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June 6, 2006
Gutterland ConflictWatch™: Who Loves Piano, Baby?
Gutter posts a reader's commentary on Nicky O's weekend "meditation" on the relationship between big developers and starchitects, featuring Forest City Ratner and architects Frank Gehry and Renzo Piano.
Nicolai writes: "Neither the Beekman nor the Times tower can be considered revolutionary work for Mr. Gehry or Mr. Piano. But they do send a message that serious design can emerge from collaborations with mainstream developers."
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Renzo Piano is not a tall building architect, and he could no more have won this tall building commission without FXFowle than Frank Gehry could have won it without his own competition partner, David Childs of SOM.
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Dreamers? Bring them on. But if they're going to design a tall building, they had better understand that a tall building is a different sort of machine than a museum is, and they had better bloody well have the design chops to back up that understanding in the real world. Whether or not the Times, through its critic, wishes to admit this in print, the paper understood it well enough in practice to demand that Piano be paired with an architect who could "get things done." Indeed, this -- not roof gardens or ceramic tubes -- is where "serious design" begins.
Posted by lumi at June 6, 2006 7:49 AM