THE ARCHITECTSNEWSPAPER 11.10.2003 NEW YORK ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN WWW.ARCHPAPER.COM $3.95 CO 08 KURT FORSTER I— z MEATPACKING HARLEM'S NAMED CURATOR LJJ DISTRICT: AN OF 2004 VENICE ARCHITECTURAL FIRST o HOTBED o BIENNALE 09 SKYSCRAP WILL THE AIA'S Kurt Forster has been named curator of NEW CENTER BE the 9"' Venice Architecture Biennale. The Swiss-born critic and historian has been ITS SAVIOR? living in Italy since 2002, though for the past year has been teaching at the Bauhaus TT Universital in Weimar where he holds the BLOBS FIND Walter Gropius Professorship. His recent THEIR WAY (BACK) curatorial projects include an exhibition TO EUROPE on Carlo Scarpa for the Palladio Center, held in Verona and Vicenza in 2000; and a ZAHA'S OUT AND retrospective on Her/.og 8( de Meuron at COLUMBIA STILL the Canadian Center for Architecture in SEARCHING 2002, where he served continued on page 4 Harlem's first skyscraper, the 380-foot-tall building will in glass. Despite the appar• HOLL DESIGN CITED AS POSSIBLE FACTOR IN MUSEUM'S FAILURE designed by Enrique Norten be die tallest in Harlem when ent incongruity of the pro• of" TEN Arquitectos, is racing completed in late 2005. ject's scale and materials to toward a January 2004 The project's developer, its context, the architect was groundbreaking. Dubbed Michael Caridi, selected inspired by Harlem's lively BELLEVUE BELLY UP Harlem Park, the project's Norten from a pool of five street culture to enclose t he When the Bellevue Art Museum (BAM) moved into its new, $23 million Steven Holl-designed approval process has been architects recommended ground floor in sliding glass facility in 2001, it was a watershed moment in the museum's history. Dramatically increasing expedited by the City by City Planning officials, panels, aimed at creating an programming opportunities—as well as operational costs—the building was heralded as a gem Planning Department as attracted by what he environment more akin to in the landscape of Bellevue, Washington, which had often been thought of as second citizen to part of its 125"' Street describes as "his ability to a marketplace than a mall. adjacent cities Seattle and Tacoma. It came as a surprise then, when the museum announced Corridor Initiative, a new think originally about Moreover, according to in September that it would be shutting its doors temporarily, letting go all but three of its thirty program geared toward Harlem's particular archi• Caridi, the hotel, conference staff members. developing a planning tectural condition." But center, and banquet hall will "The decision to close the museum was a preemptive strike," says Barbara Jirsa, a be the only such facilities framework for Harlem's Nellie Hester Bailey of the spokesperson for the museum. Cutbacks in funding—as well as the new realities of operating in Harlem, allowing local primary thoroughfare. Harlem Tenants Council a facility three times as large as its former home, in a shopping center—forced the museum's worries that the project will companies to congregate The building site, at the board to realize that continuing to operate would put the museum In a serious deficit." It took "open the floodgates of on their home turf and corner of 125"' Street and a lot of courage to own up to the fact that we weren't hitting our mark," says Jirsa. development," threatening increasing opportunities Park Avenue, is now home Many critics cite the building's architecture as a factor in the museum's continued on page 5 to displace small businesses for tourism. to a parking lot owned by and low-income tenants. the New York College of Caridi also estimates that Podiatric Medicine. Pending Norten, who has offices the complex will create a site rezoning to allow for in Mexico City and New between 1.800 and 2,000 new commercial uses, the project York, insists that the build• jobs. However, community wiU accommodate a mix of ing will be integrated with activists arc skeptical about tenants, including a Marriott its environment, both the quality of these jobs. hotel, the Podiatric College, culturally and economically. I larlem is just the latest in business offices, and retail His design consists of a two- the ongoing urban gentrifi- outlets. Located in a neigh• story street-level podium cation .saga; the location borhood of mostly low- to supporting a massive 14- might be different, but the medium-rise residential story cube and a slender issues are the same. and commercial structures. 30-story tower, all sheathed DEBORAH GROSSBERG THE ARCHITECT'S NEWSPAPER. LLC. PRSRT STD P.O. BOX 937, NEW YORK, NY 10013 U.S. POSTAGE PAID NEW YORK. NY PERMIT NO. 9313 CO CM 3 O LLI THE ARCHITECT'S NEWSPAPER VOLUME 01 ISSUE 01 NOVEMBER 03 Herbert Muschamp's iron grip at PUBLISHER CO The media coverage of the architectural and urban reconstruction LiJ the NYTmay be slipping, and it Diana Darling or of the World Trade Center site has been extraordinary. Barely a EDITORS o seems to be putting him on edge. William Menking »- day passes that a design-related WTC story does not appear in a The paper's flamboyant architec• Cathy Lang Ho M local newspaper, magazine, or on TV—about Lower Manhattan ture critic-who's been criticized for Inconsistent coverage that's EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS planning sessions, transportation, housing, environmental issues, Deborah Grossberg LU too focused on personality (his James Way and more. These stories are compelling reading for those interested CL own, that is)-is apparently upset ART DIRECTOR in how architecture gets built and a city takes shape, but they also O at the number of other writers Martin Perrin highlight how little other architecture news is reported in general. that Arts & Leisure editor JodI ADVERTISING SALES The Architect's Newspaper emerged in part, out of frustration Kantor has allowed onto his turf Jonathan Chaffin since taking over the Sunday sec• TECHNICAL CONSULTANT that so many important architecture and design stories never find LU tion in March. Notably, eyebrows > Keith James a place in the news dailies, the city weeklies, or design monthlies. < were raised when Philip Nobel's WEB MASTER With a tabloid format, a New York region focus, and a biweekly LU August 31 article about the rede• Craig Bachellier publication schedule, The Architect's Newspaper aims to address velopment of the WTC site was placed head-to-head against one CONTRIBUTORS the immediate interests and concerns of practitioners in one of the PHILIP BARRIER / ARIC CHEN / by Muschamp, and rumors contin• MURRAY ERASER / RICHARD INGERSOLL / most vibrant, creative design communities in the world. Of course, ue to circulate about the latter's JOE KERR/DANE LEFAIVRE / JAMES PETO/ LUIGI PRESTINENZA PUGLISI/ this community is not easy to pin down. But news is for everyone. attempts to preempt stories by D. GRAHAM SHANE/PETER ZELLNER And as other industries clearly understand, a timely, reliable others. "I don't think he's happy there," says a Muschamp friend, EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD news source can be crucial to business as well as foster a healthy "and it has to do with all the PAOLA ANTONELLI/RAUL A.BARRENECHE sense of community and competition. MICHAEL BELL/M.CHRISTINE BOYER turmoil with [Kantor]." PETER COOK/WHITNEY COX/ODILE DECO/ We'll bring you news, big and small, with a catholic sensibility TOM HANRAHAN/SARAH HERDA/CRAIG KONYK/ This week Kazuyo Sejima will JAYNE MERKEL/LISA NAFTOLIN / SIGNE NIELSON/ about what architects and designers might consider newsworthy formally unveil her plan, with JOAN OCKMAN/HANS ULRICH OBRIST / (real estate, landscape, preservation, art, film, ecology, law?). SANAA partner Ryue Nishizawa, KYONG PARK/ANN RIESELBACH / TERENCE RILEY/ KEN SAYLOR/MICHAEL SORKIN We'll keep you up to date on important building projects, both for a new building for the New Museum. Lucky for her the job GENERAL INFORMATION: INFOdiARCHPAPER.COM in the works and on the ground. Profiles of local practices, is near SOHO. "She's a complete EDITORIAL: EDIT0R8PARCHPAPER.COM gossip, and reviews will also be staples. Our column Shoptalk is ADVERTISING: [email protected] shopaholic," sighs an associate SUBSCRIPTION: [email protected] devoted to voices from the field, while Diary offers the most of the diminutive designer. comprehensive listing of design-related events in the region. VOLUME 01. ISSUt 01. NOVCMBER 10, Z003 Michael Sorkin's new World Trade THE ARCHITECTS NCWSPAPCO IS PUBLISHED ZO TIMES A VEAR, BV THE ARCHITECT'S NEWSPAPER. LLC, P.O. BOX 937, NEW YORK, NY lOOU. This debut issue is part of our soft launch, meant to elicit your Center book. Starting from Zero, PRCSORT'STANDARO POSTAGE PAID IN HEW YORK, NY. POSTMASTER^ SEND ADDRESS CHANSES TO: THE ARCHITECT S NEWSPAPER, CIRCULATION responses. TeU us what you think. January marks our official consistently misspells Daniel DEPARTMENT, P.O. BOX 937. NEW .'ORK. NY 10013. FOR SUBSCRIBER SERVICE: CALL 212-996-0630. FAX 212-966-0633. S3.9S A COPY, Libeskind's name as "Liebeskind" $39.00 ONE YEAR, INTERNATIONAL SM9.00 ONE YEAR, INSTITUTIONAL launch, and the birth, we hope, of a platform for information, $179.00 ONE YEAH. ENTIRE CONTENTS COPYRIGHT Z003 BY THE (would that mean "love child" in ARCHITECTS NEWSPAPER, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. dialogue, and debate, WILLIAM MENKING AND CATHY LANG HO German?). Sorkin chalks it up to "haste," though some have spec• ulated the error was on purpose... Just months after his midtown respectively. Interestingly, the demolition of disruptive than cut-and-cover excavation. The design showroom was renovated the noisy Els was approved with the under• $3.55 billion project remains uncontracted, 2^' AVENUE by Michael GabellinI, DDC owner standing that the construction of the 2"" though according to the MTA website," MTA Nadir Hakakian was seen in SOHO Avenue subway was imminent.