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June 11, 2008
CONTROVERSY SURROUNDS YET ANOTHER FRANK GEHRY PROJECT
LA Daily
by Matthew Fleischer
What would you call an expensive, widely opposed Frank Gehry project with a lavish budget that comes partly at the expense of education funding? Atlantic Yards? Think again.
First there was the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, then Grand Avenue, now yet another proposed Frank Gehry building has come under intense public scrutiny -- this time at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Hundreds of students and alumni gathered in the auditorium of the prestigious design school yesterday to question Art Center president Richard Koshalek about a proposed $50 million Gehry-made design research center and library.
During the course of the contentious two-hour meeting, several students made it clear they thought Koshalek was spending too much time and money plotting a signature building and not enough on their education. Art Center students have seen their tuition jump 5% to 6% annually for the past five years. They now pay roughly $15,000 per trimester in tuition.
...Opposition to the Gehry building, which had been simmering unspoken for quite some time, found public voice last month when Nathan Cook, a 26-year old Industrial Design major, wrote a post on his blog questioning the Koshalek administration's priorities. Cook was upset that though Art Center goes out of its way to brand itself a leader in sustainability, the campus has no recycling bins and its cafeteria continues to use Styrofoam plates and cups. After being told for more than a year that the school couldn't afford such amenities, Cook wondered openly on his blog how a school that paid $385,068 to Gehry Partners to design a new building, a figure he culled from 2005 public tax records, couldn't afford recycling bins and environmentally friendly kitchenware.
Sign the petition "calling for a moratorium on all new Gehry-related building expenses" by the Art Center College of Design.
Posted by eric at June 11, 2008 2:00 PM