Kate Millet, who has empowered legions of affluent white girls that bothered to attend good schools finds herself victim of yet another social order dominated by men. In this instance, rampant development (which, hey, we happen to hate too) has forced her to make do with only 1700 square feet of city apartment. That’s right. Millet, who for several years has fought the redevelopment of her city digs from the farm she has upstate, finally fell victim to the virus that is Avalon Bay development. As compsenation, she suffers the indignity of having to scale down to a smaller aparment, which is only three or four times larger than most two bedrooms in her neighborhood. I don’t know about you, but I’ll miss Millet. I remember her selflessly working the flophouses, handing out sandwiches and free copies of Sexual Politics to winos and bums. Once you destroy the fabric of downtown like that, what can replace it? Million dollar lofts developed by sculptors who made their name attacking corporate profiteering? Maybe, but it won’t be the same.
Hey, hey, most of the gang’s here.
David Dunlap tries to work some scandal chic into what was by any measure an innocuous event, yesterday’s RFP conference for the two cultural sites at the WTC site. It’s a sloppy mess, presuming the casual reader will know the proposed location of the musuem site, which will also hold the Drawing Center (never mentioned) and that there is a whole other site for the performing groups. His big flourish is a senseless speculation on what might happen if the selected firm decides to ‘move’ the site, his precedent for this inane point being the ‘bending’ of the rules by prior competition entrants. Except this isn’t a competition, it’s an RFP, and the selected firm will be expected to perform professionally under contract, which is to say, design for the program as it’s delivered.
His trenchant thesis is that the corner location is significant in part because of the potential for sight lines between the Winter Garden (!) and the proposed PATH station, and thus a potentially 15-story museum might obscure some views. It’s interesting how people continue to talk about the site without noting that it will be filled with office towers (eventually). There were no sight lines at the old WTC. There were two, large, repetitive figures that blocked light, and dominated the skyline. The future may not be very much different (especially if Kevin Rampe gets his way). Exactly how is a 15-story museum going to be intrusive when there is a 100-story tower behind it (with a handful of even more bland infill sprouting up another block back)? If anything, the reverse is more important: some of the (potentially) most interesting design work downtown will be dwarfed by the entirely unexceptional first 40-stories of the Freedom Tower.
Beyond that, the most useful part of the column is the partial list of attendees, which included “Arquitectonica, Santiago Calatrava, Diller & Scofidio, Nicholas Grimshaw, Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas, Enrique Norten, Bernard Tschumi and Rafael Viñoly”. All in all, not a bad list, if you trim the front end a bit. Were you to have a sky blue shapeless blazer from Chess King packed away in a closet, you probably remember Arquitectonica best as the firm that made all those wacky apartment towers in the opening credits to Miami Vice. If you have been paying more attention recently, you know they are also responsible for the worst hotel ever constructed in Manhattan (the Westin Times Square, on 8th Avenue and 43rd Street) and the suburban behemoth in the East Village, Avalon Chrystie Place.
Though his list is not presented as exhaustive, we would hope firms such as Steven Holl, MVRDV, Smith-Miller Hawkinson (responsible for underappreciated Pier 11), Herzog & de Meuron, and Richard Gluckman (he might be a little short on total dollars completed, but has a great musuem and gallery portfolio) submit. Stepping down in scale just a tad would allow an even more interesting list with the likes of Office d’A and Mack Scogin/Merrill Elam, and locals such as ARO and Lewis Tsurumaki Lewis.
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You won’t have old Herbert to kick around anymore.
The Times introduces Nicolai Ouroussoff today, and he introduces the winners of the High Line competition: Field Operations + Diller, Scofidio and Renfro. As a piece of writing, it’s not the strongest move out of the gate, but he does show legs in the backstretch and finishes strong.
Opening with some general comments about the competition, he seems to impute an opinion that only the winners earned the distinction of “startlingly original results”. But this kind of bland obsevation could be equally applied to any of the projects. He doesn’t offer any insight of his own regarding the losers, which would have made for more intersting criticism. Overall, it might even be hard to say what it is he is praising, beyond the slivers of concrete that turn up in all the renderings. He rightly pans the terminus as bordering on a “high-end mall for downtown sophisticates”. The rest of the elements he mentions are qualified as ‘sketches,’ and this is certainly true, as nothing beyond the plants and aforementioned concrete pieces have enough detail to indicate how they might even be built, which doesn’t leave all that much to discuss or evaluate. It’s certainly not his fault that one read of the project is that is consists primarily of pavers and a schematic planting diagram, but perhaps he could have considered this in his write up.
It’s not all bad. He manages a rather direct jab at the end, noting that the High Line development is emblematic of the best way to do adaptive reuse, as compared to “flawed, often cynical planning efforts that have marked development at ground zero” which is a degree of unvarnished commentary that is most welcome.
As a decision, well, a hearty ‘boo-hiss’ from these parts. If pressed, we would have voted for the winners as the ‘if it isn’t going to be Holl’ candidate (even without reviewing submissions), but unfortunately, the drop-off is rather steep in our estimation. Diller + Scofidio have realized a small number of impressive and complex projects, but they simply don’t have the grace of handling materials and light that Holl does. Or, at least, they haven’t had a chance to show it yet. Given his history with the site, the elegant and pragmatic solution he submitted, his role as an ardent voice for innovative urban interventions, and his clear distinction as being the best architect in town, being passed over is a most disappointing decision, one that the new kid would have been wise to acknowlege.
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It’s Wednesday; time for some public interest group to oppose the West Side stadium.
What? It’s Thursday? Oh, well, then it must be time for… as my father would say, same shit, different day. Actually, we’re just late in reporting: it was Wednesday, and it was the Citizens Union this time, the “city’s oldest good-government organization” as the Times puts it. They offer a succinct position paper that addresses the major points of the opposition: that the plan should undergo a binding ULURP (right now, the stadium can proceed without city input), that the development authority be better scrutinized, that the BPC revenue not be diverted, and that we shouldn’t be racing ahead thinking we’ll get the Olympics. In other words, Dan Doctoroff’s Olympic fetish shouldn’t be driving the development bus. Given their roots opposing Tammany Hall, they are a little more lively and strident than the RPA, who we imagine are taking the tactical route (also known as the cop from the 1970’s advice vis-a-vis rape: if you know it’s going happen, you should relax and enjoy it) but end up coming off as too obsequious — even though their numbers are at best inconclusive about the need for 30 million square feet of office space over the next 30 years and the residential real estate market is at an all time high, they fall all over themselves repeating that the West Side development can’t be driven by residential development, even though that would be by far the most visionary solution. Given the limited amount of authority the city has, it’s questionable that focusing on the overall development scheme — which the city does control — would have any impact on the stadium. If you think there would be a hestitation to plunk down a new stadium on the West Side with no additional development, we recommend you pay a visit to where the Jets play currently before pondering that question any further.
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130 Liberty Street: cleaner than you think. We hope.
A little more news is leaking out regarding the planned deconstruction of 130 Liberty Street. After reiterating that you can’t trust an investment bank when it comes to analysis, the LMDC spent some time glad-handing at a CB1 meetings, and reported that they will be commissioning their own study of site before proceeding. Given that the LMDC site optimistically projects the commencement of the tear down to begin this fall, one might be inclined to think it may get the short shrift, since they haven’t even started the testing yet. But that hasn’t stopped the contractor from detailing exactly how the job in going to be done so don’t go thinking that this ‘testing’ is just ‘public relations.’ Just in case, if you live downtown, perhaps you should hustle over to the WTC Registry, which is still short of its hoped for enrollment.
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Times Arts editors: left hand, meet right hand.
The new concrete: sure is pretty, if you can find someone who can make it.
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Naked Cowboy releases study showing Jets stadium poor investment.
So we’re being a little facetious, but only because we’re interested in what sort of twisted Google strings will lead folks here. However, it really does seem that if everyone in town has pretty solid analysis (there’s a bunch more out there, but why bother linking? There will be a new one tomorrow for Dan Doctoroff to ignore, including one from City Comptroller-cum- mayoral candidate William Thompson, due any day now) to support the patently obvious: namely, that tax dollars shouldn’t guarantee nor subsidize sports stadia. It’s a little lost in the muddle of $4 million dollars worth of advertising (which pitches the Dolans versus the Johnsons; just who is Goliath in this one?), but pretty much 100% of the cost of the proposed Jets stadium is dependent upon John Q. Public (the Jets will finance using bonds guaranteed by the city so they get a sweet rate).
Given that the combined net worth of the RWJ IV, Bloomberg and the Dolans would cover the cost of a mixed unit development that would pander to everyone’s particular franchise needs, why don’t they do it all street, and you know, buy the land and pay for it themselves? Up next: my mother issues a position paper on the absurdity and patent racism of claiming that the stadium will be good for the Latino community cause there will be all those peanut vending opportunities.
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The Spy List.
Delivery Trucks. Bicycle messengers. Food delivery guys. ‘Homeless’ people. Transvestite Prostitutes. Eurotrash tourists. Improv teams. Out-of-town ‘firefighters’ coming to town to commune with the spirit of their fallen brothers. Parking attendants. Drunk girls trying to vicarioulsy recreate their favorite scenes from SATC. Univision news crews. Yuppies pushing Maclaren stollers without any kids in sight. Republicans. Skate punks. Flyer guys. Greenpeace volunteers. PA’s from Law and Order. Jamaicans selling fake watches. Anyone on Canal Street. Postal workers. Dog walkers. Dogs. You. Me.
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It’s days like these I don’t miss 254/255 forms.
The LMDC has released the RFP for the Cultural Buildings at the WTC Site. RFP Conference is next week, and submissions due at the end of the month. No scoring criteria are outlined, so it’s hard for anyone to self-select (beyond the very obvious requirement of having successfully completed a project with a construction budget over $50 million). The only other thing that might constrict the field would be the potentially daunting submission requirements, which will favor firms that have weighty RFP’s on file. Very little useful information about the development is given, except that the LMDC is taking a clear ownership role of the development of the Memorial Center building, but is vague regarding the theater (to the point where they seem to infer that the Joyce and Signature may be forced to do their own fundraising). And they confirm what a nightmare the latter will be from a schematic standpoint: a 40,000 sq ft footprint that will have to house four theaters, ranging from 99-1000 seats, plus vertical circulation for two distinct facilities. The total is 300,000 sq of program space, a big chunk of which will need 3-4 times average floor height, making a tall, slender and awkward envelope. The idea of a black box theater on the 20th floor is interesting, but only if there is money in place to make it so.
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Mike, you might be right, but that doesn’t mean anyone likes your plan.
Community opposition, yadda yadda, government handout, blah blah, traffic, overcrowding, lack of support from the MTA, etc. The glimmer of hope here is that last point, because even though this entire fiasco can end run around local opposition, if the MTA doesn’t sell its land, or support the 7 line extension, the stadium is pretty much a non-starter. Likely, they are only playing some hardball, since the state has been slowly starving them for the past 20 years, and this is the best chance to apply some pressure to increase their funding. Al Hirschfield, who realized late that the best way to rehabilitate a felony conviction is by loudly owning a sports entity in the city, decided to add some levity to the proceedings by claiming he can develop it all by his lonesome, and, more importantly, with his own money, which is more than all the rich guys currently involved are willing to do.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg calls Cablevision ‘a disgrace’, which isn’t news to anyone, for their new ad campaign which basically shows that the new stadium proposal is full of shit. Which it is, but Cablevision decided to fudge the numbers on the environmental impact statement, projecting that — and you can’t have a local dustup with the exploitation of minorities — Harlem would be overwhelmed with sewage, since the primary treatment plant for Manhattan is located at the west end of 125th street (the pro stadium side is up in the Bronx wooing the Latino community with, um, promises of janitorial positions or something). If the West Side is fully developed, this is a fairly true statement (and one that no one is talking about), but this fine distinction is lost on the Dolans, who also didn’t think about the fact that as long as the sewage goes where white people ain’t, then an excess isn’t really going to keep anyone up at night. But this is their version of outreach, hoping they can get local Harlem leaders to make enough noise to stop the stadium while they get the city to toss those same tax-funded bucks at the MSG, and fade quietly in to the night when their predictions come true.