all the contenders for the berkeley project can be expected to do very nice glowing minimal prisms. kuma's and cloepfil's may be a little more tectonic, sanaa's and ito's a little more pure. for that reason, i'm guessing kuma or cloepfil for funky berkeley.
if cleveland moca is the one i'm thinking it is - the breuer with the venturi addition? - my vote is for office da or shop. more for the sense of craft and texture than anything else. not sure what i'd expect of maltzen or mda, but foa and reiser umemoto can be expected to deliver sinuous extruded landscapes (yawn).
course these are seat of the pants guesses/votes/opinions with very little substance behind them.
What pisses me off is that they are even thinking about replacing one of the best art museums in the country- the UBC art museum. When is a good brutalist building ever going to get a fair shake in this day and age???
BAM/PFA is currently planning for a new visual arts center that will address the seismic issues surrounding the existing facility on Bancroft Way. The site under consideration for the new facility is campus property in downtown Berkeley's arts and commerce district. This location, at the corner of Center and Oxford Streets at the western entrance to the UC Berkeley campus, is one block from the Berkeley BART station and adjacent to the City of Berkeley's Addison Street Arts District.
As well as addressing the long-term seismic limitations of the current facility, the building project offers an exciting opportunity for BAM/PFA to expand its programs and explore new directions in the presentation of visual art, including film, video, and digital media, while better serving both the campus and Bay Area community.
In its current building BAM/PFA-one of only a handful of museums in the US to present a full range of visual arts including film-has limited exhibition, screening, and education spaces, and is not equipped to present some of the newest developments in multimedia art and installations. A new facility will allow BAM/PFA to continue to grow its collections while offering greater opportunities for academic study and research.
Plans for a new art museum and film archive follow studies and consultation with campus and community stakeholders, including the BAM/PFA Board of Trustees; City of Berkeley; UC Berkeley students, faculty, and staff; community groups; BAM/PFA members; and the UC Berkeley Office of Capital Projects.
Wow, cosmoe couldn't have made a better pun if he tried.
I took a tour of BAM for my construction class. Even after adding the massive steel columns on the corners of the galleries we're told the structure is going to collapse in the next big one. Trying to retrofit it would even further mar the design (even more so than those big black columns).
It's a big enough problem that BAM can't be loaned some artwork out of the fear that it will be destroyed.
I like the UCB art musuem, but I think the arguments for replacing it are strong enough. Unfortunately, good brutalist architecture just isn't a part of the discussion (although I'm sure that some people in the neighborhood will be glad to see it go).
I'm pretty pleased with that short list, although I'm hoping Cloepfli or Kunga gets it (Kuma was my pick for the Pritker). Nice to see that the usual suspects are absent from the list.
I've always liked that building- a brutalist re-interpretation of the FLW Guggenheim, although it has always had its problems. I've heard that besides the structural problems, BAM can only show a very small percentage of its collection, having outgrown the space years ago.
new museum shortlists: Berkeley & Cleveland
any thoughts on outcomes for these recently selected museum shortlists?:
UC Berkeley Art Museum:
Toyo Ito, Sejima (SANAA), Kengo Kuma, Allied Works
Cleveland MOCA:
FOA, office dA, Reiser Umemoto, SHoP, Michael Maltzen, Studio MDA
all the contenders for the berkeley project can be expected to do very nice glowing minimal prisms. kuma's and cloepfil's may be a little more tectonic, sanaa's and ito's a little more pure. for that reason, i'm guessing kuma or cloepfil for funky berkeley.
if cleveland moca is the one i'm thinking it is - the breuer with the venturi addition? - my vote is for office da or shop. more for the sense of craft and texture than anything else. not sure what i'd expect of maltzen or mda, but foa and reiser umemoto can be expected to deliver sinuous extruded landscapes (yawn).
course these are seat of the pants guesses/votes/opinions with very little substance behind them.
I think the Cleveland one is in Maltzan's bag.
my prediction:
Steven Ward will make some lame comment (yawn).
cleveland's been narrowed down to shop, office duh and FOA. Malzan's out .. good ridance too.
Maltzan is the origin of my username. A friend of mine used to work there.
Friend: So what style do you think our work is?
Me: I'm not sure
Friend: Yeah, you can't really call it modern and post modern conjures up all those pediments and stuff.
Me: Yeah, not really super-modern either
Friend:hmmmm
...
Me: How bout FOG Lite?
nice, buffalo fill.
What pisses me off is that they are even thinking about replacing one of the best art museums in the country- the UBC art museum. When is a good brutalist building ever going to get a fair shake in this day and age???
A fair shake indeed: seismic problems.
BAM/PFA is currently planning for a new visual arts center that will address the seismic issues surrounding the existing facility on Bancroft Way. The site under consideration for the new facility is campus property in downtown Berkeley's arts and commerce district. This location, at the corner of Center and Oxford Streets at the western entrance to the UC Berkeley campus, is one block from the Berkeley BART station and adjacent to the City of Berkeley's Addison Street Arts District.
As well as addressing the long-term seismic limitations of the current facility, the building project offers an exciting opportunity for BAM/PFA to expand its programs and explore new directions in the presentation of visual art, including film, video, and digital media, while better serving both the campus and Bay Area community.
In its current building BAM/PFA-one of only a handful of museums in the US to present a full range of visual arts including film-has limited exhibition, screening, and education spaces, and is not equipped to present some of the newest developments in multimedia art and installations. A new facility will allow BAM/PFA to continue to grow its collections while offering greater opportunities for academic study and research.
Plans for a new art museum and film archive follow studies and consultation with campus and community stakeholders, including the BAM/PFA Board of Trustees; City of Berkeley; UC Berkeley students, faculty, and staff; community groups; BAM/PFA members; and the UC Berkeley Office of Capital Projects.
Wow, cosmoe couldn't have made a better pun if he tried.
I took a tour of BAM for my construction class. Even after adding the massive steel columns on the corners of the galleries we're told the structure is going to collapse in the next big one. Trying to retrofit it would even further mar the design (even more so than those big black columns).
It's a big enough problem that BAM can't be loaned some artwork out of the fear that it will be destroyed.
I like the UCB art musuem, but I think the arguments for replacing it are strong enough. Unfortunately, good brutalist architecture just isn't a part of the discussion (although I'm sure that some people in the neighborhood will be glad to see it go).
Is anyone else glad that Calatrava is NOT on either shortlist?
glad indeed, and glad piano isn't either
I'm pretty pleased with that short list, although I'm hoping Cloepfli or Kunga gets it (Kuma was my pick for the Pritker). Nice to see that the usual suspects are absent from the list.
I've always liked that building- a brutalist re-interpretation of the FLW Guggenheim, although it has always had its problems. I've heard that besides the structural problems, BAM can only show a very small percentage of its collection, having outgrown the space years ago.
the BAM was/is one of the best spaces in the city. quite a shame.
I always thought that building would be great for architecture studios/review space
Toyo Ito just got the Berkeley project, check out a press release here.
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