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The Civic Value of a Bold Statement
We’ll have to wait to find out exactly what the end of the Age of Excess means for architecture in New York. Yes, the glut of high-concept luxury towers was wearisome.
We’ll have to wait to find out exactly what the end of the Age of Excess means for architecture in New York. Yes, the glut of high-concept luxury towers was wearisome. But some great civic works were also commissioned in that era.
Designed by Thom Mayne of the Los Angeles firm Morphosis, it is not a perfect building, but it is the kind of serious work that we don’t see enough of in New York: a bold architectural statement of genuine civic value.
Photo: Julieta Cervantes for The New York Times
And given the hard economic times, they may be the last we see for quite some time. The new academic building at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art is yet more proof that some great art was produced in those self-indulgent times.
Review by Nick Ourossoff via
NYT
3 Comments
according to a theory on the envelope by alejandro zaera polo (the politics of the envelope: a political critique of materialism), this project would belong to the same group of fit with seattle public library, prada aoyama, beijing watercube... anyway, in this article, the project, especially the scar expressed on the envelop is implied to be epochal (miesian) and salvational (not only in terms of the postmodern narrative of the internet age but also with its sculptural beauty). somewhat contrary to the less successful progress being made on the ground zero, to which the allegory inevitably is being linked, but by making this comparison, the traditional opposition between the center of reference and the decentralized informal nodes ironically have been reversed. nevertheless, within this wider context in which dynamics are synergized, it seems to me that 'architectonic transmissions' from this project will elevate the notion of place and help healing the wound. criticisms toward modern architecture i.e. (metaphysical) placelessness, have not necessarily undermined the appeal of centralized rational planning compared to dispersions i.e. suburban growth in more generalized context of globalization yet after the financial crisis, which has not ceased to be represented in developments of megacities. however, it is rare to find a place which has become to represent a culture over longer period of time. if nyc is a civilization, and the ground zero is one of symbolic centers, the ways 'buildings shape us' have to (and have been in projects in which distributed nodes i.e. small public spaces are considered and designed collectively) involve other cultures, and making connections to a center this way seems to be an effective symbolic representation for the civilization.
anyone been inside this place yet? what do you think?
looks pretty cool in the photographs.
I wrote about it and posted some photos here a while ago when it was under construction. I didn't see the completed interior, but the first thing I noticed immediately (as did the NYT) even when it was incomplete was that the main stair was way too steep, almost overwhelming. Also I believe the restrooms alternate genders from floor to floor which I could see being annoying from a student or faculty perspective.
When you break it down its a pretty sweet academic building with a bold form and some tacked on appeal like a green roof, a bad-ass skin and an atrium with a sculptural mesh flowing through it, but save the atrium there's nothing amazing about the interior in my opinion.
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