David Adjaye’s public reckoning over sexual misconduct allegations launched by three former employees has now reportedly cost him his seat on one of recent history’s most-publicized architecture projects, as the Architects’ Journal is revealing that Adjaye Associates is no longer involved in NEOM’s controversial The Line megacity development in Saudi Arabia.
The news broke Tuesday in the wake of several other public institutions’ decisions regarding his status on projects worldwide. The AJ reported officials as saying his inclusion was only for a preliminary "pre-concept" design consultation and that the project's "third and final" design phase would be announced in September sans his participation.
Earlier today, we reported on Adjaye’s dismissal from the International Slavery Museum renovation project in Liverpool. With the move, his firm has now officially been taken off of Vermont’s Shelburne Museum extension, the planned waterfront redevelopment in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Sharjah, UAE African Institute.
The UK Holocaust Memorial project has also suspended his role for the time, pending further developments. The firm’s underway and soon-to-be-completed Princeton Art Museum and Studio Museum in Harlem projects have also cut ties, largely ceremoniously.
At this point, only the recently announced Kiran Nadar Museum of Art project in India has yet to issue a statement as to their continued involvement. Neither Adjaye nor his firm have provided comments to any outlets at press time.
13 Comments
so... that's what it took for this back-as-fuck-wards place to "make a change"? Call me when there's an all male strip club near Mecca and a young girl is able to have an opinion without a male's permission.
Well now, isn't this project just the living embodiment of righteousness, or what?
Yes, then there's the marketing dept.
INTERESTING, THOSE WHO VIOLATE HUMAN RIGHTS ARE AGAINST PEOPLE WHO GOT ACCUSED OF SEXUAL ASSAULT, SEXUAL HARASSMENT, AND TOXIC WORK CULTURE.
Hahahaah this is funny as shit. When the Saudis claim you are a douchebag, then you really are one...
Our social club? He's GOTTA GO!
C'mon Goldie Dog, are you really cheering for abusers?
Yeah they're bootlicking dogs for king.
At some point—and it will be quite a while—I would like to read impartial analysis of just what happened with Adjaye. We have something to learn that isn't restricted to him.
Along with that assessment, reassessment of his work, which has received acclaim from many, rightly so in many cases.
Justin Davidson weighs in on the 130 William tower:
The four stories of blind arches, the black-and-gray speckled concrete, the deep walls and hefty spandrels, the dark-toned echoes ofTrajan’s Market and the Fascist-era Palace of Italian Civilization in Rome — every detail of the building’s street-level presence adds to the atmosphere of weighty menace.
I’m not sure what Adjaye’s evocation of that long-ago evocation of a still earlier past signals today, other than general hostility.
https://www.curbed.com/2023/08/architecture-review-9-dekalb-130-william-adjaye-shop.html
I find Davidson's reading unsatisfactory, btw. But I can't decide myself what to make of 130 William. More discussion will follow, I assume. It should be around for a while.
The hypocritical part about all of this is that if the FT had not broken the news of abuse in Adjaye's offices, the same critics would be waxing poetic right now. I have personally found all of Adjaye's projects very "heavy" and gloomy, with the exception of the museum in DC (where the heavy and gloomy actually makes sense).
The temptation now may be to read pathology into his work, which isn't satisfactory either. But my guess is the critics will be silent, at least for a while, which is an odd state of affairs.
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