Architect as Dictator

In this Sunday's NY Times Arts and Leisure section, art critic Roberta Smith reflects on the growing success of MoMA's 2004 renovation.
I had great ambivalence about the renovation of the Museum of Modern Art. In its previous state, the collection, like a textbook, had a linear layout, moving chronologically and ideologically from one space to another, and needless to say, I knew where everything was. The museum was already lagging well behind the Whitney in terms of showcasing cutting edge, contemporary artwork, so why upset the proverbial apple cart. The new layout, in a renovation which cost a staggering $435 million, is more like a pinball machine, as you stand in the center of a space and have to direct your attention this way and that in a frenetic attempt to keep up with the sequencing of images. No use complaining about it of course, except when they relegated Matisse's great painting 'The Dance' to a stairwell. And to then see the cavernous, empty space of the atrium, at first dedicated to dwarfing Monet's once monumental Water Lilies (thus coining the term 'monuminimal'), it was enough to make this museum member want to barf.
And then something happened. MoMA became relevant again.
Architect Yoshio Taniguchi designed the space, saying that if the museum gave him enough money he could make the walls disappear. True to his promise, Taniguchi's design forced the curators to notice they were wasting this grand space at their fingertips and needed to make curatorial decisions to capitalize on it. The architecture lends itself to public interaction, a dynamic courtyard surrounded by sterile, somber chambers devoted to the static nature of painting. The contrast was heightened as projections and performers began to stage happenings, where the audience became part of the spectacle. In this modern-age coliseum, the walls between artist and audience blurred, a perfect response to the architect's directive.

The NYT Digs Verace

The New York Times today gave Verace a great review-- including praise for the 'bold' barrel-vaulted ceiling (ahem-- Bouler Architecture). Having dined there last night, I can wholeheartedly agree with the NYT's assessment of the food. I had a terrific apple and pear gogonzola salad with candied pecans, grilled shrimp and risotto, and a seafood stew, all at reasonable prices and manageable portions, not to mention everything on my plate was fantastic.

This Is Not a Chair

I am a big fan of pulling objects out of people's trash cans. I've been known to pick up a life-sized plastic Santa or a pool ladder on my morning run, and evidently I'm not alone. Blu Dot, the modern furniture design studio, capitalized on trash-picker mentality in their new marketing ploy. The concept, detailed in yesterday's New York Times, is genius: In random locations all over Manhattan and Brooklyn, leave chairs fitted with hidden GPS monitors and track where they wind up. Cute hipsters from all parts of the city picked up the Good chair for free, which normally retails for $129, only to discover that they had been the target of a sales pitch.

I'm not sure about this new type of product placement. Part of me loves the conceptual end of it, as I was incredibly curious about who picked up the chairs and where they went. But another part of me wonders where this technique might lead. True, we've all grown accustomed to pop up ads, telemarketers, and movie product placement, but tracking a product's physical movements strikes me as a bit too invasive. But it is a nice chair, so if I saw it in the trash on my morning run, I'm certain I'd jog off with one too.

New Inspiration

Few activities get my creativity flowing as much as flipping through a good design publication. Since the loss of Domino Magazine, I've been feeling a bit of a decor void. Sure Dwell is a great monthly read, and the NY Times feeds me regularly; however I miss the glossy decorating fantasy that Domino offered. Well I found some new options recently. Livingetc, a British publication, satisfied the itch for some new and funky ideas. With tons of mod products featured, including faux grass flooring, handcrafted teak tubs, and at least three rooms featuring egg chairs, there were many ideas to inspire redecoration. The cover price is a bit steep-- 8.50 USD-- but there is an online version for your perusal. I may spring for the subscription because I love marking pages for further contemplation.
I also found this terrific design book Urban Style: Eco Archiecture. Not only did it showcase some fantastic color photographs of projects around the globe, it offered floor plans and diagrams of some of the alternative energy features of the buildings.

Conversations with Gehry

It’s a real skill for architects to convince clients to take a creative leap of faith with a unique design. How does one do it? Some answers can be found in the new book Conversations with Frank Gehry by Barbara Isenberg. Becoming one’s own client seems to be the first step for many forward-thinking architects, using their own homes for experimentation. Gehry’s reinvention of his Santa Monica bungalow was a first step in establishing his bold architecture. And as we know, location is everything; California’s openness to new design and rubbing elbows with the rich and famous put Gehry in position to secure future innovative projects, including the Guggenheim in Bilbao,Spain. Watching Gehry assemble a model in The Sketches of Frank Gehry, one gets the sense that Gehry speaks the language of line and form with ease, communicating complex design principals with paper and scotch tape. Hopefully Isenberg’s new book add Gehry’s personal explication of his projects to that conversation.

NYTimes Escapes

Yet another casualty of our economic times is the Escapes section of the Friday edition of the New York Times. For me, the section signaled the end of the work week, when I could thumb through its pages and imagine the weekend escapes featured. I'd envision myself wandering the cabins with a cup of coffee, or reading a book on a seaside deck. Oftentimes I would clip a story or a photo for a client who was building a weekend retreat, a way to inspire him or her to persevere with a dream home.
Escapes is now integrated into the Arts section, but has lost some content along the way. The loss may seem insignificant, and perhaps it is, but it is indicative of a larger trend: the loss of printed text. One could definitely argue the merits of such a trend-- less printed material may mean fewer natural resources used in production and in recycling; however there is something about the tactile page-- the stories you wouldn't have clicked on, the clippings tacked on a bulletin board, the immediacy of traveling with a newspaper tucked under one's arm-- that compels me to reject the digital age. But I am old enough to remember when people wouldn't leave messages on that newfangled invention the answering machine or trust their credit card information to be sent over the Internet, so perhaps it's just a matter of time that I will surrender my quaint notions about the newspaper. Will it go the way of the eight-track? Will we read this entry and scoff? Perhaps the younger generations, enticed by the electronic screen, will read even more, like moths to a porch light. Time will tell, just as few in the 13th Century would have predicted that there would be more printed material in one Sunday edition of the Times than in their entire century.