It is not the first time, though, that a design like this has been pitched for the university. However inadvertently, the DS+R design resembles another proposal for the campus—a draft project that was eventually revised. While the resemblance between two draft renderings is hardly consequential, this one comes as a surprise, given the nature of the projects and the history between the firms. — City Lab
Raking only the choicest aesthetic muck, in this piece Kriston Capps wonders at the passing similarities between Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects' initial proposed design for the University of Chicago's David Logan Center for Creative and Performing Arts and Diller, Scofidio, and Renfro's recently unveiled plans for the Rubenstein Forum, before bringing up the destruction of TWBTA's Folk Art Museum Building, which was destroyed to make way for DS+R's MoMA expansion. As Capps writes, "The tortured history between these firms suggests that a resemblance is something that these firms would rather avoid."
The latest on TWBTA:
3 Comments
I love the first comment under the City Lab piece:
"This is a weird story for sure... Giving the backstory between DS+R and TWBTA and all of that. But if CityLab only coves architecture when there is some kind of catfight, zany rendering or whatever then please don't cover it at all. just stick to your strong suit, pushing neoliberal development in the disguise of social issues." -Qui-Gon Gin
I'm glad to see that some people are pushing back on the click-baiters like Kriston Capps.
Even if it looks the same, who cares? DS+R and TWBTA offer very different experiences... DS+R is more whiz bang aesthetic while TWBTA is heavy, kahn-esque, monumental (oversimplified perhaps, but close). It may have been a compliment to that design.... Done in DS*R style. Sadly writers like Capps are a dime a dozen on the blogs. Guess it's harmless if you know better, just shows again how hollow the discourse is generally.
not quite where this was going, but it would be interesting to see 2 firms start a building design with the same rendering and see how the final result turns out. I think it would be very instructive in showing the value of detail and follow through, which is entirely overlooked in mainstream architectural criticism.
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