Archinect
anchor

OMA's Seattle Library...

dml955i

Is not aging or functioning well... While it definitely has some "wow" spaces and some slick engineering, you can tell that most of the budget was poured into the structure and skin and not into finishes or details. A couple years ago, I tried studying for a few sections of the ARE here and found it to be too noisy and uncomfortable. I think this editorial is a bit harsh, but I agree with many of the points:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/ae/309029_architecture27.html?source=mypi

 
Mar 28, 07 12:34 pm
thenewold

thanks for the post

Mar 28, 07 12:36 pm  · 
 · 
vado retro

i tried to read that article while at the library. it was so uncomfortable though i had to leave and head over to shtarbucks

Mar 28, 07 1:22 pm  · 
 · 
Apurimac

Well, Rem did say "Superficiality is the new depth," right? What kind of buildings should we expect from a man who says that?

Not to say that i disagree with rem, in a way I do, but it sounds to me that alot of these problems with the main reading spaces could be solved by making little "reading alcoves", that aren't like study cubes, but more like a comfy couch-in-a-cube. Rem's buildings are notorious for pushing the boundaries of program and in some instances completely re-thinking them. The library should have realized that when they hired him, the end product would likely be so extreme as to be deemed unlivable by some. Frankly, it sounds like the shoulve asked a firm like Williams + Tsien to design it, but they wanted to push the boundaries and took a big risk with Rem. Wether or not the risk pays off only time can tell.

Mar 28, 07 2:24 pm  · 
 · 
holz.box

bump
anyone notice all the casework has gone to sh*t? is that an OMA design problem, or an LMN detailing problem?

Jan 26, 10 11:17 pm  · 
 · 
Digital_Sandbox

Yeah, I don't know, but that student center he designed for the Illinois Institute of Technology campus here in Chicago isn't fairing the ages well either. And the detailing sucks monkeys, which is pretty ironic and sacrilegious on a Mies campus.

Jan 27, 10 2:02 am  · 
 · 
metal

i hear a lot birds crash into the glazing of that student center at IIT.

Jan 27, 10 2:41 am  · 
 · 
holz.box

the birds thing is @ helmut jahn's dorm

Jan 27, 10 2:50 am  · 
 · 
Janosh

Nouvel's Cartier Foundation has a ton of dead birds in front of it as well. It's as much the fault of Chateaubriand's tree as the double glass skin.

Jan 28, 10 12:15 am  · 
 · 

Block this user


Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?

Archinect


This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.

  • ×Search in: