, says Glen Small about the building in The Register-Guard, of Eugene, Oregon.
Read the full review.
01/09/2007
Courthouse an injustice to Eugene
GUEST VIEWPOINT: AN ARCHITECT'S PERSPECTIVE
By Glen Howard Small
For The Register-Guard
"I'd challenge anyone to do a better job in a contemporary building
than we have.'
- Judge Michael Hogan, The Oregonian, Nov. 26
Hogan's declaration is irrelevant now that the building is completed.
Eugene's new federal courthouse is here to stay - like a marriage, for
better for worse - poured in concrete.
The courthouse's architect, Tom Mayne, and I go way back. With
others, we started Sci-Arc, a renowned architectural institute in Los Angeles.
We rubbed elbows teaching and running the college for 21 years.
Mayne changes architectural styles as hemlines go up and down. He
always is adamantly convincing about the new style.
Stand back and look at the building. It is a machine - a shiny,
glaring, stainless steel ribbon box with a green-tinted glass base and
an American flag popping out. The building could be dropped anywhere,
like a 70-foot-high industrial dishwasher with rounded corners.
In fact, Denver has one. Los Angeles has one. San Francisco has one.
All of these shiny, steel-clad buildings disrupt the context in which
they are set. It is like introducing a giant silver airplane hangar to
the neighborhood, and now every city needs one.
Architects are famous for jamming their styles upon the public:
International style, brutalism, postmodernism, deconstructionism, high
tech, and on and on. Do architects connect with beauty that people
really enjoy, such as billowing sails, the interiors of Gothic
cathedrals or sand dunes? Is harmony and nurturing not of inter- est?
The "in crowd" learns the spin words and joins the applause, but the
machine image damages communities with a Star Trek aesthetic. It is
just a matter of time before some driver is blinded on the Ferry Street
Bridge. In fact, world-renowned architect Frank Gehry had to mute the
finish on his Disney Hall in Los Angeles because it blinded the
neighbors.
The grand entry front stairs recall all those court case movies, but
lacking the monumental rise and tread that classic courthouses have. At
the top of the entry stairs, where doors are expected, one runs into a
glass wall. Stairs are seen inside, but the celebrated axial movement
is de- stroyed.
The bottom of the stairs go nowhere - just a dinky street and a view
to nothing. A beam sticks out over the entry stairs, inwardly it rises
- confused, arbitrary and whimsically - through the atrium and
eventually curls at the roof.
Where traditional courthouses had a grand central space with a drama
of stairs and balconies, the Mayne atrium is a maze of intriguing and
well-lighted spaces, but a confused mess.
Spending some time in one of the courtrooms revealed flaws. My wife,
who suffers from claustrophobia, left quickly, stating the room was
depressing. The combination of dark wood, black walls, dark carpet and
distant clerestory windows results in a dark room. Even the American
flag looks forlorn against the dark wood.
A suspended plastic light beam runs down the middle axis of the
courtroom, ending up over the judge's head like a lightning bolt. It is
climaxed by window mullions that form a cross behind the judge's head.
The courtroom is shaped like a horseshoe, narrowing toward the front
and accentuating the podium for the judge, witness stand and other
raised functions. On these functions, the horizontal bands of the
entire building and courtroom are abononded; a jarring mistake of
vertical wood grain pattern appears instead.
The jury section is given minor seating to the right - a minimal,
Wal-Mart solution. Am I missing something? Many a jury has saved the
day; should jurors not be respected?
In contrast to the courtrooms, the lobby atrium on the same level has
skylights, white walls, white floors and significant views out over the
city and countryside. Two large, flat roofs with concrete pavers beg
for green lawns or landscaping. The lobby atrium is confusing, but is
by far the most successful part of the building. If I were to go to
court, this is where I would like the proceedings.
The Willamette River, three football fields away, cries for
recognition. The view from the courtroom level is of the trees along
the river, but no river. Proper thinning of trees would allow a glimpse
of the river, or maybe bringing back the Eugene Millrace would make a
strong connection. But right now, the river is ignored.
By its presence, the new courthouse demands attention. But it is not
the significant regional building of the Pacific Northwest that
celebrates water, greenery and natural beauty. It neither inspires nor
creates an oasis for people to gather. It is just another machine for
justice.
Yes, I could do better.
Glen Howard Small has worked as an architect for 40 years. He
graduated from the University of Oregon in 1961, and taught there last
fall. He is the subject of a documentary film, "My Father the Genius,"
that includes footage of Thom Mayne and Frank Gehry. He lives in Seal
Rock in a house of his own design, which he describes as "sensuous and
in harmony with nature."
23 Comments
architecture needs more of this...
blair and nicolas take note of this very impt conclusion: Yes, I could do better.
ha.
Thanks Orhan for actually posting a news item relating to architecture.
wow. that was somethin' else. more critical reactions like that would certainly be welcome. kamin and others have, at their best, approached this level of intensity, but damn. that Small critique was something else.
clever wording too. using "irrelevant" to describe a judge's decision .his opening comment on "a marraige" must be a jab at the touted architect/client relationship between Mayne and Hogan...crafty writing...sounds personal at times.
this is what thom e-mailed to glen after reading the article.
"Glen,
you haven't changed a bit. Nice article / wish I'd known you were in Eugene. We could have met for coffee {or?} and caught up.
tm."
i thought it was sweet of thom.
It sounds personal because it IS personal.
What I think is funny is the Small criticises the building for its "Star Trek" aesthetics, but on his own website, he uses an incongruous Star Trek font.
This is the killer detail, for me.
Talk about cognitive dissonance.
I'm glad its personal, I'm sick and tired of the "professional" respect of all of these participants. we need an active discourse, not fronting pats on the back.
amen.
I'm not sure if it's discourse. That Glen Small guy is ranting because the courthouse doesn't fit his Northwestern expectation of exposed wood timbers, green shingles on a shed roof, and a large water feature in the main entry lobby.
For Glen Small, regional context is something within which to operate. For Thom Mayne (and almost all celebrated architects), it is something to transcend.
Metaphoracle
Never mind the above comment. I just found the interview with Small on Archinect.
However, it still doesn't add up. What's his real beef?
Metaphoracle
^^^look deeper^^^
My mom emailed me this article when it hit the Register-Guard. I thought it was farily petty, and my observations of the building are quite contrary to Glen's opinions.
anyway, i thought the whole thing was hilarious. i got this article because glen called from the airport gate as he was leaving for managua to meet with daniel ortega for some inagural event or something. he read this thing to me over the telephone as i was laughing at each paragraph with him. i was very amused at glens description of architectural detailing.
ie; A suspended plastic light beam runs down the middle axis of the courtroom, ending up over the judge's head like a lightning bolt. It is climaxed by window mullions that form a cross behind the judge's head.. i mean, c'mon. this is really funny.
you have got to know these personas involved in this thing to be able to see the humorous side of it.
on the serious side though, i concur with glen on some of the points he made about mayne's recent work.
i just shot this picture at cal trans building in los angeles. main entrance to this gigantic office building is on the left, just behind the three men standing. hardly distinguishable to visiting dignitary...
but this shot is very nice. etc,.
withouth knowing personally these people, I have to say mr. Small sounds not "funny" but like he skipped his pills.
while the "i could do better" at the end is a little pompous, i appreciate the humanist critique of the building. we did a courthouse in studio a few years ago in school and i was shocked by students using 'voyeurism' as a conceptual idea...like...let's make the prisoner's path from the cell to the courtroom a public spectacle in the atrium. critics loved it. i thought it was indecent--what happened to "innocent until proven guilty"...people are potentially getting put away for life, why make the courtroom depressing too? have a little decency for people's families and stuff. granted, i haven't seen images of the courtrooms, but if they're really as bleak as small says, it doesn't seem to me like it fits what the purpose of a courtroom should be...what happened to appropriateness? is that not an architectural concern?
that's look like a jedi sword of justice which glen calls plastic beam. no contest.
I though it was the phallus of justice
would you rather it look like this...
http://www.glenhowardsmallarchitect.com/index.html#OMEGA
or this...
http://www.glenhowardsmallarchitect.com/gsmall_p15.html
I don't think he COULD do better...
dartwader's dick?
10 years. next.
~~~
being a jury member less than just two weeks ago, this room ain't no revolutionary design or idea on existin'g justice system's typical courtroom. so i don't know what the bruhaha is about this building saying it such a new idea etc..
if anything, above room is really cloustrophobic, which is the worst thing can happen in that already claustrophobic modern standart court rooms.
-jury #5, los angeles county superior court rm# 121
ThriftyAcres, I honestly don't like small's designs either, but I like his perspective and his criticism.
I'll buy that.
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