Download - Sample Issue USA
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
1/48
USASAMPLEISSUE
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
2/48
CONTRIBUTORSARCHITECTURE IN THE UNITEDSTATES OF AMERICA
Emmanuel Petit is a partner in Jean Petit Architectesand Associate Proessor o Architecture at Yale
Universit. His orthcoming bookIrony, or, The
Self-Critical Opacity of Postmodern Architecturewill be published in Ma 2013. Here he reports on
the Parrish Art Museum b Herzog & de Meuron
Raymund Ryan is an architect and Curator at the
Heinz Architectural Center at the Carnegie
Museum o Art, Pittsburgh, PA. He is a regular
contributor to architectural publications and in this
issue he visits the Museum o Contemporar Art in
Cleveland, Ohio b Farshid Moussavi Architecture
Michael Webb is a long-standing contributor to the
AR. An architectural writer and critic, he lives in a
Los Angeles apartment originall designed b
Richard Neutra. In this issue he reports on the new
Clord Still Museum in Denver b Allied Works
Architecture
Sharon Zukin is proessor o sociolog at Brookln
College and Graduate Center, Cit Universit o
New York, and author oNaked City: The Death and
Life of Authentic Urban Places (Oxord Universit
Press). Here she assesses Jane Jacobss legac
EDITORIALEditorCatherine [email protected] EditorWill [email protected] DirectorSimon EstersonArt EditorAlexander EcobEditorial AssistantPhineas [email protected]+44 (0)20 3033 2740
Production EditorsJulia DawsonTom WilkinsonEditorial InternsAkua DansoTalor DaveNick PocockUS Contributing EditorsMichael WebbMark LamsterAssociate EditorRob GregorEditorial DirectorPaul Finch
PUBLISHINGInternational Account ManagerTom Rashid+44 (0)20 3033 [email protected] Account ManagerKeshena Grieve+44 (0)203 033 [email protected] Advertising ManagerAmanda Prde+44 (0)20 3033 [email protected] Development ManagerNick Roberts
+44 (0)20 3033 [email protected] Development ManagerCeri Evans+44 (0)20 3033 [email protected] DirectorJames MacLeod+44 (0)20 3033 [email protected]
Group Head of MarketingJames MerringtonSenior Marketing ExecutiveAnthea Antoniou+44 (0)20 3033 2865
[email protected] ExecutiveAlex Themistos+44 (0)20 3033 [email protected] Advertising Sales MilanCarlo Fiorucci+39 0362 23 22 [email protected] Advertising Sales New YorkKate Buckle+1 845 266 [email protected] RentalJonathan Burston
+44 (0)20 8995 [email protected] DirectorRobert BrighouseEmap Chief ExecutiveNatasha Christie-Miller
THE ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW
SUBSCRIPTIONBASE RATES AND
BACK ISSUES
Please visitarchitectural-review.com/subscribe or call 0844 8488859 (overseas +44 (0)1858438 804) and quotepriorit code asemUK direct debit 93UK credit card 99UK Student 55Europe 138Americas $138
Americas Student $89Japan 115Rest o World 115Rest o World Student 65American copies are airspeeded to New York
Back issues12 in UK0844 848 885916 overseas+44 (0)1858 438 [email protected]
Non-delivery of issues
and changes of addressAR SubscriptionsTower PublishingTower HouseSovereign ParkMarket HarboroughLE16 9EF, UK+44 (0)1858 438 [email protected]
US subscribers contact:The Architectural Reviewc/o PSMJ ResourcesPO Box 95120, NewtonMA 02495, USA+1 617 965 0055
The Architectural Review(ISSN 0003-861x) ispublished monthl or$199 per ear b Emap,Roal Mail Internationalc/o Smartmail, 140 58thStreet, Suite 2b, BrooklnNY 11220-2521 USAPeriodicals postage paidat Brookln NY andadditional mailing ofces.Postmaster:send address changes toThe Architectural Review
c/o PSMJ ResourcesPO Box 95120, Newton,MA 02495 USA
ABC average circulation orJul 2011June 2012 11,089 EMAP Publishing 2013
The Architectural Review69-77 Paul StreetLondon EC2A 4NW, UKarchitectural-review.comTwitter: @ArchReview
2 AR | SAMPLE ISSUE
This special sample issue o The ArchitecturalReview ocuses on work emerging rom the United
States o America. As one o the onl trul global
architecture magazines, The AR seeks to publish a
diverse selection o projects rom all backgrounds,
and the US is no exception.
With a wide range o eatures and articles, such as
building studies, essas, viewpoints, and reviews,
The AR provides readers with a wholistic look at
the current architectural proession. This sample
issue includes a short selection o pieces rom ARs
recent past. With three cultural building studies,
an Emerging Architecture competition entr, a
Folio eature on Lebbeus Woods, and a
Reputations review on the great urban critic Jane
Jacobs, this issue is both a compilation o
architecture and design rom the US, and an
introduction to the critical thinking o The AR.
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
3/48
SUBSCRIBETO THE AR
TODAY
AND SAVE
25%88 UK $119 US 108 ROW
CRITICAL THINKINGFOR CRITICAL TIMESarchitectural-review.com/subscribe
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
4/48
4 AR | SAMPLE ISSUE
Perot Museumo Natureand Science,Dallas, Texas,USA,
Morphosis
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
5/48
AR | SAMPLE ISSUE 5
Rising above the distracting blare of its
surroundings, the new Perot Museum is aneloquent paean to the cosmic and geologicalforces that shape our planet and buildings
CANYON
TO COSMOS
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
6/48
6 AR | SAMPLE ISSUE
Perot Museumo Natureand Science,Dallas, Texas,USA,
Morphosis1. (Previous page)bordered by reeways andparking lots, the museumconronts the distractingurban blare o Dallas2. Jurassic car park within this disconnectedmilieu, the building hasthe presence and solidityo a modern castle keep3. A glazed bar containingan escalator is clampedto the side o the building,oering views o itsdystopian environs4. The green podiumripples above pedestrians
CRITICISM
NICHOLAS OLSBERGIt is now 40 years since Morphosis rst began
its critical and unsentimental interventions
into the urban abric. Thom Mayne has never
lost sight o the original agenda o the rms
collective sensibility, continuing to cast his
work into disjunctive conversation, critical
dialogue or combinatory discussion with
the urban context, but never deerring
or merging into it. For the most part that
visual commentary on the setting has been
so determinedly and ruggedly urbanist that
it has been hard to make connections to the
sensory, to the dynamics o the body and
its comprehension o space and light, or
to nature and the larger landscape in which
all buildings sit.
Now, in a most unlikely setting, with a
Dallas museum o science and nature that
rises into a sky punctuated by a hundred
lonely glass and concrete boxes, on a orlorn
site beneath a downtown yover, abutting a
wilderness o parking lots on three sides and
a sentimental neo-Victorian apartment
complex on the other, he seems to have ound
a voice or the poetics o the city. Dense,
opaque and monochromatic, conceived at the
wonderully satisying scale o a castle keep
and cast in a gorgeous concrete skin whose
narrow extrusions evoke the strata and
striations o the natural world, the Perot
Museum tower comments on the arbitrary,
mis-scaled imsy lucent high-rises around it
with an almost visceral solidity, while the
olds o the shallow concrete skirt that alls
rom it to the street and ow around the
visitor in its plaza are positively melodious.
The whole scheme, not only in its didacticprogramme but in such actors as its studied
attention to conserving resources, and to
bringing light into a closed container, talks
to the planet and its crisis. Some steps in this
direction are less successul than others.
The sloping podium rom which the concrete
container o the museum rises wraps around
it an arc o the geological and living
environments o Texas. Were this
undulating sequence becomes a roo, a layer
o shale agstones and grasses is laid down,
the orientation allowing it to shed and
capture water. This didactic and rather
ghastly demonstration o natural living
environments along the roo o the plinth
becomes visible rom many points, including
the adjacent reeway. As a result there has
been much discussion o the concrete orms
and other abricated elements o the building
that were very oddly scattered among the
rocks at a late stage o design. To some
including the architects a positive symbolic
message seems plain enough: that buildings
grow rom the shaping o materials drawn
rom nature. But the idea is growing that they
represent shards that ell rom the great slash
in the side o the building during some recent
ctive catastrophe, and that, as memories
o rupture, they are thereore predictive o
cataclysms to come.
Were the approaches are less didactic
or sel-conscious and grounded in the
experiential, they have real clarity and
orce. Some sensory moments are positively
luxurious in their attention to the body and
its awareness o motion. The main entry is the
[The materials] representshards that fell from thegreat slash in the side ofthe building ... memoriesof rupture, they aretherefore predictiveof cataclysms to come
2
location plan
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
7/48
AR | SAMPLE ISSUE 7
exploded projection
3
4
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
8/48
6 6
7 7
9
8 AR | SAMPLE ISSUE
Perot Museumo Natureand Science,Dallas, Texas,USA,
Morphosis
third foor plan ourth foor plan
lower second foor plan upper second foor plan
lower ground foor plan upper ground foor plan
20m
1 concourse2 ca3 kitchen4 theatre5 shop6 lobby7 roo deck8 landscape plinth9 atrium10 gallery11 ofce
A
C
B D
A
C
BD
1
2
3 4
5
8
9 99 9
99
10
10
10
11
10
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
9/48
AR | SAMPLE ISSUE 9
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
10/48
10 AR | SAMPLE ISSUE
5. (Previous page)gigantic concrete beamsstrewn across the podiumseem to presage someterrible cataclysm6. Or perhaps they recordthe titanic tectonic orcesthat might have shaped
this jutting cli
6
section BB
section AA
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
11/48
AR | SAMPLE ISSUE 11
Perot Museumo Natureand Science,Dallas, Texas,USA,Morphosis
pedestrian equivalent o an on-ramp.
A sweepingly curved walkway, under a
luminous canopy, skirting a orest glade,
and broken by a stream o the museums
circulating water system, guides your eet
to the entrance. The initial entry comes wherethese uid lines converge on the base o a
great glazed shat cut up through the dense
container. Such splittings are now a signature
Morphosis gesture. They have a combinatory
intent, connecting the lie inside the building
to that o the city outside by unveiling each
to the other, drawing in orms and materials
rom the exterior language and exposing to
the world at large elements and activities
on the inside. Here the open shat is also used
to display as i it were a kind o sciencein itsel all the varying heights, scales,
materials, shapes, systems and lines with
which the building operates. Thus we are
welcomed to the museum by an anatomical
section o the structure and its armatures
rather as i it were the skeleton o a dinosaur.
In another nod to the morphology o
buildings and towns, a busy and brightly lit
entertainment district the museums store,
ca and theatre spills o rom this, settling
under the gently rising landscaped roo that
serves as a watershed.It is all a little too compressed and
complicated, but both the compression and
the complexity have their points, especially in
nudging visitors like the bridge at Breuers
Witney or the great steps o a 19th-century
gallery into the change o speed and gaze
that has to mark the transition rom street
to sanctum. In this case Morphosis leads us
rom an automobile city in which the privilege
o motion is almost entirely granted to the
machine to an alternate world in which thebody and mind pace movement and can
recognise the moments o wonder that can
come with that slowing o motion. One o
those moments comes very soon in a vast,
shockingly dim basement lobby. It is a sudden
explosion o space, undulating suraces and
visible structural members, covered by a
high web o starlights beyond which it is
impossible to exactly discern the nite
ceiling. Morphosis says only that the lobbys
patterns reect the dynamism o the exteriorlandscape, blurring the distinction between
inside and outside and connecting the natural
with the manmade. But, decorated with a
single giant dinosaur, this evocation o the
great hall seems to say much more. It could
Morphosis leads us ... toa world in which the bodyand mind pace movementand recognise the momentsof wonder that come withthe slowing of motion
section CC
section DD
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
12/48
12 AR | SAMPLE ISSUE
7. Interior spacesjuxtapose organicand angular orms toScharounian eect8 & 9. The epic sweepo the concrete acadeis broken up by irregularstriations that recall
the geological stratao a cli-ace
7
cutaway projection
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
13/48
AR | SAMPLE ISSUE 13
Perot Museumo Natureand Science,Dallas, Texas,USA,
Morphosis
8
9
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
14/48
14 AR | SAMPLE ISSUE
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
15/48
AR | SAMPLE ISSUE 15
be seen as a lovely and mysterious reminder,
as the museums tale o the planet begins,
not simply o how ones journey began
in the great halls o the traditional natural
science museum but o the smallness
o the human place in our universe and o
the vastness o the human capacity to
comprehend it. This is one o a numbero points at which Maynes work transcends
the determinedly virile and unlyrical
manner in which his team describes it.
The second moment o intended
amazement is less successul. Taking its
cue rom rights Guggenheim, the Perot
addresses the problem o the vertical
museum both aesthetically, by celebrating
the vertical circulation, and pragmatically,
by carrying you rst to the top and allowing
or a gradual descent. Models show anextraordinary amount o attention to the
huge glass escalator shat that breaks out
rom the most visible acade o the museum.
It ollows the same lines and serves much
the same purpose as a giant telescope, taking
visitors to the roo o the building and
with vistas o the city along the route
leaving them at the end o its trajectory
among a discussion o the stars in the
museums gallery o the universe. Yet so much
has been done by the time one takes this ride
to introduce this experience the most
conspicuous eature o the building and
its most touted that there is very little
surprise or excitement in the short journey;
positive disappointment in the dismal vista
o parking lots and banal ofce towers it
aords along the way; and no excitement at
all in the nal meagre and vertiginous little
observation deck it takes you to (with anurban view o next to nothing). The best views
by ar are actually those looking down and
around, to the very elegantly crated and
beautiully lit white stairwells, the simplest
and clearest passages in the entire building
and the least cluttered with ideas.
The memory o those stairs becomes an
essential counterpoint to the overwhelming
visual noise o so many o the galleries,
in which the spiral scheme, the architecture
and especially the unortunate specimensthemselves, all become lost in a garish orest
o labels, billboards and ickering backdrops.
The ew points o ocus and repose in this
busy scene the quietly glowing hall o
minerals is one serve only to point out
where the museum best and most
surprisingly succeeds in arousing a desire to
keep this earth intact, which is not in its
displays, nor in the rather erce and didactic
xerigraphy o its landscape scheme but in
the many moments o almost loving, sensuous
spatial poetry with which its supposedly
cool, proudly prosaic, rugged, critical and
urbanistic architect has endowed it.
The museums conversations between straight
line and curve, sotly dense wall and decisive
cut, completed box and open cylinder are
too abrupt at times. But there is in that
abruptness something true to how nature
shows itsel in an urban setting; so that one
walks away rather moved by the memory
o this ercely lovely silo settling onto its
wandering plinth like a morsel o gravel
onto an oily raindrop, catching the light
and casting reection in a thousand ways.
The museum succeeds in ...the many moments of almostloving, sensuous spatialpoetry with which itssupposedly cool, proudly
prosaic, rugged, criticaland urbanistic architecthas endowed it
10. (Opposite) layeredwalkways and bulbousconcrete piers imbue themechanics o circulationwith a powerul spatialand experiential drama11. The low, dark lobbyis the lair o a solitary
dinosaur: a reminder, alongwith the star-spangledceiling, that the cosmos ismore awe-inspiring thanour car-strangled cities
Perot Museumo Natureand Science,Dallas, Texas,USA,Morphosis
ArchitectMorphosis
Associate architectGood Fulton & Farrell
Task lighting/exteriorErcoAcoustic ceilingsHunter Douglas: Techstyle
Structural glazingNovum Structures
Locks and door closersDorma
PhotographsIwan Baan
11
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
16/48
16 AR | SAMPLE ISSUE
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
17/48
AR | SAMPLE ISSUE 17
Snthesising allusions to thevernacular with contemporarabstraction, the new ParrishArt Museum encapsulates the
changing dnamic between art,landscape and architecture
HORIZONLINE
Eli and EdytheBroad Art
Museum,Lansing,Michigan, USA,Zaha HadidArchitects
Parrish ArtMuseum,Long Island,New York, USA,Herzog &de Meuron
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
18/48
18 AR | SAMPLE ISSUE
1. (Previous page) setin the bucolic coastallandscape o theHamptons, the newParrish Museum is a long,precise bar, its scale andabstraction apparently at
odds with its rural milieu2. Yet at ground level,the building evokes theamiliar qualities overnacular structuressuch as barns and houses
3. The Parrish is a riposteto the idea o the museumas art work, typied byJean Nouvels Musedu Quai Branly in Paris4-6. Herzog & de Meuronsrecent museological
antecedents: de YoungMuseum in San Francisco,Museum der Kulturenin Basel and LondonsTate Modern conceivedas a giant mineral landorm
2
3 4
5 6
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
19/48
AR | SAMPLE ISSUE 19
CRITICISM
EMMANUEL PETIT
Opened last November, the new Parrish Art
Museum displas works rom the museums
permanent collection o American art,
encompassing paintings, works on paper and
sculpture amassed over its 115-ear histor.
The building is sited next to the village
o Southampton, one o Long Islands most
auent communities and a weekend reuge
or man Manhattaners who periodicall
ee the island or the bucolic idll o the
Hamptons. A 90-minute drive takes ou
rom the trac-congested cit to the serene
dune-and-shrub landscape o Long Island.
Amid the disjointed, small-scale beachside
buildings, Herzog & de Meuron nest an
abstractl detailed, longitudinal bar with a
double-pitched roo set on a strict eastwest
orientation to catch north light or galleries
through rhthmicall-placed sklights.
In this project, H&dM revisit two o
the ke themes that have come to dene
their architecture. On one hand, the see
architecture as emerging rom the genius
loci, and on the other, the interpret it
as the tautological tectonics o the house.
Wile these two aspects reconrm their
own penchant or a phenomenological
architecture, perected over the ears and
shared with contemporaries such as Steven
Holl and Peter Zumthor, in respect o this
latest project, one consequential question
remains. Wat should one think about
the harmonious, attuned and seamless
coexistence o art and architecture at the
Parrish Museum and the insistence on genius
loci at a time when notions o local materials
or crats, and the unmediated and genuine
access to both nature and art seem to have
been displaced or good in our culture?
For all the tectonic perection o this
building and the elegance o its materialit
and detailing, the architecture o the Parrish
has an orthodox and sternness which seems
atyical o both contemporar museum
architecture and o H&dMs own work.
Frank Gehrs Guggenheim in Bilbao
(AR December 1997) challenged the
orthodox that a museum had to be a neutral
backdrop to suspend art in an autonomous,
conceptual, zero gravit space. In the ace o
contemporar art, which abandoned its more
traditional object status and now claimed
to be spatial in its own right, Gehrs riposte
involved making architecture even more
sculptural and object-like. Similarl, Jean
Parrish ArtMuseum,Long Island,New York, USA,Herzog &
de Meuron
section AA
Nouvels Muse du Quai Branl in Paris (AR
October 2006) explored the undamentall
mediated nature o exhibits (in this case
anthropological arteacts). Here, architecture
engages art in a spatio-geometric dialogue
b immersing it in a sensuall intense and
ormall complex experiential milieu that
exploits to great efect the superposition
o reections, transparencies, textures,
colour and light. On the buildings acade,
Nouvel devised a vertical garden (mur
vgtal), which transormed nature itsel
into an arteact and object o the manmade
environment. Arguabl, these two buildings
are emblematic o what came to be called
the era o postmodernit, where the belie
in the essential diferentiation between
medium and content, between container
and contained, and between architecture
and art object, has been suspended.
Not so in the Parrish Museum.
On Long Island, H&dMs earnest take
on the interaction o museum, art and nature
is surprising, especiall in light o their own
repertoire o museum projects. Take the
Museum der Kulturen, which plas with the
traditional iconograph o Basels medieval
rooscape and wittil invokes nature when
suggesting (at least rhetoricall) that part
o the building is supported b inverted
columns made o hanging plants. Ever
element is treated without an pathos about
the alleged genuineness o nature or tectonic
authenticit o architecture. Similarl, the
For all the tectonicperection and elegance o
its materialit and detailing,the Parrish has an orthodoxand sternness atyical o
both museums and H&deM
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
20/48
20 AR | SAMPLE ISSUE
Parrish ArtMuseum,Long Island,New York, USA,Herzog &de Meuron
1 audiorium2 errace3 enrance4 ca5 galleries6 adminisraion7 archive8 ar loading9 works on paper
7
20m
roo plan
ground foor plan
ongoing extension to Londons Tate Modern
likens architecture to a gigantic mineral
landorm, so severing the romantic
connection between natural environment
and architectural orm. And at the de Young
Museum in San Francisco (AR October 2005),
architecture and nature are integrated in
diagrammatic and abstract was that
largel den all sentimental apprehension
o the genius loci.
A satellite image reveals the Parrish Art
Museums autonomous scale and orientation
in the landscape and points up one o its most
important characteristics, the silver metal
roo, which makes the structure stand out
against the dark ground plane. Standing in
ront o the building, ou immediatel grasp
the phenomenological intention. The long
roo reects and merges with the bright and
luminous sk, the cast concrete sidewalls are
rooted and terrestrial. Architecture is seen
as a meeting point between sk and earth;
a sort o horizon in its own right, or at least
an expressive interpretation o this notion.
Its conceivable that thepassive and conventionalrole H&dMs architectureassumes in relation tothe art it houses comes
with the territor
1
2
3
4
5
6 7 8
9
5
5 5
5
6
A
A
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
21/48
AR | SAMPLE ISSUE 21
7. Conceived as a horizonin its own right, the long,silvery bar o the buildingis transormed into anevocative meeting pointbetween earth and sky8. Materials are treatedwith great nesse and
precision. Concrete wallsare rooted and terrestrial,while the metal roomerges with the sky9. The roo oversailsat each end to createsheltered spaces underits double-pitched canopy
9
8
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
22/48
22 AR | SAMPLE ISSUE
beaches. H&dMs own precedent to the themeo building-as-horizon is to be ound in the
Dominus iner in Yountville, Caliornia
(AR October 1998), where the made
horizontalit itsel into the ver theme
o their architecture.
The Parrish is essentiall an extruded bar,
cut of to reveal a double-pitched roo which
runs with the grain o the building and thus
evokes the imager o a double house or barn
on both end elevations. This architectural
two-sidedness is reminiscent o John Hejduks
IBA projects in Berlin, where Hejduk gave
his buildings one gural acade with a sort
o inverted roo obliquel reerencing the
iconograph o the traditional house. He then
extruded this architectural sign into deep
space to create abstract and modern side
acades. Hejduk designed a whole series
o conceptual double houses, and also
hal-houses, suggesting that architecture
had a double grounding in the smbolic and
allegorical realm o the human imagination
and, at the same time, in the material and
pragmatic logic o the real world. These
ideas resulted in a two-and-a-hal dimensional
architecture that suggested the domestic
scale o the individual dwelling and the
scale o the urban apartment house could
paradoxicall coexist in the same building.
At the Parrish Museum, H&dM deplo
the smbolism o the house in man diferent
was. The entrance to the building is marked
b a missing section o the long bar, which
takes on the shape o the absent barn.At this point, the visitors set oot in the
architectural thematic o the shed even
beore the proceed to enter the actual
building. The entrance door is made o a ver
sophisticated black textured wood, which
is more reminiscent o the small doors o
a jeweller chest than o a building. Inside,
the caeteria and galleries are dened b
the contours o the house, lined with white
walls but opening the space to the whole
height o the pitched roo. The exposed,
untreated wood construction o the
timberwork emphasises the reading and
reinterpretation o a vernacular structure.
H&dM have previousl turned to the
smbolism o the traditional house. Projects
such as the recent VitraHaus in eil am
Rhein (AR March 2010) make clear how the
iconograph o the gable roo and Urhuthave
determined their architecture. ith both
the VitraHaus and the Parrish Art Museum,
the are less mthical about the moti o the
house than Hejduk, but it similarl helps
them to reconcile the institutional scale o a
museum with the domestic realit o the local
architecture. The tectonic meeting point o
Architecture rames thelandscape so that it becomes,or the frst time, visiblewith all its inherent qualities
The tyological choice o a long linear
structure, which exceeds the possibilit o
being apprehended as a nite object, conrms
this intent. Unlike the small houses that seem
whimsicall scattered around the landscape,
this building wants to be a matrix o the
landscape itsel: it makes visible what is
otherwise onl conceptuall accessible.In one o his more amous essas on the
onto-phenomenological role o architecture,
Heidegger likens architecture to a
longitudinal structure a bridge: The bridge
does not just connect banks that are alread
there. The banks emerge as banks onl as
the bridge crosses the stream ... The bridge
gathers the earth as landscape around the
stream ... a location comes into existence onl
b virtue o the bridge. In other words, nature
does not simpl predate the insertion o the
architecture/bridge, but architecture rames
the landscape so that it becomes, or the rst
time, visible with all its inherent qualities.
Architecture is a bridge that connects the
human to his/her environment it is an
Auslegung, interpretation, or la-out, which
makes things accessible to consciousness
and thus renders them intelligible.
The Parrish Museum can certainl be
conceptualised this wa: its horizontalit
makes visible the smooth topograph o
the dunes; its hard geometr explicates b
contrast the sot orms o the vegetation;
its ramed views o the landscape reveal the
long-drawn-out spaces o the elds and the
10
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
23/48
AR | SAMPLE ISSUE 23
Parrish ArtMuseum,Long Island,New York, USA,Herzog &de Meuron
1 corrugaed meal roofng2 waerproo membrane3 roo deck assembly4 imber purlin5 spray oam insulaion6 ba insulaion7 meal ascia8 seel welding plae and
seel angle in wall caviy
9 rigid insulaion10 cas concree wall11 plywood lining12 exernal ligh13 imber rater14 cold join15 cas concree bench16 expansion join17 composie concree slab
on meal deck18 polyurehane oam19 oundaion wall20 precas concree slab
10. Benches are castinto the external walls,a device also employedat the VitraHaus
detailed wall section
1
2
5
6
7
9
8
10
16 17
20
18
14
12
11
15
19
16
13
3
4
11
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
24/48
24 AR | SAMPLE ISSUE
Parrish ArtMuseum,Long Island,New York, USA,Herzog &de Meuron
11
12
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
25/48
AR | SAMPLE ISSUE 25
the double roo is also spatiall interesting
especiall on the inside. Were the two roos
connect and their beams structurall and
expressivel cross over, their interior surace
reads as an inverted roo, which compresses
the space inside the building. At the same
time, the ridge o this upturned ceiling
becomes the spatial guide or circulationthroughout the museum, granting access
to galleries o variable size on either side.
On the whole, its hard to miss the careul
and subtle details that are so masterull
deploed, such as the wa the building
sits on a thin concrete surace which appears
to oat above the natural ground b just
an inch or so. The shadow joint between
this surace and the ground is minute,
et it elevates the building into a realm
determined b precision and meticulousnessthat is largel unknown to the American
construction industr and is, at the same
time, a trademark o Swiss architectural
culture. Similarl, the exposed ceilings
throughout the museum exhibit a sense
o careul carelessness when electric cables
are nailed to the timber beams or sprinkler
pipes run along rim lines. H&dMs Parrish
Art Museum is an extremel skilled
and artul essa on the tectonics o timber-
and-concrete construction and on the
genius loci and its conceivable that
the passive and conventional role their
architecture assumes in relation to the
art it houses comes with the territor.
11. Gallery spaces aredeined by the contourso the two houses andthe double roo structure
12. The meeting point othe twin roos itsel readsas inverted roo whichcompresses space andorms the buildingslong circulation spine
ArchitectHerzog & de MeuronAssociate architectDouglas Moyer ArchiecPhotographsAll phoographs by
Iwan Baan apar rom:Aeliers Jean Nouvel,
Philippe Ruaul, 3Paolo Rosselli / RIBA
Library PhoographsCollecion, 4Herzog & de MeuronBasel, 5, 6
12
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
26/48
26 AR | SAMPLE ISSUE
Museum o 2
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
27/48
AR | SAMPLE ISSUE 27
Seductively refecting the city andthe seasons, the crystalline paviliono Clevelands new contemporary artmuseum is a radical exploration o
geometry and materiality
BLUESTEEL
Museum oConemporaryAr, Cleveland,Ohio, USA,Farshid MoussaviArchiecure
CRITICISM3
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
28/48
28 AR | SAMPLE ISSUE
CRITICISM
RAYMUND RYANThe Bilbao Eect has come and gone, at least
or the moment. The Bilbao Eect, that is, as
demonstrated b architects less gited than
Frank Gehr attempting statement buildings,
with wishul cultural programmes, onmarginal or peripheral sites. Yet that doesnt
mean that the post-industrial cit has given
up on culture and on investigative design. I
the signature meta-project is associated with
recent excess, emerging cultural phenomena
are requentl accommodated b architecture
that takes a reciprocal attitude to existing
abric and is comparativel open in terms o
solution. Modest size and modest budgets ma
et allow or new orms o experimentation.
Cleveland is one o several Rust Belt citieswitnessing signs o rebirth or stabilisation.
The new pavilion designed b Farshid
Moussavi Architecture to house Clevelands
Museum o Contemporar Art (MOCA) is
certainl a sign, a propelling urban element
that is dramatic et subtle. Set on an axial
boulevard the appropriatel named Euclid
Avenue a ew blocks rom Gehrs School
o Management or Case Western Reserve
Universit, MOCAs immediate neighbours
include a massive healthcare acilit and amixed-use development designed b Stanle
Saitowitz as urbane extrusions to either side
o Euclid. To make its presence elt, and to
help consolidate the neighbourhood, MOCA
exploits its site, budget and programme
with econom and skill.
To date, Moussavi is best known or the
Yokohama Ferr Terminal (AR Januar 2003)
realised in partnership with Alejandro
Zaera-Polo between 1994 and 2002 as Foreign
Oce Architects. Her architectural projectsand her teaching at Harvard are concerned
with mathematical exploration, with new
orms o landscape, and as evinced b
Moussavis presentation at this ears Venice
Biennale with tectonic ornament and aect.
Her building or MOCA Cleveland results
rom a geometric construct. A hexagon at
ground level, it splas and mutates into a
square our stores above. Draped in
elongated panels o black stainless steel,
MOCA emerges in its context o much largerbuildings as a beguiling pavilion, both
meteorite and tent, a kind o tailored Dark
Star with an internal logic that nevertheless
results rom local conditions.
The immediate site is at the intersection o
Euclid and a side street that cuts through the
urban grid on a diagonal. MOCAs orm
A beguiling pavilion, both
meteorite and tent, a kind otailored Dark Star with aninternal logic that resultsrom local conditions
Museum o 1. Sairway o heaven: heili g i Cl l d
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
29/48
AR | SAMPLE ISSUE 29
ConemporaryAr, Cleveland,Ohio, USA,Farshid MoussaviArchiecure
ceilings in ClevelandsMuseum o ConemporaryAr are pained a richlymysical Yves Klein blue2. The exerior, wrappedlike candy in a pure blueneon glow (as Debbie
Harry once sang),shimmers wih ligh3-5. The exerior has beendesigned o coninuallychange is appearanceby reecing he shitingconex o he ciy and healering ligh condiionso he day and seasons
sie plan
4
5
6
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
30/48
30 AR | SAMPLE ISSUE
Museum oConemporaryAr, Cleveland,Ohio, USA,Farshid Moussavi
Archiecure
emerges rom a negotiation between these
axes. In that sense, Moussavis building is
analtical and rational. MOCA, however,
is also unorthodox and enigmatic. A centur
ago, such sites were allocated to libraries
and banks. B the 1960s, gas stations and
other drive-through acilities had tyicallusurped the old neighbourhood plan. MOCA
seems less interested in the drive-b legibilit
advocated b Robert Venturi (indeed it
avoids representation entirel) than
some o the smbolic presence associated
with previous architectural eras. Moussavi
achieves this b using contemporar
ormalism and lean engineering.
The rotation rom hexagon to square
results in a crstalline, prism-like orm
with eight acades: two rhomboids and sixtriangles. Four o the triangles rise rom
the pavement to a sharp apex against the
sk; the other two triangles are equilaterals
descending rom the parapet to a point at
street level. Seven acades are skinned in
precisel aligned, stainless-steel panels set in
parallel runs that change direction rom one
acade to the next. The eighth, acing north
6. Appropriaelyinangible, a yellow glowinvies visiors ino aspace dedicaed osound ar insallaions7. The buildings inerior isclohed in blue and whiesripes, like a Breon shir
7
This combination ogeometry and materialityresults in a building witha vivid personality
1 entrance lobby/atrium2 ca
7 clean workshop8 wood workshop
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
31/48
AR | SAMPLE ISSUE 31
3 multipurpose room4 shipping/receiving5 store6 gallery
5m
second oor planground oor plan
frs oor plan
A
A
B
B
hird oor plan
9 back o house10 services11 ofces12 education workshop
1
2
3
4
5
10
11
12
6
67
89
10
5. Tincillab ium volorereribus recaq uassimin
8
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
32/48
32 AR | SAMPLE ISSUE
comnis naissi o conrendi digen, sen, ue ee volessi quos opassi,con everoribus.Ro omnimax iminur, opacus andam, si eosdolorioria di ommolupaseur moloriem que nonsedea id eumquidipsam denonsequi quauria doles e
9
Us eume numrero magnis
and containing the principal entrance, is
entirel o glass. Some o these acades tiltMuseum oConemporary
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
33/48
AR | SAMPLE ISSUE 33
rero magnisadisrume eexpersp ererum
with the panel grid at an angle to the vertical
axis. The black metal suraces are not
uniorml fat so that light and refections
all irregularl to urther animate the skin.
Modular glazing components are inserted
into the grid to unction as skinn diagonalwindows, fush and almost invisible in the
building carapace.
This combination o geometr and
materialit results in a building with a vivid
personalit. It stands there at the intersection
on Euclid constantl changing due to the
ambient eects o both natural and electric
light. Indeed the stainless steel seems to
magni dierent colours at dierent times
o da. The structure evokes contemporaneit
both in the sense o new design thinking andengaging with feeting moments o time.
The surrounding plaza, stretching north-east
towards one o Saitowitzs buildings, is
planted and paved in geometric patterns
b New York-based landscape architects,
Field Operations. There is a service entr
rom the south, rom the side street;
otherwise the ground surace extends
contiguousl about the museum.
Museum is in act somewhat misleading.
MOCA exhibits cutting-edge art but does notcollect, thereore the architect did not have to
deal with the vexing issues o storage aced b
collecting institutions. There is no basement.
One o Moussavis generating ideas is to mix
back-o-house acilities (loading dock,
workshop, oces) with publicl accessible
galleries, classrooms and oer spaces on each
o the buildings our levels. Visitors enter
rom Euclid through the sole glass acade
into a narrow chasm o space between these
stacked interior volumes and the origami-likeouter wall. A complex open staircase with
white plate balustrade leads upward, turning
back on itsel in order to reach the relevant
upper rooms and oer unexpected prospects
through the entire institution.
MOCAs industrial aesthetic results rom
considerations o econom, the demands o
changing installations and Moussavis design
philosoph. At street level, the polished
concrete foor fows, in one direction, into a
lounge and then a double-height space thatcan be used or exhibitions or perormance
and, in the other, into a store whose modular
cabinetr can be pushed into a fush inner
wall. MOCA charges or admission; however,
non-paing visitors can access ar into the
building, climb the enticing sculptural
staircase, and catch glimpses o exhibitions
and interior workings o the museum.
On the morning o MOCAs inauguration,
Moussavi denied her design had voeuristic
intent, stating that her aim is or engagementbetween institution and public.
MOCAs interior walls, and occasional
suspended ceilings, are white. The architect
has, however, scrambled established notions
8. Unlike many museumbuilders, Moussavi doesno allow geomericalexuberance o deracrom he uncional
display o ar9. The deep blue ceilingsand walls break open hewhie cube, providing aconrasing backdrop ohe works displayed wihin
ConemporaryAr, Cleveland,Ohio, USA,Farshid MoussaviArchiecure
Museum oConemporary
o the white cube galler b unexpectedl
painting the overarching roo and enveloping
t ll i d k bl Th
10
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
34/48
34 AR | SAMPLE ISSUE
Ar, Cleveland,Ohio, USA,Farshid MoussaviArchiecure
outer walls a uniorm dark blue. The
structure, angled like the exterior, is exposed
and painted to match the interstitial panels.
On inauguration da, Moussavi noted that
inside the white cube art foats, whereas with
the dark ceiling at MOCA art appears
grounded. Certainl these galleries are seldom
neutral; the visitor experiences a sequence o
spaces and volumes to provoke artist, curator
and visitor alike. Beneath the open staircase,
or instance, an enclosed exit stairwa is
painted a brilliant ellow and intended or
sound installations such as that currentl on
show b Korean artist Haegue Yang.
There is one urther, and entirel
unexpected, detail. The sloping slots o glass
unction as windows to admit light whendesired and to oer glimpses to the exterior,
to the lie o the street and to Gehrs
billowing metal structure across Euclid
Avenue. The glass is orward o the structure
so that foor slabs are mere shadows on the
exterior, aiding an enigmatic or scaleless
impression o the building. The reveals are
lined in mirror. The mirror refects curious
snippets o street and sk, and dematerialises
the thickness o the exterior envelope so that
MOCA reads even more as a kind o industrialtent. Through Moussavis resolution o orm
and detail, Cleveland now has a vanguard
acilit oering spatial and optical surprise.
10. Visiors climbing hegrand sair see ashes ohe exhibiion spaces,drawing hem upwardshrough he museum11. From above, hecascading sairs reveal acomplex iered geomery
11
ArchiecFarshid MoussaviArchitecturePhoographsDean Kauman, 1-9
Duane Prokop,Getty Images, 10Farshid MoussaviArchitecture, 11
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
35/48
AR | SAMPLE ISSUE 35
perspecive secion BB
perspecive secion AA
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
36/48
36 AR | SAMPLE ISSUE
1. (Opposite) the sober,elemental materiality othe museum exterior is
2
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
37/48
AR | SAMPLE ISSUE 37
continued into the internalspaces. Peroratedceilings diuse Denversclear mountain lightinto the galleries2. The rough texture o the
concrete walls evokesClyord Stills energetic,impassioned brushstrokes
NATURALFORCES
A major new art museum dedicated
to the lie and work o Clyford Stilldraws on the expressive energy andelementality o the painters oeuvre
Clyord StillMuseum,Denver, USAAllied Works
Clyord StillMuseum,Denver USA
1 Clyford Still Museum2 Denver Art Museum,
Hamilton Building(Daniel Libeskind)
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
38/48
38 AR | SAMPLE ISSUE
REPORTMICHAEL WEBB
Clyord Still belonged to that
heroic generation o American
artists who made Abstract
Expressionism the dominant
movement o the 1950s. But he
was also a loner, who withheld his
work rom galleries, moved rom
New York to a rural retreat, and
retained most o the paintingshe created over six decades. In his
will, he stipulated that his estate
be given to an American city
willing to establish a permanent
home or the study and exhibition
o his art. Some 31 years ater
his death, that wish has been
ullled in Denver. The Clyord
Still Museum is a tough usion
o art and architecture, rooted
in the earth and open to the sky.Brad Cloepl o Allied Works
Architecture worked closely with
director Dean Sobel to create an
ideal viewing environment or
huge canvases that explode with
energy, and smaller early works.
The austere concrete block,
holding storage, conservation
and service areas on the ground
foor and galleries above, is a
quiet riposte to the irrationalexuberance o Denvers cultural
district. The structure backs up
to Daniel Libeskinds homage
to The Cabinet of Dr Caligari
3. The new building takesits place in Denverscentral cultural district,in the ostentatious shadowo Daniel Libeskindsextension to the
Denver Art Museum4. (Opposite) galleriescantilever out over therecessed corner entrance.Light catches the n-liketexture o the concrete,animating the building'simpervious acades
Denver, USAAllied Works
with jagged metal shards on theoutside, tilted walls and acute
angles inside an ostentatious
and dysunctional extension
to the Denver Art Museum,
which already has to cope with
Gio Pontis eccentric castle.
Beyond is Michael Gravess
colourul conection or the
Denver Public Library, a PoMo
assemblage o Platonic orms.
Cloepl wisely ignores thesedistractions, drawing his
inspiration rom landscape and
light, as Still did, to serve the art.
Although the artist spent
most o his working lie in San
Francisco and on the eastern
seaboard, he grew up on the
Prairie and that experience
shaped his vision. Denver
is set on a mile-high plateau
surrounded by the snow-cappedRocky Mountains, a spectacular
setting that is mimicked in
the white Tefon peaks o the
Stapleton Airport terminal.
Cloepl preerred the elemental
to the picturesque, starting with
a concept model o rammed
earth, and planning to clad the
building with obsidian slabs.
That proved ineasible, since the
glassy ragments would not bondwith concrete, and budgetary
cutbacks narrowed the range
o possibilities. Allied Works
was determined to achieve a
rough texture that would have a
random, undesigned quality, and
the practice went through myriad
tests and mock-ups with the
contractor. The solution proved
simple: bevel the boards in theormwork to allow the concrete to
leak out and break o. The deep
ns capture the light, and enliven
the windowless acades, as do
the iridescent tiles that clad the
Museum o Arts and Design in
New York (AR February 2009).
A grove o plane trees will
partially conceal the museum
rom the street, casting shadow
patterns over the walls.Galleries are cantilevered over
a recessed corner entrance, and a
staircase draws visitors up rom
the long, low-ceilinged oyer,
( )3 Denver Art Museum,
North Building(Gio Ponti)
4 City Library(Michael Graves)
5 City and County Building
6 Civic Centre Park7 Parking Structure
3
1
2
34
5 6
7
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
39/48
AR | SAMPLE ISSUE 39
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
40/48
40 AR | SAMPLE ISSUE
5. (Opposite) inside themuseum, a double-heightcorridor orientatesvisitors with displays
15 5
6
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
41/48
AR | SAMPLE ISSUE 41
o archive material,and biographical andcontextual timelines6. One o the moreintimate galleries or the
display o smaller works.Galleries respond to theevolving nature o Stillsart, changing scale andproportion, while varyingthe intensity o light
ground foor plan
rst foor plan
Clyord StillMuseum,Denver, USAAllied Works
1 entrance terrace2 reception3 conservation lab4 research lab5 service6 painting storage7 mechanical8 administration9 visitor services10 library11 orientation12 gallery13 terrace14 education gallery15 conerence
141212
12 1212
12
1212
8 7 5
62
1
4
9
3
11
13
10
10m0
Clyord StillMuseum,Denver, USA
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
42/48
42 AR | SAMPLE ISSUE
ascending into the light. There
they move through a grid o
nine rooms dened by poured
concrete slabs and drywall
which open into each other and
oer oblique views across the
foor. A central well and the main
staircase provide visual links to
the ground level. The eeling is
intimate and fuid, and there are
two outdoor terraces screened
with wooden battens.Wall openings rame canvases,
allowing you to approach them
rom aar and then to immerse
yoursel in the explosive colours
and orms. Two galleries have
3.8m diagonally boarded ceilings
or smaller works, while the
others rise 5.5m to a perorated
concrete ceiling. The concrete
ns are carried inside, but
walls supporting the art have arough-textured surace, oering
a tactility complementing the
impassioned brushstrokes. The
perorated ceiling is set 1.3m
above the walls holding the art,
and the same distance below the
ltered skylights, diusing the
clear mountain light through oval
openings. The perorations are
set at the same angle to the walls
as the boarded ceilings, playingo the vertically marked walls
and white oak foorboards.
It was very important that
the museum be monolithic, says
Cloepl. In the US, buildings are
assembled rom parts. It took awhile or the contractor to realise
we wanted him to make things.
There were repeated tests and
one wall was torn down, but the
eort paid o, or the 12m pours
are as impeccable as the detailing.
In mass and natural lighting, the
building is a worthy heir to Louis
Kahns Kimbell Art Museum
Cloepls model o what an art
museum should be. Cutbackswere turned to advantage. As an
economy, the block was set back
rom the street and a third foor
was eliminated, but the display
area was only slightly reduced.
The resulting delay gave everyone
time to perect the execution.
About 70 paintings and sketches,
hung chronologically with brie
text panels, comprise the
inaugural exhibition. Stills artis so powerul and little-seen
that even a small sampling o
the 2,400 works in the collection
is an unorgettable experience,
and this is enhanced by the
architectural rame. Cloepl
drew on his long experience
o designing museums and his
amiliarity with the key works, to
calibrate the proportions o each
room. As he observes, elemental
language can create spaces that
are resonant and eel innite.
It is rewarding to compare
the rigour and subtlety o this
building with David AdjayesDenver Museum o Contemporary
Art to the north (AR April 2008).
Both architects have an innate
respect or artists, and an
intuitive understanding o how
to enhance the experience o
viewing their works. Adjaye
provides a multi-layered complex
o versatile display spaces or
temporary exhibitions within a
translucent envelope; a cabineto curiosities that eels airborne.
In contrast, Cloepl has created a
massive, impermeable block that
appears to hide in plain view
and will soon be embowered by
mature trees. The archives and
storage areas beyond the oyer
are equally shadowy. Above, the
art is washed with natural light
and appears to foat ree o the
walls that act as rames. Thereis an alternation o rough and
rened, radiant and crepuscular,
contained and ree-fowing; above
all, a pervasive serenity.
Allied Works
7. Early massing modelshowing the buildingsrelationship to site, as well
as a sense o the ribbedand riven external walls8. Detail o acade.Concrete was allowed toleach out o the ormworkto create the roughlybevelled texture
The Museum is atough usion o artand architecture,rooted in the earthand open to the sky
7
8
9. Concrete walls andwhite oak foors orma neutral backdrop tothe display o Stillsvibrant paintings
9
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
43/48
AR | SAMPLE ISSUE 43
vibrant paintings.A leading exponent oAbstract Expressionism,Still was among the rstto embrace the movement.
The new museumre-acquaints the publicwith his impressivebody o work
section AA
section BB
Architects
Allied Works ArchitectureStructural engineerKPFF ConsultingEngineersServices engineerArupLandscape consultantReed HilderbrandAssociatesPhotographsJeremy Bittermann
1
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
44/48
44 AR | SAMPLE ISSUE
Space rame pioneer Robert Le Ricolais
once said: The art o structure is where to
put the holes. So perhaps he would approve
o this experimental project to make a
structure composed o nearly all holes by
Karl Daubmann and PLY Architecture. Over
100 laser-cut aluminum cones o varying sizes
orm the building blocks or a reestandingpavilion set in the University o Michigans
Botanical Gardens. The organisational
scheme or the cones explores the botanical
concept o phyllotaxis: the dynamic process
by which plants sel-organise to create
specifc orms. Beyond testing the limits o
sheet aluminium, the cones also unnel light
and sound to the interior, so that visitors can
absorb the atmosphere o the surrounding
gardens. Framing views out while taking
the shape o an object in its own microlandscape, the Shadow Pavilion elegantly
emphasises the immutable relationship
between digital design processes and the
growth patterns o living organisms.
EMERGING ARCHITECTURE
site plan
SHADOWPAVILION
PLYARCHITECTURE
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, USA
2 3
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
45/48
AR | SAMPLE ISSUE 45
cross section
1. Vistas o the changing
seasons are ramed
and ltered through
the circular opening
in the pavilion
2. Fabricated rom
aluminium cones o
diferent sizes, the orm o
the pavilion is inspired by
organic processes o
sel-organisation3. The cones also unnel
sound into the interior
Architect
Ply Architecture
Photographs
Courtesy of the architects
long section
REPUTATIONS
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
46/48
46 AR | NOVEMBER 2011
In the hal centur ollowing the
publication oThe Death and
Life of Great American Cities,
Jane Jacobs has become the most
revered, or at least the most widel
reerenced urban writer in the world.
Prizes and medals are awarded in
Jacobss name and her ideas shape
historic preservation laws as well as
new mixed-use designs. She is taken
as the patron saint o grassroots
movements against bureaucratic
ats that result in residential
displacement, building demolition
and the boring inanit or the great
blight o dullness, as she wrote, o
big, ugl new construction.
Jacobss plainspoken critique
o the architectural conormit
that dogged post-war Modernism
challenged the prevailing wisdom
about rebuilding cities or the
executive class. Her advocac o
the need to maintain the patterns
o the antebellum cit, with its
oten chaotic rhthms and nel
tuned local scale, contradicted the
grand strategies o rationalising
do-gooders who wanted to save
the cit b destroing it.
Appearing in 96, Jacobss
book mobilised sociall conscious
intellectuals who had been skewered
b McCarthism and threatened
b the Cold ar. Together with
the works o the environmentalistwriter Rachel Carson and the
eminist author Bett Friedan,
The Death and Life laid the
groundwork or a new kind o
protest politics based on where ou
live, what ou eat and who ou are.
It is not insignicant that all three
authors were women.
Tributes rained down when
Jacobs died in 6. In her rst
adoptive cit, New York, wherethe Pennslvania-born author and
activist worked as a secretar and
then as a journalist, the block o
Hudson Street where she wrote
The Death and Life towards the
end o the 95s was renamed in
her honour as Jane Jacobs a.
Toronto, where Jacobs and her
amil moved in the 97s (so her
sons could avoid being called into
militar service in the Vietnam ar),
started a ree annual walking tour o
the cit, Janes alk, on the rst
weekend o Ma. As part o the
street-level celebration, volunteers
now lead over 5 tours in more
than 75 cities around the world.
Oering equall weight smbolic
kudos, the highest appointed
ocial in charge o land-use
decisions, New York Cit Planning
Commissioner Amanda Burden,
has declared hersel to be an ardent
champion o Jacobss ideas.
But in concrete terms, Jacobss
legac is less clear. Her preerence
or low-rise buildings at a variet o
rents is honoured more in the pages
o urban planning journals than in
cit council chambers where zoning
laws are decided. Her praise or
the social vitalit o districts with
attractions has morphed into the
universall recognised economic
value o Destination Culture and
the McGuggenisation o man cities.
As or the sel-guiding communities
that she espoused, well, the have
been submerged b elected ocials
who pa more attention to real
estate developers than to communit
planners and torpedoed b economic
recession on the one hand and
citizens tax revolts on the other.This is not entirel Jacobss
ault. She wrote during an age o
worldwide economic expansion
when governments invested heavil
in building new roads, subsidising
suburban development and
rationalising cit centres as locations
or corporate headquarters an
age, in short, that was tyical o
the United States and Europe ater
the Second orld ar and appearsa lot like China now. Some o the
evils that she attacked, including the
arrogance o state planners who
push people out o their homes,
the monolithic architectural projects
that swallow old districts whole
and the stunning rate o highwa
construction that moulds cities
around space or trucks and cars,
embod so much sel-interest that
not even a Marxist revolution could
thwart their orward fow.
And Jacobs was no Marx. Though
she opposed the edicts o long-time
New York public-sector building czar
Robert Moses, and together with her
neighbours won signicant victories
over his plans to tear down parks
and buildings and run highwas
through Lower Manhattan, she did
not attack the nexus o economic
and state power that supported
Mosess vision. Instead, she attacked
planners, a relativel powerless
group compared to developers who
build, and banks and insurance
companies who nance the building
that rips out a cits heart.
Neither did Jacobs, a
communitarian, believe that state
action could right the wrongs she
deplored. Jacobs did not call or
stronger zoning laws to encourage a
mix o housing, actories, stores and
schools. She did not support more
permanent rent controls to ensure
a mix o poorer and richer tenants,
o successul businesses and
start-ups. Jacobs neglected the
economic priorities that avoured a
shit o investments to suburbs over
cities and let the public housing
projects architecturall barren
and perenniall short o unds.orse, Jacobs wrote that i
nanciall solid amilies remain,
troubled communities will unslum
themselves. This seems unusuall
nave or such an astute activist.
The idea ails to come to grips
with entrenched racial bias or the
sstemic disinvestment that both
oreshadows and deepens the
ecological miser o unemploment.
For these views and her distaste orstate intervention, Jacobs won the
admiration o Neo-Conservatives
who could hardl have shared most
o her other political opinions.
Jacobs won theadmiration ofNeo-Cons whocould hardlyhave shared
most of her otherpolitical opinions
Jane Jacobs19162006EducationSchool of Graduate Studies,Columbia UniversityFirst breakJoining the magazineArchitectural Forum(1952)Key PublicationsThe Death and Life of Great
American Cities(1961)The Economy of
Cities(1969)Cities and the Wealth
of Nations(1984)Dark Age Ahead(2004)GarlandsAmerican SociologicalAssociation OutstandingLifetime ContributionAward (2002)Rockerfeller Foundationcreation of Jane JacobsMedal (2007)Quote'Cities have the capabilityof providing something foreverybody, only because,and only when, they arecreated by everybody'
Jane Jacobs
SHARON ZUKIN
JOEWILSON
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
47/48
AR | NOVEMBER 2011 47
Were Jacobss ideas work
well, the ocus on the social web
that undergirds microcosmic
urban lie. Her description o the
sidewalk ballet, the set-piece o
the second chapter in The Death
and Life, weaves a rhthmic
narrative o the butcher, the baker,
the bartender and other stalwarts
o High Street shops who keep
an ee on the street and subtl,
without direction rom external
authorities, exert social control
over the unpredictable fow o
strangers and riends. Jacobss
remarkable idea is that the street is
pre-eminentl a social space. I we
ignore the routine interdependencies
and everda diversit a cit street
enolds, we lose the qualities that
give it lie and guarantee its saet.
There is a wonderul photograph
o Jacobs in her prime, sitting at the
bar o the Wite Horse Tavern, just
down the block rom where she lived
in Greenwich Village. earing big,
dark-rimmed eeglasses and a
shapeless raincoat, smiling and
holding a cigarette in her right hand,
Jacobs would not be mistaken or
an o the legions o gentriers who
ollowed her call to nd the endless
ascinations o the cits historic
centre. But she underestimated the
strength o middle class tastes or
social homogeneit and aesthetic
coherence that drive gentrication.
Wat Jacobs valued small blocks,
cobblestone streets, mixed-uses,
local character have become thegentriers ideal. This is not the
struggling cit o working class and
ethnic groups, but an idealised image
that plas to middle-class tastes.
Jacobss challenge to maintain
the authenticit o urban lie still
conronts the ear o dierence and
the hubris o modernising ambition.
At a time in which local shopping
streets are the target o attacks
against a broader alienation,we urgentl need to connect her
concern with economic development
and urban design to our unsettled
social condition.
FOLIO
-
8/22/2019 Sample Issue USA
48/48
48 AR | SAMPLE ISSUE
Detail o UTOPa-1 (2008) rom the UTOPX series by Lebbeus Woods, who died on 30 October 2012. Nicholas Olsberg and Anthony Vidler refect on his legacy in the December 2012 issue