Maya  Lin  Redesign  of  Queen  Anne  Square  Park  

Bad Process!Bad Faith!

Bad Design!

Bad Process!“Findings  suggest  that  controversies  are  most  likely  to  erupt  over  abstract  art  placed  in  relatively  small  cities…  This  is  especially  true  when  the  community  is  not  asked  to  participate  in  the  project  in  any  meaningful  way.”  

Steven  J  Tepper  Princeton  University  Center  for  Arts  and  Cultural  Policy  Studies  

Who’s Involved? [Bad Process]!Maya  Lin  The  celebrity  designer  

Who’s Involved? [Bad Process]!Pieter  Roos  The  Salesman  

Who’s Involved? [Bad Process]!Mayor  Waluk  The  Supporter  

Who’s Involved? [Bad Process]!City  Council  Representing  the  Public….  or  the  Donors?    

Henry  Winthrop  

Charles  Duncan   Naomi  Neville   Justin  McLaughlin  

Kathryn  Leonard   Jeanne-­‐Marie  Napolitano  

Who’s Involved? [Bad Process]!

The  donors  Dismissing  the  detractors  with  a  wave  of  her  hand,  she  said,  "I  just  let  them  all  talk”.  

-­‐Marion  Oates  Charles,  92,  known  as  Oatsie,  president  of  the  Newport  Restoration  Foundation.  

NY  Times  Article  Nov  2011  

Public Outcry [Bad Process]!Public  Outcry…  falling  on  deaf  ears  

Newport  Daily  News  Poll:      377  against  -­‐  only  43  in  favor!  one  of  the  largest  in  the  memory  of  the  Newport  Daily  News  

60+  Letters  to  the  Press  and  counting…  running  at  10  to  1  against    Media  attention  AP  article  in  500  papers  from  BloombergBusinessWeek  to  Kansas….  NY  Times,  Providence  Journal,  Newport  Daily  News,  Newport  This  Week,  NewportPatch,  WRNI/National  Public  Radio  

Public Outcry [Bad Process]!“Plotting  and  planning  a  project  for  a  number  of  years  behind  closed  doors  is  a  poor  tactic  especially  when  you  try  and  roll  out  the  project  as  a  fait  de  complet.  The  NRF  and  City  could  have  gotten  it  right,  but  blew  it.”  

-­‐  Andrew  Segal  

Bad Faith!“The  brutal  irony  is  that  the  foundation,  which  Doris  Duke  founded,  is  planning  to  do  something  to  the  square  which  would  be  antithetical  to  everything  its  founder  stood  for”  

David  Clapp  

$$$??! [Bad Faith]!“How  was  a  $3.6  million  fundraising  budget  determined  prior  to  developing  the  design  enough  to  project  costs  for  construction  and  maintenance?”  

Lawrence  Culter  –  Newport  Resident  

“Something  doesn’t  smell  just  right  here.  Why  so  much  money  for  so  small  a  space?”  

Mary  Weston  –  Newport  Resident  

Mister Mayor [Bad Faith]!Mayor  Waluk:  It’s  the  money  “We  have  close  to  10%  unemployment  in  Newport;  people  have  the  holidays  coming;  they  don’t  know  how  they’re  going  to  pay  for  gifts  and  things  like  that  and  put  a  turkey  on  the  table  for  Thanksgiving.    And  these  people  are  apposed  to  a  3.5  million  dollar  donation  to  enhance  a  public  park?”  

Did  he  help  his  cause  with  that?  

Hypocrisy [Bad Faith]!“Queen  Anne  Square  stands  in  stark  contrast  to  the  Brick  Market  and  Long  Wharf  areas  and  America's  Cup  Avenue...      ...these  efforts  were  ‘out  with  the  old  in  with  the  new.’    In  contrast,  Queen  Anne  Square  celebrates  the  architectural  heritage  of  Newport  and  gives  Newporters  and  visitors  alike  this  splendid  open  parkland  to  experience.”  

Excerpt  from:  EXTRAORDINARY  VISION  (2010)  Robert  P.  Foley,  A.  Bruce  MacLeish,  Pieter  N.  Roos  

Doris  Duke  and  the  Newport  Restoration  Foundation  

NRF [Bad Faith]!“Miss  Duke  expended  more  of  her  own  personal  energy  and  direction  to  the  park  than  any  other  facet  of  her  Newport  endeavors…Efforts  by  people  who  never  knew  her,  and  care  less  about  her  sensibilities,  to  completely  desecrate  her  park  seem  incomprehensible.”  

Peter  S.  Kent  Former  NRF  Director  

worked  on  site  with  Doris  Duke  during  construction  

Monument? [Bad Faith]!

Structures  aren’t  allowed  by  the  deed,  so  now  they  are  calling  it  a  “monument.”  Really??  

How  are  3  fake  foundations  and  artificial  chimneys  considered  a  monument????  

Not  a  “structure”  anymore.  

The Deed [Bad Faith]!

“no  building  or  structure  temporary  or  permanent,  shall  be  erected  thereon”  

Oh  right,  the  deed  says  no  structures…  

Deceit? [Bad Faith]!Intentionally  misleading  or  just  incompetence?  

Without  the  blueprints  there  is  no  truth  to  any  model…  

Really???  

Takeover? [Bad Faith]!

“The  DDMF  will  become  a  self-­‐supporting  friends’  organization  which  will  oversee  maintenance  and  administration  for  the  park  in  the  future.”  

From  www.ddmf.org    

Donors  trying  to  take  over  a  Public  Park!  

Bad Design!“There  is  really  nothing  to  the  proposal  except  three  fake  building  foundations,  so  remove  them  and  nothing  is  left  (and  no  battle),  but  why  the  millions?”  

Lawrence  Cutler  American  Institute  of  Architects  

Royal  Institute  of  British  Architects  Chairman  and  CEO  of  the  

National  Museum  of  American  Illustration  in  Newport  

5-point Critique [Bad Design]!From  the  man  who  made  her  famous:  

“The  Lin  proposal  is  an  imitation  of  the  historic  past  -­‐  false  building  foundations  and  imaginary  quotations.  Newport  has  no  need  for  historic  imitations.”  

Paul  Spreiregen,  FAIA  A  Five-­‐Point  Critique  –  11/1/11    

the  expert  who  proposed  and  ran  the  competition  which  selected  Maya  Lin's  design  for  the  Vietnam  Veterans  

Memorial  

Nuclear Architecture [Bad Design]!Nuclear  Architecture  “When  I  was  at  school  at  Cornell.    We  used  to  call  this  type  of  design,  Nuclear  Architecture.  The  rock  star  architect  would  come  to  the  site  or  perhaps  even  just  a  quick  helicopter  flyover.  Without  any  consideration  for  the  history  of  the  context  of  the  site  or  the  surrounding  area”  

-­‐  Donald  Topias  11/9/11  

Lonely?! [Bad Design]!Maya  Lin  "It  was  really  lonely;  it  was  really  empty,  there  is  literally  no  place  to  be."  

Lonely?! [Bad Design]!

Ohio [Bad Design]!“The  Million  Dollar  Mistake”  

“Green  Space  is  in  short  supply  and  high  demand  in  Athens  Ohio  and  other  communities.  Maya  Lin  pocketed  nearly  a  half  of  a  million  dollars  for  her  part  in  designing  this  useless  green  space  travesty.”  

www.suckypublicart.com  

Locals [Bad Design]!“It  will  be  some  kind  of  Disney  Land  fake  in  the  middle  of  town”  

-­‐Lawrence  Cutler  

“Don't  cut  down  trees  or  tear  up  grass  or  roll  away  rocks  that  are  rich  with  beauty  and  call  that  kind  of  environmental  savagery  ‘art.’”  

-­‐Penelope  Hope  

"We  owe  it  to  the  memory  of  Doris  Duke  to  enhance  the  park,  in  the  spirit  of  her  design,  and  NOT  redo  it  with  someone  else's  strange  and  meaningless  idea.”  

-­‐Ed  Paul  

Bad Idea!!Take a Stand!!

Be heard!Dec 14th 2011!