Opened last Sunday! Adjaye had to work creatively on a tight budget of $15.9 million, using inexpensive materials. The building is expected to earn a LEED Gold rating. Archrecord
"tightly"?????? that project had a budget of $588/sf if you use the numbers in the article. that, my friends, is not a tight budget. the high museum by renzo was tight (roughly 300/sf).
or come down to my part of the world, where you get to do public libraries for $200/sf.....
Budgets:
- Libeskind's Denver museum $70 million
- Chipperfiled's Modern Literature Museum in Marbach am Neckar (stirling Prize winner) $17 million
- Herzog & de Meuron New Parrish Museum
between $55 million and $65 million
- Santiago Calatrava’s Milwaukee Art Museum, its budget rose from $35 million to $125 million
Accuracy?....5 min. web search.
that was the arrangement that the developer kept trying to push with the first aor [hand picked by adjaye] and their respective consultants, since the museum had NO money to pay them. the partners of the first associate firm decided to withdraw despite the high prestige of the project [my employer at the time]. the liability was too great to take on [end of DD, CD, CA] without getting a contracted fee. it went like this: "we want you to work for free on the most intense portion of the job, get it right, and then be able to sue you in the end because it never is right" [evident through poor detailing, crappy craftmanship, and poor plannng ie. a roof deck marred by an overwhelming exit stair volume].
Of course the museum board [which the developer just happened to be a member of] was able to find a firm that was willing to do the job for free, but could absorb the cost [remember the Libeskind museum associate architects??-same guys].
It would have been a great "utopian" ideal if everyone involved agreed to donate their time to make a great building / urban condition in the city and the project was formed around those principles, but the local architects [and engineers for that matter] were treated as commodity and not as professionals. Just because the developer "donated" the land, he felt that the rest of the process should work the same way while passing off all liability-and he gets an adjaye designed townhome [next door] to boot. 2 for the price of 1.
it's not a good project if it furthers one 'architect's' art on the backs of other 'professionals' who happen to be willing to work for free. bet adjaye got paid for doing the fun part.
we wonder why our hard hard work isn't valued in the market? kids, these are the guys to look to for your answers.
I doubt the story is that simple. otherwise we would have heard more controversy over it. I wouldn't be surprised if the developer guaranteed he would use the architects on other projects if they completed this one.
Developers often use to promise of future projects to lure architects in with lower fees.
In terms of the building, i find it quite boring, which is a pity, as Adjaye usually finds a spark within his quiet pieces.
Nov 5, 07 1:34 am ·
·
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.
10 Comments
"tightly"?????? that project had a budget of $588/sf if you use the numbers in the article. that, my friends, is not a tight budget. the high museum by renzo was tight (roughly 300/sf).
or come down to my part of the world, where you get to do public libraries for $200/sf.....
i dream of $200/sf.
shit, I do public projects here for about $98psf - hah hah how twisted the world is.
Budgets:
- Libeskind's Denver museum $70 million
- Chipperfiled's Modern Literature Museum in Marbach am Neckar (stirling Prize winner) $17 million
- Herzog & de Meuron New Parrish Museum
between $55 million and $65 million
- Santiago Calatrava’s Milwaukee Art Museum, its budget rose from $35 million to $125 million
Accuracy?....5 min. web search.
for a starchitect that is a small budget...to the rest of us its a dream job.
just imagine if they actually paid the architects of record...
tell us more, archaalto. why would the aor not be paid?
that was the arrangement that the developer kept trying to push with the first aor [hand picked by adjaye] and their respective consultants, since the museum had NO money to pay them. the partners of the first associate firm decided to withdraw despite the high prestige of the project [my employer at the time]. the liability was too great to take on [end of DD, CD, CA] without getting a contracted fee. it went like this: "we want you to work for free on the most intense portion of the job, get it right, and then be able to sue you in the end because it never is right" [evident through poor detailing, crappy craftmanship, and poor plannng ie. a roof deck marred by an overwhelming exit stair volume].
Of course the museum board [which the developer just happened to be a member of] was able to find a firm that was willing to do the job for free, but could absorb the cost [remember the Libeskind museum associate architects??-same guys].
It would have been a great "utopian" ideal if everyone involved agreed to donate their time to make a great building / urban condition in the city and the project was formed around those principles, but the local architects [and engineers for that matter] were treated as commodity and not as professionals. Just because the developer "donated" the land, he felt that the rest of the process should work the same way while passing off all liability-and he gets an adjaye designed townhome [next door] to boot. 2 for the price of 1.
okay, now i hate this project.
it's not a good project if it furthers one 'architect's' art on the backs of other 'professionals' who happen to be willing to work for free. bet adjaye got paid for doing the fun part.
we wonder why our hard hard work isn't valued in the market? kids, these are the guys to look to for your answers.
(thanks, archaalto.)
I doubt the story is that simple. otherwise we would have heard more controversy over it. I wouldn't be surprised if the developer guaranteed he would use the architects on other projects if they completed this one.
Developers often use to promise of future projects to lure architects in with lower fees.
In terms of the building, i find it quite boring, which is a pity, as Adjaye usually finds a spark within his quiet pieces.
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.