Say, remember when we had that thread about ugly buildings, and I brought up MIT’s Stata Center? Some architects defended it as origibnal, but I pointed out how there were rumors of persistent leaks.
Well, MIT is suing architect Gehry because of all those leaks and defects:
I have to admit that my objections don’t lie chiefly with these problems. I think the building wastes huge amounts of indoor space, and some of its conceits frankly scare me (there are places where almost horizontal glass acts as a roof. In California you might be able to do this. In Massachusetts we have heavy Ice and Snow that can accumulate on roofs.). They’ve already torn up the amphitheater that forms [part of the outside and are rebuilding it (I don’t know why). I’ve been to events at this building, and still don’t like it.
Gehry seems like a good designer but possibly not that bright. I’ve heard that the Concert Hall in LA, which is highly reflective in parts (and slightly less reflective in the others) would heat up the surrounding sidewalks on a sunny day to dangerous levels.
Like I said, I like his unique designs and I wish more architects would have the balls to build things that are- gasp- interesting, but you can’t forget the basics.
I agree with this completely except for the part about Gehry being a good designer.
IMHO, good design must be both beautiful and functional, or it’s just mental masturbation. There’s nothing wrong with mental masturbation, of course, that’s pretty much the genesis of all art. But a building must be lived and worked in, it must be snowed and rained upon and not fall down, it must be HVACed and entered and exited and so forth, and Mr. Gehry seems completely oblivious to this fact. Worse, his patrons continue to erect his ugly-as-a-baby-rhinocerous travesties and then act all surprised when water falls from the sky and the damn thing collapses.
According to the radio this morning, the fix to the amphitheater was because of cracking. I just moved to a new office near there, will have to check it out. The original had trees growing from some of the tiers, which always seemed a bit impractical.
I like the Stata Center to look at, and to walk around (except for the window boxes, not wild about that part of the design), but I’m not the one who has to work there or take care of it. I grew up in Seattle and didn’t start to develop a taste in architecture until I moved away. Everything there is so pragmatic, and dull. (At least it was, there’s a Gehry designed museum and a new library I’ll have to see next time I’m there.) I think the only way to create a masterpiece is to risk making an abomination. I’ve seen a city where no one takes that risk. I guess I just have an appreciation for when someone tries to do something interesting, even if it isn’t a complete success.
I was in the Stata Center shortly after it opened. It was a rainy day and the windows and sky lights were leaking like sieves. I thought that a building that ugly should at least be ultra functional. Apparently, I was wrong.
Gehry’s a charlatan and I predict that his aesthete won’t hold up any better in the long run than his buildings do, physically.
Having said that, though, the biggest scoundrels here are the executives and administrators at MIT, and presumably MIT’s Board of Directors, who are responsible for hiring that guy in the first place, and who approved his design and that inflated budget.
I absolutely love the aesthetics of the Stata Center, but I’d heard about the leaks. Yipes. I was working across the street while it was being built and watching it being put up was lots of fun. I just wish that it had been more carefully designed from a functional standpoint. Then someone else built a huge conventional rectangular building smack dab between my building and the Stata Center. I know which one I liked looking at more!
I was in the Stata center a bit after it opened, and was kind of struck by how shoddy the work was. For example, the fit and finish of the interior woodwork was pretty appalling. That’s never a good sign, as it seems to suggest that someone has run out of money and patience. I know that architect and construction firm are pointing fingers at each other, but I suspect that both share in the blame.
I’m actually okay with the design. I don’t love it, and don’t hate it, but appreciate the fact that it’s not in the same tedious idiom as so many other new buildings. As an aside, it’s interesting the degree to which Kendall Square has become the laboratory for modern architecture in the Boston area. It’s worth wandering around to have a look.
While I have no idea how long his buildings will stand up, I think the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain is absolutely fantastic and beautiful and will stand the test of time, or at least as long as the building stands.
The EMP is godawful. The library, by Koolhaas, is spectacular.
This much I agree with. You can’t achieve greatness without taking great risks. I just don’t see what risks Gehry is taking, by starting with conventional forms and then distorting them randomly. If you pick up a normal architectural diagram with silly putty and then stretch it in weird ways, you’re still starting with a normal design. If he’s taking any risk at all, it’s in changing that normal design by eliminating the things that make it work (proportion and flow, mostly), and hoping that new things will organically appear to make it work in a different way. But hope is not much of a strategy.
I work near the building, and it is both bizarre and ugly. Plus, because of the weird design, the building wastes huge amounts of interior room. An, the odd-angled dormers on the roof leak like sieves. It is a monstrosity that is both spacially inefficient , and uselss. There is a reason why most buildings have straight walls-curved walls are hard to build and finish, and restrict interior room. However, Gehry just designed it-his design was approved by somebody…who looks pretty foolish now!
Well, there’s the Genzyme building; which is supposed to be cutting-edge in terms of efficiency. And there’s the Stata Center, and that one right by Genzyme, with the funky awnings. Apart from those, there’s enough red bricks to build the Sphinx’s big brother.
I’ve heard that Kendall Square was going to be Mission Control for NASA. Then Kennedy was shot and it wound up in Houston.
