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October 26, 2008
Architecture can focus on L.A.'s shared spaces
Los Angeles Times
by Christopher Hawthorne
The Architecture Critic for the Los Angeles Times looks at how the current economic situation spells the end of the mega project and the beginning of another direction for architecture. Atlantic Yards is included in the list of endangered projects.
For the last several years, conventional wisdom has been gathering behind the idea that the world's most innovative architectural projects would also, increasingly, be among the very biggest. Norman Foster in Moscow. Rem Koolhaas in Beijing. Frank Gehry on Grand Avenue and at the Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn.
But a one-two punch from the faltering economy and the credit crisis is threatening to bring XL architecture to its knees, perhaps putting an end to the age of the mega-project before it ever really got going. Gehry will be lucky if his huge projects are built in piecemeal, slimmed-down form. China seems unlikely in the near term to produce a new crop of buildings to rival its 2008 Olympics class. Last week, Bloomberg News reported that Dubai was scrambling to line up fresh loans to keep its building spree from collapsing. If the leading member of the United Arab Emirates is feeling cash-strapped, it's hard to see the picture looking rosy any time soon.
Posted by steve at October 26, 2008 7:32 AM