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Toyo Ito bldg coming to Berkeley
BAM/PFA has announced Ito was picked for the new Berkeley Art Museum -- so there might actually be a new building in the Peoples Republic that doesn't try to look a giant craftsman/bungalow/mission style house... link
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I wonder if Ito has ever worked with red brick?
Hopefully this project doesn't meet the same fate as Williams and Tsien's library...or countless other abominations pushed by the Regents.
Somehow Berkeley's Music Library slipped under the radar and managed to add something provocative to a UC campus, but it was certainly an exception to the UC's efforts to ensure that its students are surrounded by mind numbingly bland architecture.
on BAM/PFA
As I mentioned in an earlier post, Wiliiliams and Tsien were forced to do something historicist due to the bldg site being in a historic designation area of the campus, which was not the case with Scogin Elam's Music Library not too far away -- nor will it be the case with the Ito building! Although the city of Berkeley may have some say as the Ito site is downtown(hopefully not much, as they typically require/approve hidesously lame, overscaled domestic-eclectic, no matter if its an apatment block or commercial building).
I'd still like to see what Ito could do with red brick.
As I understand the process with UC, every project has to be reviewed and approved by the Regents, which means Ito's project will fall under similar soft-minded/hard-headed scrutiny as a project in a historic area. Sometimes campus leadership is able to effectively champion good design, but the Regents are becomming increasingly rigid and abusive with their power.
If the Music Library is any indication, I would like to assume that UCB has the will to convince the Regents that good design is possible without resorting to prescriptive and simplistic pattern languages.
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