Not that anyone is interested in what the other project is. Christo and Jeanne-Claude lecture at the Met (which is featuring an ongoing exhibit). But that damn internet fails again. No info on the Met site to confirm. 212-535-7710 if yer really interested. 6:00, if my source is to be believed.
And if you want to work on the Gates, get on the stick. I received a follow up notice two weeks ago, so they are moving forward; I have no idea when they will close applications.
The Downtown Express reports that the remaining $1 billion of post-9/11 aid money has been earmarked for a Downtown to JFK rail link (additional details on the scope of funds and community reaction can be found here).
One curious aspect to this allocation is the among the available LMDC documents, even though regional commuter transit is listed as a priority item, with several options being considered, not one of them is a airport connector – four of the eight involve subway ugrades, two are LIRR/MetroNorth improvements, one is PATH development and the last is for improving pedestrian interconnections between the above (PDF here). Pataki’s office has promised an update to the LMDC plans this month, but it is probably wishful thinking that it will feature some explication from where this major shift in priorities arose. Previous LMDC boondoggles have include the a proposal to bury a portion of West Street (which has never garnered community support). If you are interested in connecting the dots, it would be helpful to point out that the LMDC board includes John Zucotti (who, as chair of Brookfield Financial Properties, developer of the World Financial Center, would profit from either the West Street tunnel or the JFK connector), Jack Rudin, whose son is busy trying to wrest a sweetheart deal for a downtown residential development, and Carl Weisbrod, head of the downtown BID, and who has made his ardent support for the link well known.
From a regional planning standpoint, creating a one seat link from Manhattan to JFK is strong one, except the plans as outlined do not guarantee this, and were this city to invest heavily to connect the major business district to regional airports, it would make far more sense to connect Midtown, which is a larger and growing district, and would not create havoc on existing train lines. No matter how they work it, unless someone is willing to pony up $8 billion, there would be service disruptions or reductions involving two subway lines from Atlantic Avenue to downtown. For $8 billion, we could get the Brooklyn-NY freight link, a development investment that would have an exponentially greater benefit to the region.
In November, a temporary PATH station was opened to replace what was destroyed in 2001. In approximately two years, a new station (which is also expected to be a full transit hub, though typically the only aspect touted is the entry hall), designed by Santiago Calatrava, is to open. There seems to be more of consensus this aspect of the reconstruction that the remaining elements.
I recently visited the temporary structure, of which I cannot find a ‘formal’ review online. What I did find covered the speed of construction (just over two years, including the massive site work, renovation of the full length of the tunnels under the Hudson River, improvements to the Exchange Place stations, and new construction at the WTC site, all at a cost of half a billion dollars), what we can look forward to (Calatrava), and the relatively spartan conditions in place now. (though John Young took a tour recently and provides some insightful commentary and images).
And that’s a shame, since it seems likely that this will be the only expression in the aftermath that does service to the entirety of the event and the conflicted opinions now at work. Rational, effective, even elegant at times, what nonetheless is most striking is the pragmatic humility. Though I count myself in the apparently dwindling number that think that nothing was, and is, the most appropriate response, the intercession manages to be respectful of that belief. Nothing, in it’s most absolute form, was impossible. And so one moves forward with the least pretense and attempting to ameliorate only the most obvious and acute need: to knit back together the transit system that is one of the few remaining democratic institutions in a city that becomes more economically stratified every day. The totality of the gesture is summarized by two events: the blunt sign over the entrance that reads ‘World Trade Center PATH Station’ and the recreation of the escalator bank. The Times noted the symbolism of the latter, rebuilt in almost its exact location (though this was somewhat dictated by the fact the station is in the exact same spot, due to track runs), and the power of the former is both a shock and an almost an afterthought. With all the discussion and the relentless use of acronym or jargon (WTC, Ground Zero, et al), the name simply and defiantly asserts what had been, and hopefully does not do as an act of futility, as I fear the boundless ego of Libeskind & Co. will lead to self serving exercises of justifying the renaming of what ever new structure is created. For now, it states simply, ‘This was here, and still is.’ It seems more than enough, but we cannot live without smothering our collective conscious in over-determined kitsch, patriotism and angst. Gird yourself for sundry uses of ‘soaring,’ ‘grand,’ ‘phoenix-like’ and the rest as the concrete skeleton of Calatrava descends on a graveyard.
Slate’s Christopher Hawthorne offers a so-so slide show and commentary on Rem Koolhaas. (Via Maud). His sharpest point is that the deft economy that provided compelling and original solutions (or at least the impression of deft economy, since there is not an example of any truly modest projects in his portfolio; there may be small ones, but they aren’t cheap) in the early work is now superceded by untrammeled spectacle. The publication of S,M,L,XL presaged this, and, depending on your predisposition towards the work, you likely argue that this was either the best possible evolution of thinking that was becoming untenable in the face of growing celebrity, or a craven manipulation to foster said celebrity. As one who generally would say positive things about his work, I find myself growing skeptical. The Seattle library calls to mind the Tokyo Prada store, by Herzog and de Meuron (of whom I have fewer reservations about their ability to respond with formal inventiveness), and they partnered on the Astor Place Hotel. IIT has some of the formal economy that was evident in his earlier work, but this could arguably be a tempering driven by budget and the dogmatic mandates of Mies’ campus plan. The CCTV project is compelling (in sketch form), but then again, every time a totalitarian regime seeks legitmacy, they manage to cough up a decent building or two, useful trinkets to occupy our time analyzing the usefulness of art in providing a visual language for oppression.
Eric Owen Moss, who is currently working on an addition to the Queens Museum in Flushing Park (his drawings here) lectures tonight, sponsored by the Architectural League. I will admit upfront I am no fan of Moss, and even as I don’t know his position on the matter, I could not but think ‘What ever happened to Critical Regionalism?’ I attened a workshop earlier in the year on the efficacy of museum expansion, and heard some interesting arguments (moreso against, but that may only have been due to the superior erudition of the anti-expansion crowd, in the form of Max Anderson). So each time I see a new portfolio piece being foisted upon unsuspecting communities under the guise of cultural well-being, I think about how the only context for the effort tends to be a monograph of the architect. Moss has built few structures outside of SoCal, and it’s not so much that one could justify, oh, anything in that location, given its history, but if we are going to use the expansion as an opportunity to showcase new work, couldn’t they have found a local firm? Especially considering that of the last, what, five, major museum jobs in the city, only one went to a local? Play a game: go to the lecture tonite (The Great Hall, Cooper Union, 6:30pm) with a friend and, afterwards, see how many local firms you can name that you think would have been a better candidate. The over/under should be no less than 25.
The Pratt Calendar System denies it, but Mario Gandelsonas lectures today. Somewhere in Brooklyn, likely this evening.
Renzo Piano, who is currently working on two high profile New York projects: the New York Times tower (photos here) near Times Square, and the Morgan Library expansion, lectures tonight. Wood Auditorium, Columbia, 6:30.
Once again, we are minded how great an architect Gehry is: if you give him $10 million dollars, he will design you a really great house. Jeff Kipnis is screening and lecturing on his film on the Peter Lewis House. Wood Auditorium, Columbia, 6:30.
The Loft Cube is what happens when you take a designer that does a lot of showrooms and slather him in DuPont money: A rooftop experiment made of a lot of Corian. It’s a nice idea, mostly in the execution of a small space. But, lacking manufacturing costs (the ‘estimated’ 55,000 Euros doesn’t mention if that includes ‘site’ work, transportation, labor for assembly, untility hook up, etc.), it’s hard to say there is anything revolutionary here ($170/sq foot is about a 50% premium on high end of homebuilding costs in the Northeast US, though I suspect low for the NYC region). And, last I checked, New Yorkers well aware of the value of rooftop dwelling. The main detriments have to do with zoning (height restrictions), site work (a roof is not a structural system intend to carry a large dead load, particularly one that lands on four dainty feet), and less than spectular views, depending on the neighbors. Maybe the rooftops in Berlin are nice, smooth, virgin surfaces ready for the urbane Wallpaper* reader. But wouldn’t they be there already if they were?
What, they have that many different topics to cover?
Apparently, so much is going on at Argest Gandelsonas that Diane Argest is lecturing all of five days after partner Mario Gandelsonas. Wollman Auditorium, Cooper Union. 6:30.