Archinect - News

Six years since #FolkMoMA, the state of folk art at MoMA

2019-06-07T13:50:00-04:00

What I’ll miss during the Museum of Modern Art’s four-month public shutdown is something I’ve already been missing for five years and will probably continue to miss when the expanded museum reopens in October. I’m talking about the presence on West 53rd Street of the American Folk Art Museum, which was physically demolished in 2014, and whose site the expanded MoMA absorbs, but whose spirit lives on as a restless ghost in the corporate machine that MoMA is.

Holland Cotter, NYT co-chief art critic, on the state of art apart from the usual household names at MoMA since the TWBTA-designed American Folk Art Museum building next door was demolished in 2014, as well as looking ahead to the reopening of the expanded MoMA this fall.

"I would suggest that we, and MoMA, don’t need any more Rauschenbergs, or Richters, or Serras, or Twomblys," writes Cotter. "What we do need is 'many others.' And some of those Others were, for 13 years, to be found in the Folk Art Museum next door. Maybe MoMA can now be persuaded to acknowledge its spirit, and their genius, in its expanded home."

Cuts and gains: Weekly News Round-Up for November 17, 2014

2014-11-24T19:16:00-05:00

Friday, November 21:

Latest NCARB survey indicates architecture is a growing profession in the U.S.: Surveying Architectural Registration Boards in 2014, NCARB found a 3.1% growth of architects in the US since 2011.

Thursday, November 20:

Renzo Piano will design the new Kum & Go corporate HQ in Iowa: For non-locals, "Kum & Go" is a Midwestern chain of gas stations-cum-convenience stores. The HQ will be built in Des Moines.

Wednesday, November 19:

Clemson scraps its modern building plan: This past July, local preservation and historical foundations sued Clemson University for initially approving a modernist-style new building, and now, Clemson has dropped the building plans.
Saving Buildings with Social Media (Or Not): Alexandra Lange opines on the use and efficacy of social media to preserve architecture.
Architecture Billings Index shows slower expansion in October: AIA reports continued growth but at a slower pace than last month, thanks to "continued strength in the multi-family residen...

Saving Buildings with Social Media (Or Not)

2014-11-19T14:56:00-05:00

We call it “destructoporn” (since 2007, according to Urban Dictionary) and it comes, unbidden, via digital media. Where did I see that Tod Williams and Billie Tsien’s Folk Art Museum, just thirteen years old, was down to steel and rubble? The art critic Jerry Saltz’s Instagram. [...] The dailiness, even hourliness, of social media makes it a perfect vehicle for documenting each thump of the wrecking ball, each crunch of the backhoe. Its visual slant is ideal for activism wrapped up in pictures.

Revisiting the American Folk Art Museum controversy, through comics

2014-08-14T13:01:00-04:00

Artist and animator Sam Grinberg revisits the fight over the future of the American Folk Art Museum.

Editor's Picks #365

2014-04-30T15:24:00-04:00

News

Dave Heller spoke with Inga Saffron about not just architecture but "city life criticism". Evan Chakroff asked for tips "Has anyone compiled a good 'top ten' of her articles?"

Quondam replied "Links to Saffron's articles appear almost weekly within ArchNewsNow's daily collection of worldwide architecture news. The articles themselves, however, may not have a broad audience appeal because they are, for the most part, very Philadelphia centric. What is significant though, is that a local newspaper still publishes the work of a critic that is so in tune"...

Referring to the Catalog #1 of the Los Angeles Biennale of Architecture/Urbanism Orhan Ayyüce warned interested buyers "for now, the aim is first limited and numbered edition of 100".

The NYT published an editorial by John Freeman Gill, which points out similarities between the fate of the Laing Stores (sometimes called the Bogardus Building) and the current FolkMoMA discourse/proposals. Steven Ward proposed a future PS1 competi...

The Folly of Saving What You Kill

2014-04-24T13:12:00-04:00

[...] MoMA has said it would detach and preserve the facade’s 63 textured copper-bronze panels. One might suppose that salvage is preferable to annihilation, but before we get too comfortable with such piecemeal preservation, it is worth noting that the panel-by-panel disassembly and storage of an architectural treasure’s metal facade has been tried before in New York City, with comically disastrous results. Who around here remembers the Laing Stores?

Editor's Picks #364

2014-04-22T21:24:00-04:00

For the latest edition of the Working out of the Box feature Archinect talked with Emily Fischer, Founder of Haptic Lab.

In the interview she explains how she started "The very first quilted map I made was designed to be a wayfinding tool for the visually impaired; my mother was diagnosed with glaucoma and macular degeneration while I was a student at TCAUP”.

Fred Scharmen commented "Those kites are amazing!".

Meanwhile issue #12 of Screen/Print highlighted The Cairo Review's "Future of the City" along with One:Twelve (the student-run journal from the Knowlton School of Architecture) seventh issue, Black and White.

News
As demolition of the Folk Art Museum began Amelia and Paul moderated a conversation between Archinect Contributors Ken Koense and Donna Sink, Quilian Riano and Lee Rosenbaum, who writes about art museums for the Wall Street Journal.

vado retro was curious "Would we have the same outrage say if a hospital were the ones tearing down the FAM...Our response of outrage is a...

As demolition of Folk Art Museum begins, Archinect reflects on historical implications

2014-04-16T13:15:00-04:00

The axe is set to fall on the American Folk Art Museum -- after months of controversy and protest, MoMA initiated its expansion and began preparing the FAM for demolition this past Monday. As per prior concessions by MoMA, the museum's distinctive façade will be preserved, but it's unlikely to abate the sour feelings of those who oppose both the loss of the FAM, and Diller Scofidio + Renfro's expansion designs.

When MoMA first announced it would raze the FAM in April of 2013, the news resonated not only as a blow to preservationism and sustainability, but as an issue of architectural ethics and institutional monopolies. #folkmoma became a rallying post for protest and alternative proposals, and the widespread news coverage brought architectural drama to the front page.

But pro-con feuding aside, the Folk/MoMA issue implicates difficult questions of architecture's responsibilities -- to preservation, sustainability, other architects, and the public’s opinion. Architects and Archinect c...

Coming Soon to MoMA, Lots of Knocking Next Door

2014-04-14T15:28:00-04:00

The Museum of Modern Art’s controversial decision to demolish a neighbor, the former American Folk Art Museum, is about to become reality. On Monday, scaffolding and protective netting will begin to go up around the folk art building, at 45 West 53rd Street, the museum confirmed on Friday. [...] The building’s facade will be removed first, panel by panel, and taken to storage. Its future remains uncertain. Demolition is expected to continue through the summer.

Previously

MoMA will preserve Folk Art Museum's facade

2014-02-12T14:32:00-05:00

Contrary to what you may have read lately, the Museum of Modern Art is intent on carefully preserving the former American Folk Art Museum next door. At least, the part of it that is most recognizable to the public: an 82-foot-high sculptural ensemble of 63 panels, cast in a gorgeous copper-bronze alloy [...] “We will take the facade down, piece by piece, and we will store it,” Glenn D. Lowry, the director of the Museum of Modern Art, said in an interview last week.

WATCH: Diller, Lowry, critics, writers and more discuss MoMA's expansion plans

2014-02-04T18:31:00-05:00

As reported last week by Archinectors Ayesha Ghosh and Alex Stewart, a discussion regarding MoMA's expansion plan and the intended demolition of the American Folk Art Museum took place at the New York Society for Ethical Culture, an appropriate venue for a conversation rife with implications for the ethics of preservation, real estate development and the architectural profession. The aim was to create an opportunity for public discussion of what has been criticized as a unilateral move by MoMA, and investigate the supposed necessity of the Folk Museum's demolition.

The conversation was presented by The Architectural League, in partnership with the Municipal Art Society and the AIA, New York Chapter. Watch the entire discussion below, featuring:

Glenn Lowry (Director of the Museum of Modern Art), Ann Temkin (The Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture), Elizabeth Diller (principal of Diller Scofidio + Renfro), Reed Kroloff (director of the Cranbrook Academy...

Elizabeth Diller, MoMA discuss expansion and Folk Museum's demolition with slice of NY architectural community

2014-01-29T15:46:00-05:00

The controversial plans to demolish the American Folk Art Museum in service of MoMA's expansion rumbled along last night, at a panel discussion hosted jointly by the Architectural League, the Municipal Art Society, and the AIA's New York chapter.

Catch-up on news surrounding MoMA's expansion here:

Archinect contributors / Parsons MArch students Ayesha Ghosh and Alex Stewart attended the event, taking notes and logging thoughts. The following is their report.

* updated February 3, 2014: You can also find a video of the entire discussion, courtesy of the Architectural League, at the bottom of this post.

A Conversation on the ...

Building Faces Wrecking Ball. So Does Couples’ Friendship.

2014-01-19T17:24:00-05:00

“All of us who knew them thought this was going to be pretty much a slam dunk — that they would save the Folk Art Museum,” said Peter Wheelwright, a former chairman of the architecture program at Parsons, the New School for Design. “I knew they were capable of doing it and that, because of their friendship, that they would make a sincere, genuine, wholehearted effort.”

Christopher Hawthorne interviews Elizabeth Diller regarding MoMA plans

2014-01-16T11:42:00-05:00

"I think that the press has been too fast to reduce the conversation to heroes and villains and martyrs, and to suggest that what MoMA is doing is necessarily bad. We want to get more information out. We want to share the problem with others and invite them to really take a hard look" - Elizabeth Diller

They discuss the almost uniformly negative reaction to the announcement as well as the details of DS+R’s proposal for MoMA, which is still in an early design phase.

In response Michael Kimmelman tweeted "Her answers are deeply unsatisfying".

Editor's Picks #350

2014-01-14T13:15:00-05:00

The latest edition of ShowCase highlights CRAB Studio’s Abedian School of Architecture in Queensland, Australia.

Plus, the fourth installment in Screen/Print (Archinect’s experimentation in translation across media) features "fruity labors" from the quarterly journal MAS Context's 20th issue, Narrative.

News
Architect Magazine reported the American Folk Art Museum will be razed for a Diller Scofidio + Renfro's designed MoMA expansion.

Amelia Taylor-Hochberg Editorial Manager for Archinect, went to the trouble of gathering "a slew of responses to the proposal, both indignant and accepting, from Archinect contributors and beyond".

HotelSphinx thought the excuses/reasons given for demolition were ironic "DS+R is a firm that made a building out of fog for the Expo in Yverdon-les-Bains in 2002. Yes, fog. But aligning floor plates is too difficult? They have got to be joking me".

Meanwhile, Mason White of Lateral Office was perplexed.

"Architects revolt about 2 high-society architecture firms in...

Architects and critics bristle at DS+R's Folk Museum sacrifice

2014-01-09T18:20:00-05:00

Yesterday, DS+R announced in their proposal for MoMA's redesign that the American Folk Art Museum would have to be demolished. Backlash from the #folkMoMA community quickly arose: architects and critics called the choice callous and unsustainable, outraged not only by the Folk Art Museum's destruction but also the design that would take its place, and its impact on New York's (and DS+R's) reputation.

We've gathered a slew of responses to the proposal, both indignant and accepting, from Archinect contributors and beyond, and will be following developments closely. Here are a few of those thoughts:

From the Archinect news post, American Folk Art Museum will be razed in Diller Scofidio + Renfro's MoMA expansion:

Donna Sink: "All of DSR's previous work is tarnished by this."

Darkman: "This solidifies Rem Koolhaas as the best architect-thinker of our time, for his original MoMA proposal, "MoMA, Inc." "

thebeigecity: "As for the Folk Art Museum - it was cramped and cloying, ov...

American Folk Art Museum will be razed in Diller Scofidio + Renfro's MoMA expansion

2014-01-08T18:42:00-05:00

[Diller] had great respect for the Folk Art Museum, calling it a “bespoke” design tailored to the needs of the museum. She went through several scenarios on how to integrate the museum in the expanded footprint. [...] Adapting the Folk Art Museum building, however, would basically compromise the building’s interior beyond recognition. [...] The architects would have had to destroy the Folk Art Museum building in order to save it.

In what looks like the kiss of death for the #folkMoMA movement, Diller Scofidio + Renfro's design for MoMA's expansion will necessitate the destruction of the neighboring American Folk Art Museum, as proposed today in a MoMA press conference. The initial threat to the Folk Museum was made last spring when MoMA announced its redevelopment plans, provoking a widespread preservationist movement among architects, rallying under #folkMoMA.

To catch-up on #folkMoMA's history, see #8 in Archinect's coverage for the Top 13 Issues of 2013.

Here are some concept sketches for the new MoMA, via Architect Magazine (image credit: Diller Scofidio + Renfro).

Editor's Picks #316

2013-05-22T11:11:00-04:00

Beth Mosenthal penned a thoughtful Op-Ed titled The Ego and the Architect. Therein, she briefly examined "the idea of ‘leadership’ in an architectural office".

News
Celebrating the fact that "the Museum of Modern Art blinked" Michael Kimmelman wrote an article Defending the Former American Folk Art Museum Building. Donna Sink commented "A lovely, calm argument and well- written article. Fingers crossed that MOMA's less egotisticsl and more community-focused board members will listen".

Archinect talked to Ivan Blanco, designer of the competition-winning entry in the LA Film Festival Director's Lounge Design Competition. Ivan heads LA-based multi-disciplinary design studio Blnko Design Labs. Eric Chavkin enjoyed the interview but had a couple of thoughts "The scheme is, well, kind of typical but does address the very important IMHO the after film-aspect of going to a screening. The 'windows frame' metaphor is just weak".

Following the release of CLOG: Brutalism—the NYC-...

Editor's Picks #315

2013-05-14T08:00:00-04:00

News
Robin Pogrebin reported that following wide-ranging protests, the Museum of Modern Art has selected the design firm Diller Scofidio & Renfro to re-examine it’s planned expansion including whether to keep any of the existing American Folk Art Museum. Scott Gustafon was somewhat relieved "I believe that Tod Williams and Ricardo Scofidio are old friends, so this is a step in the right direction" and Lian Chikako Chang deadpanned "Pretty sure that DSR can handle staggered floorplates". Added Darkman "There is room behind the museum... you could install very gradual ramps or something. Additionally, i'd like to see the facade brought out to the sidewalk to open up the building--not sure how to do that though... ha. Or replace with semi-transparent glazing in the same pattern and shape. Would be cool to see it glow".

Bustler.net showcased Parabola Chair by Los Angeles-based architect and product designer Carlo Aiello, winner of the 2013 ICFF Studio Award. The chair will be e...

Defending the Former American Folk Art Museum Building

2013-05-13T14:01:00-04:00

It’s a relief on the block, representing the diversity vital to healthy streets — not a perfect building, not even its architects’ best work. But its unembarrassed, luxuriant materiality, its small scale and vulnerability, all qualities that the Modern now seems to reject, belong no less than the glass tower to the messy story of Modernism and city life.

MoMA pulls back from original plan to destroy award-winning American Folk Art Museum building

2013-05-11T22:08:00-04:00

Thursday, MoMA director Glenn D. Lowry sent a memo to MoMA's trustees and staff announcing the museum had retained Diller Scofidio + Renfro to "work with us to design a plan that will integrate the Museum's current building with the property of the American Folk Art Museum. . . . We readily agreed to consider a range of options, and look forward to seeing their results."

A statement from Diller Scofidio + Renfro said the design firm would explore all possibilities, "which include, but are not limited to, integrating the former American Folk Art Museum building, designed by our friends and admired colleagues, Tod Williams and Billie Tsien."

"My sense is they will try to save at least some of it. I can't imagine good designers destroying a great building for no good reason," said Quilian Riano, acting professor of design at Parsons The New School.

Riano helped lead a digital battle to offer MoMA "alternative visions" to destroying the 12-year-old building that swept world arch...

MoMA reconsiders razing of Folk Art Museum, hands decision over to newly selected architects DS+R

2013-05-09T17:12:00-04:00

AFTER impassioned protests from prominent architects, preservationists and design critics, the Museum of Modern Art said on Thursday that it would reconsider its decision to demolish its next-door neighbor, the former home of the American Folk Art Museum, to make room for an expansion.

In a board meeting on Thursday morning, the directors were told that a board committee had selected the design firm Diller Scofidio & Renfro to handle the expansion and to help determine whether to keep any of the existing structure.

On the Folk Art Museum: Save Modernism from the Modern

2013-05-07T13:20:00-04:00

The Modernism worth pursuing — worth protecting — is the one where Gregor Samsa wakes up transformed into a large insect, and ends up with an apple embedded in his carapace, which is exactly what the Folk Art Museum is to the Museum of Modern Art, right now, right where it is.

On Places, David Heymann presents an incisive critique of MoMA's decision to raze the Folk Art Museum building, by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects.

From a quiet beginning — "Here is why I think the American Folk Art Museum is a great Modernist building" — Heymann works his way to a pointed conclusion: "Modernism in the architecture of the Modern is just another sad Historical Revival Style, the very thing Modernism as an ideology set out so intently to destroy."

MoMA’s History of Demolishing Potential Landmarks

2013-05-03T19:50:00-04:00

MoMA’s plan can hardly be a surprise, because its entire history since 1937 is based on demolishing potential landmarks.

The Architectural League calls on MoMA to reconsider Folk Art Museum Demolition

2013-04-22T18:07:00-04:00

The Architectural League calls on the Museum of Modern Art to reconsider its decision to demolish the American Folk Art Museum. The Museum of Modern Art—the first museum with a permanent curatorial department of architecture and design—should provide more information about why it considers it necessary to tear down this significant work of contemporary architecture. The public has a substantial and legitimate interest in this decision, and the Museum of Modern Art has not yet offered a compelling justification for the cultural and environmental waste of destroying this much-admired, highly distinctive twelve-year-old building.

Annabelle Selldorf, president
Rosalie Genevro, executive director

Amale Andraos
Stella Betts
Michael Bierut
Vishaan Chakrabarti
Walter Chatham
Leslie Gill
Maxine Griffith
Frances Halsband
Hugh Hardy
Steven Holl
Wendy Evans Joseph
Rachel Judlowe
Paul Lewis
Frank Lupo
Thom Mayne
Richard Meier
Joseph Mizzi
Peter Mullan
Nat Oppenheimer
Gr...

What If We, Oh, Didn't Tear Down the Folk Museum Building?

2013-04-18T14:32:00-04:00

Over the last week, the architectural community has been all aflutter over the fate of the former American Folk Museum Building. A 12-year-old building that was opened just after 9/11, MoMA snatched it up for $23 million in 2011 and is planning to raze its critically acclaimed sculptural bronze facade. It's inevitable, the modern art juggernaut shrugs, because the floors of the adjacent buildings, plus the rest of MoMA uses lots of glass as its primary material rather than metal.

Over the last week, the architectural community has been all aflutter—and, okay, intensely divided—over the fate of the former American Folk Museum Building. A 12-year-old building that was opened just after 9/11 at 45 West 53rd Street, MoMA snatched it up for $23 million in 2011 and is planning to raze its critically acclaimed sculptural bronze facade (designed by Tod WIlliams Billie Tsien, who have also publicly shared their sadness). It's inevitable, the modern art juggernaut shrugs, because the floors of the adjacent buildings don't align and it will have to start from the ground-up to create a cohesive addition, plus the rest of MoMA uses lots of glass as its primary material rather than metal.

Why Is the Museum of Modern Art Dead Set on Perpetrating a Hideous Act of Architecture-cide?

2013-04-18T14:28:00-04:00

Come to think of it, however, here’s another idea for the folk-art-museum building: maybe it should be used to display a small selection of MoMA’s extraordinary collection, so that people can experience some of its great works in a small-scaled space and have a tiny hint of the intimate, enticing museum that MoMA once was.

Crusade commenced to convince MoMA not to demolish American Folk Art Museum

2013-04-18T14:26:00-04:00

Can it be saved? A grassroots crusade to persuade MoMA not to tear down the architecturally significant 12-year-old American Folk Art Museum at 45 W. 53rd St. has erupted, igniting the passion of architects, designers, preservationists and ordinary citizens.

Architects Dream up Alternatives to MoMA’s Tear Down Plan

2013-04-18T14:24:00-04:00

Architects and designers, responding to the news that the Museum of Modern Art intends to demolish a former museum, have some ideas for MoMA.Their concepts, some earnest and others tongue-in-cheek, are being compiled on a tumblr called #FolkMoMA, created to challenge MoMA’s assertion that the former American Folk Art Museum building is not compatible with its expansion plans.

Design Community Responds to Museum of Modern Art Decision on Folk Art Museum

2013-04-18T14:23:00-04:00

Almost as soon as the news broke last week that the Museum of Modern Art planned to demolish the former American Folk Art Museum, a movement emerged to save it. Members of the design community—including the architects who designed the building—are registering their discontent with the decision. More than one petition is now circulating to rescue the Folk Art building as a result.