The Washington Post does a nice round up on the redevelopment of 2 Columbus Circle. It adds a little to the conversation from last week, mostly in the form of a some better quotes. And there’s a little bit of its interesting history, though they failed to note that in the late 90s the Dahesh Museum made serious inquires into relocating there, perhaps because they needed to make room for Tom Wolfe to try and reclaim some of his former gadfly glories of the early 80’s. They come down slightly, but definitely, on the side of “it’s broke, and needs to be fixed.” Given it’s somewhat a positive piece, architect Brad Cloepfil gets a bit of slight, being referrred to as an ’emerging talent’ — perhaps implying that he spirited away the commission from the apparently hottest architect on the palent, Zaha Hadid, who is referred to as the ‘Pritzker Prize winner,’ a useless distinction considering that she was not when the competition was held, and that when he was selected, he had completed a minor, but noted, musuem (Hadid’s CAC was still under construction), a major corporate commission and several other arts-related commissions. Cloepfil had demonstrated skill at realizing difficult projects, an approach that corresponded well to the program needs, and the museum’s mission, and was probably considered the best ‘regional’ architect in the country, but he still’s just emerging. That’s what you get for living in Portland, and not having a good press agent.
UPDATE: The Times’s Joyce Purnick takes a more direct jab at the preservationists today. She also adds a potentially interesting nugget: MAD doesn’t yet own the building, which in principle give the opposition some hope, some of whom even suggest leaving the eyesore sit a while longer until a better developer comes along. But it’s also a bit of a red herring. The city is cutting MAD a deal, but one of the conditions is that construction commence withing a particular timeframe of the sale, so the museum is likely putting off executing the agreement until they have made adequate progress in their captial campaign. So if you are a wealthy individual with a desire to stick it to Tom Wolfe and Bob Stern, there’s a naming opportunity built just for you. Rather, about to be built. Just for you.
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More on 2 Columbus Circle.
The Washington Post does a nice round up on the redevelopment of 2 Columbus Circle. It adds a little to the conversation from last week, mostly in the form of a some better quotes. And there’s a little bit of its interesting history, though they failed to note that in the late 90s the Dahesh Museum made serious inquires into relocating there, perhaps because they needed to make room for Tom Wolfe to try and reclaim some of his former gadfly glories of the early 80’s. They come down slightly, but definitely, on the side of “it’s broke, and needs to be fixed.” Given it’s somewhat a positive piece, architect Brad Cloepfil gets a bit of slight, being referrred to as an ’emerging talent’ — perhaps implying that he spirited away the commission from the apparently hottest architect on the palent, Zaha Hadid, who is referred to as the ‘Pritzker Prize winner,’ a useless distinction considering that she was not when the competition was held, and that when he was selected, he had completed a minor, but noted, musuem (Hadid’s CAC was still under construction), a major corporate commission and several other arts-related commissions. Cloepfil had demonstrated skill at realizing difficult projects, an approach that corresponded well to the program needs, and the museum’s mission, and was probably considered the best ‘regional’ architect in the country, but he still’s just emerging. That’s what you get for living in Portland, and not having a good press agent.
UPDATE: The Times’s Joyce Purnick takes a more direct jab at the preservationists today. She also adds a potentially interesting nugget: MAD doesn’t yet own the building, which in principle give the opposition some hope, some of whom even suggest leaving the eyesore sit a while longer until a better developer comes along. But it’s also a bit of a red herring. The city is cutting MAD a deal, but one of the conditions is that construction commence withing a particular timeframe of the sale, so the museum is likely putting off executing the agreement until they have made adequate progress in their captial campaign. So if you are a wealthy individual with a desire to stick it to Tom Wolfe and Bob Stern, there’s a naming opportunity built just for you. Rather, about to be built. Just for you.