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Camp into Architecture into . . .

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Posted By Brian Costello on 12/10/2008



Brad Cloepfil’s controversial design for New York City’s Museum of Arts and Design has been kicked back and forth by architecture critics and purists like a soccer ball flicked around in a high scoring Brazilian match.

He was tasked with re-thinking and re-designing a building—the long since dissolved Huntington Hartford’s Gallery of Modern Art—into an entirely new space for an entirely new organization.

via Wall Street Journal
Brad Cloepfil’s Museum of Art and Design

Altering any of original building’s design by Edward Durrell Stone was decried by purists and preservationists as an act of blasphemy and, as a result, Cloepfil’s new design had a hard time defining itself beyond the shadow of the previous occupant of 2 Columbus Circle to say nothing of the debate over whether Stone’s original design was even worth preserving.

Edward Durrell Stone’s Gallery of Modern Art

The ever illustrious architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable writes in today’s Wall Street Journal, however, that

. . . criticism of the structure has been alarmingly out of proportion and flagrantly out of control. The unreasoning rejection of the solution carried over into a reluctance, or inability, to see anything good about the result. This is a thoughtful and skillful, if imperfect conversion, with the enormous added value of an inviting new cultural facility as part of the handsomely upgraded landscaping and glossily rebuilt commercial mix of a reborn Columbus Circle. The ghosts of Araby still linger in the lollipop structural supports of the ground floor, and the ‘60s glitter alluringly in the perfectly restored auditorium. The custom-crafted iridescent white ceramic tiles of the façade change gently with the light. The building has presence, not prettiness; it has acquired form and focus. Mr. Cloepfil has turned camp into architecture.

. . . Too bad the unforgiving opposition can’t enjoy it.

While she gets persnickety about a picture window on the restaurant level, Huxtable gives some much needed perspective on not just this building, but on the changing nature of historic buildings in general. It is a fascinating read.

It reminds me of Stewart Brand’s excellent _How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built. Brand—the longtime futurist, educator, and writer—talks about the ever malleable character of a building as it passes through time. It is one of those books that totally challenged my perception of architecture and space. With phrases like “Function reforms form, perpetually,” Brand seems to attack the very idea of predetermined design.

The Darwinian mechanism of vary-and-select, vary-and-select has one enormous difference from the process of design. It operates by hindsight rather than foresight. Evolution is always away from known problems rather than toward imagined goals. It doesn’t seek to maximize theoretical fitness; it minimizes experienced unfitness. Hindsight is better than foresight. That’s why evolutionary forms such as vernacular building types always work better than visionary designs such as geodesic domes. They grow from experience rather than from somebody’s forehead.

The thing of it is, I like the visionary geodesic dome. I like the visionary. People need to think creatively about space and how and why it works. And yet, while I am eager to walk through Cloepfil’s new space, I can’t help but wonder if, in thirty to forty years, will there suddenly be a need to change MAD’s current elegant design into condos? A daycare? A jetpack landing pad? Will this building be able to learn?

Addendum: Brand’s How Buildings Learn book was turned into a 6-part series by the BBC with music by Brian Eno. He recently added the whole thing up on Google Video. As he cheekily says in the comments about the series, “Most of the 27 reviews on Amazon treat it as a book about system and software design, which tells me that architects are not as alert as computer people. But I knew that; that’s part of why I wrote the book.”

26 Comments

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