 Nicolai: Reviled But Not Improved Thursday, June 22, 2006
It is the mayor and the governor who should be credited with the latest design, not the bruised architect. Now that his design has been eviscerated, Mr. Arad could consider stepping aside, rather than twist in the wind. Since the experience of the pools will be two-dimensional, perhaps the memorial should be turned over to an artist rather than an architect. Ill-informed: As an amazing 95% of his fellow New Yorkers have intuited, the mayor is an innocent here. But the governor and his henchmen not only should have been but actually were credited (among those who follow the story closely, including many of Nic's able colleagues) with the final contours of the Arad design—not only in the revised form that survived until this week, but as it was first presented in late 2003. Ill-mannered: Arad got snookered (again), so he should storm off in a huff (again!)? Is that what real artists do? Real artists like Peter Eisenman, whose Shoahpalooza in Berlin gets BJ #108 from Nicolai elsewhere in the article? Not if they want to work in this town. Ill-conceived: The experience of the pools is now only 2D? Nope. So they should really be designed by an artist. Huh?!? You'll have to discover for yourself the other hidden treasures. Or skip it and read David Dunlap's thoughtful update. Then join us in casting your vote for the Draft Dunlap as Architecture Critic campaign below.... · Ground Zero Memorial, Revised But Not Improved [NYT] Reader Comments (9 extant) 1. haha, our good ol' nicolai. but seriously folks, does anyone even really care or pay attention to what he says? oh, besides all the hipsters who try to pretend they know what they are talking about. By toaster at June 22, 2006 1:50 PM2. I like this new activist stance the Gutter is taking on. Seriously. It was starting to get boring but this type of entry makes me actually want to read it. Keep it up, and here is my vote for Dunlap. By happier at June 22, 2006 2:13 PM3. looks like you were reading all along. By criswell at June 22, 2006 2:55 PM4. I was amused by Ouroussoff's earlier slam of SOM in his Hearst review. Is this part of the contract now for any Times critic - the Muschamp legacy? The buildings he criticized, Worldwide Plaza and Time-Warner, are both products of late eighties. There was an earlier, Burj-like 137-story proposal out of SOM Chicago, but the built scheme reflects Moishe Safdie's massing concept and SOM's initial, postmodern riff on it. I would guess that that envelope was locked in by the entitlements, and SOM did what they could to update it when the project was revived. I think it's a stretch to generalize about the current work of SOM based on these two projects. It reminds me of the time that Muschamp used Bear Stearns in one of his post-9/11 diatribes to club Roger Duffy - drive-by criticism. That said, Ouroussoff's recent articles on the Israeli wall and on the public spaces at Atlantic Yards (for example) were very good. Being a critic is hard work, especially for a big daily - it's something like the dilemma of a big commercial practice: they don't always get it right, in part because they don't have the luxury of giving everything the same attention. By John Parman at June 22, 2006 7:18 PM5. it's the biggest architecture story ever in his home town. he should get it right. By colon powell at June 23, 2006 10:05 AM6. DUNLAP By Anonymous at June 23, 2006 10:06 AM7. I vote for David Dunlap. By mendocino mike at June 23, 2006 5:42 PM8. hoe much do project managers at SOM get paid By fairy at June 23, 2006 10:12 PM9. No, the recent articles were not "very good". If you can't get it right, don't write. We don 't have the luxery of reading him learning on the job. I vote for Dunlap too. By bs critic at June 23, 2006 11:11 PMAll set here? Continue enjoying The Gutter... « Danny Presents: The Scroll of Back to top |
|
|
|
About The Gutter Ill-mannered commentary on the architectural arts. Gutter Links AIA New York Archinect Forums Arch League of NY ArchNewsNow Architectural Review Architecture Magazine Daily Dose Design Observer Greg.org ID Magazine Metroplis Miss Representation PushPullBar The Architects Newspaper Testy Tastemaker WTCBurlesque Van Alen Institute |
|
|
|
Published by  Contact Email The Gutter Feed  RSS/AtomCredits Editor The Guttersniper Publisher Curbed Network Technical Eliot Shepard Software Movable Type Copyright © 2008 Curbed NEW SERVER |
Having come late to the Ground Zero game, perhaps he should be forgiven. Perhaps. But that would be no fun. In the Times today, Nicolai O. has outdone himself, running together an amazing string of