasional football game can be played.
Now let's look at Cablevision. To be fair, we're hard-pressed to remember when an architectural plan for any site anywhere in the world cramped our intestines as thoroughly as the George Lucas-inspired triptych (above) the Madison Square Garden owners have proposed for the railyards. Called Hudson Gardens (why not go all the way and call it Hudson Screaming Orgasm?), the superstructure is touted as a place you might like to live. You and 5,800 of your friends. Great news: there will be a supermarket.
Curbed tries to stay above the fray in these debates, but today, we can't help ourselves. We hereby endorse the glorious open railyards of Hudson Yards. May they gather the sun's rays for another few years while someone thinks of something actually interesting to do with this land. (Failing that?because the pressure of a new stadium might be the only way to get Williams & Co. to can Herm Edwards?let's play some football!)
· Jets Offer $720 Million for West Side Plan [Newsday]
· Jets Go For the Bomb [NYPost]
· Garden Plan Sacked [NYPost]
[After the jump: another terrifying view of the Cablevision urban utopia.]
[Photograph by Jason DeCrow via Newsday]