April 3, 2005 at 3:51 pm · Filed under Architecture, Blog: Spring 05
The Carpenter Center at Harvard University. Le Corbusier’s only building in North America and one of the last to be completed in his lifetime. A collection of forms that read like a summation of the architect’s work–reinforced concrete, pilotis elevating a large mass off the ground, the ondulatoires from La Tourette, the brises soleils from the Marseille unite d’habitation, and the original Five Points from the 1920s articulated in a new way. Imagine the meeting of the minds to create the Philips Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair–Le Corbusier, who was employing Iannis Xenakis at the time, and Edgard Varese, who composed his Poeme Electronique for the installation.
January 27, 2005 at 2:21 pm · Filed under Architecture, Blog: Winter 04
There was bad news for Eric Owen Moss on Wednesday. The Los Angeles architect, who in 2001 won a competition to redesign the Queens Museum of Art, found out that he was out of a job. While we may never know exactly why the museum chose to cancel Mr. Moss’ project–already three years in the works—it probably had something to do with the change in the museum’s administration. The new suits came in with a different set of priorities than their predescesors, didn’t see eye to eye Mr. Moss’ original plan, and instead of attempting to rectify the situation with the architect—who was more than willing to compromise on the aspects of design in question—decided to seek a new architectural direction from a preapproved list of eight firms.
It’s too bad that the Queens Museum of Art won’t be able to boast the work of a true architectural visionary, a man whose importance is often discussed in the company of names like Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Richard Meier, and Frank Gehry. Instead, just like Daniel Libeskind and the World Trade Center site, artistic vision is supplanted by a political agenda. At least that never happens in music.
