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Piano's Kimbell Expansion

juan moment

The Fort Worth Star Telegram has reported that the expansion may go onto the west lawn, as opposed to the near vacant lot across the street adjacent to Ando's Modern.

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No plans of been made public yet. For those who are in the Dallas area there is a Forum panel discussion on the topic tonight @ 918 Dragon Street (Cunningham Architects office), 6:30 PM.

Thoughts?



 
Aug 25, 08 5:26 pm
architorture

take notes and share about the discussion...this should be interesting.

Aug 25, 08 5:30 pm  · 
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Apurimac

Hmm, Piano isn't the guy to hire if you want something big and brash in your front lawn, if that was the original intention they should've hired libeskind. Whatever Piano puts in either site, it will be well designed, user-friendly, and probably a bit boring.

Aug 25, 08 5:30 pm  · 
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architorture

apurimac....i hope you're right about piano, i'm a pretty big kahn fan and you shouldn't overtake the original in this case...we had enough of the hulking giant with the fort worth modern diagonal to the kimball...


Aug 25, 08 5:51 pm  · 
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newbrook

Speaking strictly from the perspective of experiencing the Kimbell on foot and sitting under its "porches", I can not imagine a worse idea than placing a building in the park to the west of the buidling. I am frankly shocked that the Museum would consider this a viable option.

Playing the devil's advocate (to my own observation) - When considering it as a visitor to the Collection it has always been difficult to imagine how one could create a feeling of connection when the addition sits across the street. In Houston, I find the experience of descending the Mies building, walking through the Turrel installation tunnel, and arriving at the cafeteria of the Moneo building, the bathrooms, and a shopping mall like escalator to be less than satisfying to the art viewing experience.

Furthermore, looking at Kahn's development of the scheme for the Museum (in David Brownlee's terrific Louis I. Kahn:In the Realm of Architecture), one sees that his initial concepts occupied nearly the entire site, centrally locating the building in the trapezoidal park and occupying the entire landscape rather than standing on the periphery of it. So one can not argue wholeheartedly that the Western landscape is sacred.

But what a shame it would be....

Aug 25, 08 8:28 pm  · 
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Sarah Hamilton

Where would the locals do their Tai Chi? It seems a more difficult, and interesting challenge to build the expansion between the two existing buildings. How do you design a building that speaks with both the Kimbell and the Modern? I like Piano, he is sensible, and gentle. If he is full of himself, he doesnt say so Architecturally. I like that. I just hope it isn't like his NYT building.

I hope you can tell us how the open forum went; I wish I couldve gone. Was Piano there?

Thinking about it more, it seems sharing the lawn could be nice. By keeping the lawn, and placing a small building across from the Kimbell on it, visitors would begin to experience the proper way to enter the Kahn. Though, locking the back door would accomplish this too - I didnt even know it had a back door, just cursed Kahn and Ft Worth every time I had to walk AROUND the building to enter.

Personal note - In High School, we went there on a field trip. I was too chicken/respectful, but most of the students decided to wade through the fountains. I do wish I had a picture of it.

Aug 25, 08 9:38 pm  · 
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snook_dude

I remember, Kahn's Kimball had great bathrooms. I also recall something awkward about entering the building...but it has been many buildings ago. Actually I was in a number of major museums in a very short period of time and recall walking away thinking, Yup he was a master! My second favorite museum was the Portland Maine Art Museum done by Pei's office. It did have a real nice feel about it....kind of like a down easter~

Aug 25, 08 10:06 pm  · 
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Bruce Prescott

I hope the trustees (and Renzo, too) take a look at the hash made by messing with the entry sequence at the Salk institute before they do anything too drastic. Why is it that museums are obsessed with expanding all the time?

Aug 26, 08 12:41 am  · 
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Sarah Hamilton

Spruce, they're probably expanding because they're getting more stuff.

And what happened to the Salk institute? I've never been, and only know the photo of the, well I will call, the courtyard.

Aug 26, 08 9:02 am  · 
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zoolander

Someone said Piano is boring, they should hire the 'interesting' Libeskind.

Now in fairness old Danny is becoming a bit of a cliche.

He burst onto the scene with his designer frames, but is beginning to stagnate. Maybe he needs some new frames to change his image and maybe his architecture.

Im personally sporting a pair of Philip Johnson inspired circular frames at present. Of cource Johnson copied then from Corbusier, sure Philip never had an original idea in his life.

Im currently searching for my own look.





Aug 26, 08 10:42 am  · 
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4arch

zoolander,

you already have Blue Steel

Aug 26, 08 12:21 pm  · 
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zoolander

True,

But theres only so many comissions I can get when my look is so limited. I need to diversify.

If theres one thing I learnt from Phil Johnson is that image is everything. Although the style over substance trap is always lurking for the more shallow lot among us.

Anyway back to topic. I think Kimbell should be left as existing. Why spoil it?

Aug 26, 08 12:39 pm  · 
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fays.panda

I don't like that Libeskind's name is even mentioned in a discussion about Kimbell.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but it really hurts, especially as I start to imagine things!!!

and its very easy in libeskind's case.

Aug 26, 08 1:30 pm  · 
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