“Usually we work, we draw, we look in each other’s eyes, we argue, we throw things around the room, we make models and break them apart, and somehow stuff gets made,” said Ms. Diller, who has been working from the couple’s weekend home in upstate New York. — The New York Times
Liz Diller, architect and co-founding partner at New York City-based Diller Scofidio + Renfro, gives an eye-opening look at the nature of her practice, both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, in an interview with The New York Times.
Regarding the change in work culture that comes with quarantine, Diller explains, “With this platform, it’s very sanitized, you have to be very organized. We’re sending each other drawings and sketches, we’re responding through digital means and then having virtual meetings. Communication is slower. But we’re working harder. We’re figuring it out.”
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please note:
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conclusion - Fashion (old school version) - dead.
This touches on some of the issues of work from home that seem to get missed in much of the popular notion that this is the future for office work. Note that my comments are critiques of our society or assumptions about its future in general, which Diller's interview only points out. I don't blame her or their office for any of this, as they are only reflecting the basic condition of things as is.
1 - WFH works best when you have no young children (or family care obligations) at home. This exacerbates a problem already well-recognized in our profession.
2 - WFH works extra best when you have a second home with good internet access in an idyllic setting. Even within the white-collar world, there are big class issues raised by this. Imagine a day when interns and entry level staff are expected to demonstrate that they have an adequately equipped home office to perform their job!
3 - It's still kind of clumsy and awkward for collaborative thinking. Even for us digital-natives, it takes a lot more effort to prepare materials and plan out time for reviewing work. More mental effort for a given level of result. I think of all the times even during regular work days we used to go out to visit rendering companies and model shops in person to oversee the work, because we could just come to a better result so much faster.
That said, I think there still is a role for WFH in the medium-term after the pandemic has subsided. But I think it will be more as an option for flexibility to accommodate specific needs for limited duration or so that people can work non-conventional hours. And maybe for some roles - say maybe where collaboration is less intensive, like project accountant or spec writer.
My personal experience is that WFH is simply less fun. I miss having tangential discussions, meeting new coworkers, chatting about projects I'm not involved in. All possible online - but not actually how we use the tools. And the essence of my work as a designer is really harder - I definitely spend more time preparing presentations so that they can be viewed online without pointing gesturing and sketching. And it's very hard to read people's reactions.
The decisiveness of talking over a microphone impedes discussion - every meeting is as dull and stifled as a committee meeting in an institution where everyone takes turns and talking tends to be very procedural "state a point, ask for response". Only 1 on 1 zoom meetings come close to natural, probably because it's still possible to focus ok on response with only a single person.
I wonder who approached who about doing this interview. Did someone at DS+R feel like they needed to get Diller in the press yet again, or did someone at the NY Times say "we really need to do a story about how starchitects are coping with the pandemic?"
and still no links by the youth to social media....that is my point thisisnotmyname.
poor liz, her chauffeur is on sick leave and she can't yell at junior staff in-person.
This black woman is all of me right now.
Isn't that cultural/gender appropriation? ;)
man, he feels like a wo-man!
that depends; is black woman side-eye a cultural thing? (i'll cue you in, it is) and, i've been the receiver of said side-eye in the past.
I simply thought that was Mabel O. Wilson...
i just realized this is from the photo- brilliant
Wonder if she has to pay her interns during the pandemic
.
Who? Liz or beta?
oh, i definitely don't pay my interns, they're lucky if the get to come out of the bathroom.
Weird how you just assume that this black woman in the photo must somehow be an un(der)paid DS+R intern and not some Columbia GSAPP Nancy and George Rupp Professor of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, a Professor in African American and African Diasporic Studies, an Associate Director of the Institute for Research in African American Studies (IRAAS), the co-director of the Global Africa Lab, or all of the above: https://www.arch.columbia.edu/faculty/34-mabel-o-wilson That's quite some white privilege and/or white guilt doing your assuming, no? But maybe I'm wrong, they do wear the exact same frames though...never mind, it's a good crop for memes so kudos for that.
Is there an alternate universe I can go to where Mabel O. Wilson is a starchitect and Liz Diller is standing silently in the background?
Columbia Universe?
who assumed she was an intern? i think this one went over your head...
b3ta's silence speaks volumes
to classify people is a form of bigotry, no matter which side you're on. silence = ?
Would have been far more interesting reading about how their employees, down the rank and file, are handling the situation.
1) Develop a decades long relationship with Phyllis Lambert to pay your rent, salaries and help secure you plum commissions.
2) Phyllis Lambert and Peter Eisenman throw you a 40th birthday dinner sing you happy birthday at the CCA in 1994
3) Pretend you are like any other for press release disguised as a news article
It would nice to her confess the reality of her success and pay it back to those less well connected. Ditto for Eisenman who Lambert bailed out of bankruptcy more than once.
When will architects be secure enough to show the world how their sausage was made???
I don't think the vast majority of architects enjoy such privileges. The tiny cadre of star designers are a different breed altogether.
DS&R are underprivileged because they have not been given the Pritzker Prize.
Ezra Pounder (here in character)
Dear MonoSierra,
And this is why Starchitects must die. Never start a sentence with AND - say they. Starchitects, a breeding on modernism orchestrated by a fag who marched with Nazis. Nevermind, his kids that sat at the tables of guaranteed fame were Jewish guys.... One way to clean-up your act PR and HR wise.
I just want to remind everyone. This is the struggle. The man who knocked-off the Farnsworth house as the Glass House, complete transparency, lied to us from the start. Made Moma and his position. Our entire ideology, our faith, is his, whether we like it or not.
You want equality, give this Stararchitect/Media bullshit cycle up. Kill it. Kill it now.
Fashion as we know it will die.
Toodles.
Ezra Pounder, RA (never AIA)
Have you noticed the NYT only interviews or talks to (white) female architects--when they do at all? It's one thing to try to correct past mistakes, but they don't even pretend to have an interest in the built world beyond a narrow social justice agenda that includes bike lanes, deregulation and identity politics. Which has worked out great for cities as we see.
:'(
I certainly have. Is it a form of myopia where NYT's understanding of architecture begins and ends with a few elite starchitects, or is it lazy reporting? If the aim is social justice, puff-piece articles plugging Diller are hardly the way to go.
The style section doesn’t profile your average fashion designer or struggling artists. The culture section doesn’t interview supporting actors. The sports section doesn’t write about development league players. The finance section doesn’t quote random junior analysts. It’s a newspaper selling stori
es and occasionally, worthwhile information. They look to interview notes figures unless it’s a profile of ordinary folk.
poor, poor whyte male agenda. have you considered that talking to whyte men is thoroughly unsatisfying, and tends to only last 15 seconds, or two pumps?
Our architectural press crowds out many undervalued architects. IMHO Diller and Eisenman are two who exemplify getting very far with very little. Let’s hear from those without a billionaire patron. Those who make buildings that are more than diagrams or who exude excellence with small budgets and naive clients. That would attract my attention. Fluff pieces on someone whose bills are paid come rain or shine do not.
I think any woman would have to work very hard to appear that frumpy.
When you have nothing constructive to say and are insecure in your own contributions to the field of architecture, just attack a woman's appearance, yes?
cut it some slack, it's a volunteer misogynist.
A reader comment on the NY Times site says that Diller has never completed the ARE. Is that true?
Why would she need to, Ricardo and Charles can sign everything, but it's probably true, Cooper grads don't have time for that shit.
It's pretty easy to check if someone has or has ever had a license in New York state.
If you work hard for Diller, you might have a shot at a subpar, 300 SF studio in central Brooklyn. They'll tell you it will help your resume, saving them money and making them feel good.
i dunno. it is hard to get all the hate for a person who basically just wants to make cool shit. Not everyone who makes it big is ready to take on all the world's problems. We can hope for something more, but why get angry when they don't lead the revolution?
If there is some evidence that they treat staff badly, or are secretly members of an evil organization (other than the AIA), or got something else going on, then this is the time to talk about it, otherwise....well, what is the point?
It might be interesting to discuss the architecture they produce, which is pretty good, if somehow dated and occasionally (surely not always) built for people who are living off of others pain. Or we could talk about how the office culture sounds like any architecture office from that generation and wonder at the fact that all of us have the same tools she uses but dont get anywhere like the traction her firm does, and well, why the hell is that? Or we could even wonder at how old fashioned her firm is, considering how forward thinking it is, or used to be. That kinda surprised me actually.
for myself, i read this article and thought it was nice for Liz to have this bit of recognition when not much is going on. But not much else. There isnt much said really.
I did however watch an eulogy delivered by a brilliant speaker this afternoon. It gave me some hope for humanity, and I think I will hold that bit of awesomeness close for awhile.
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