Mel ARCHITECTSNEWSPAPER 12 7.13.2004 NEW YORK ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN WWW.ARCHPAPER.COM $3.95 NEW YORK TIMES NAMES CO NEW ARCHITECTURE CRITIC h- 04 Z DOWNTOWN PARKS LU Muschamp Out, TH GET BOOST Ouroussoff In O 05 MUSEUMS Following quickly on rumors that BULK UP The New York TTmes'venerable—and much-maligned—architecture critic, Herbert Muschamp, would step down, the paper has already quietly installed his INVISIBLE successor, Nicolai Ouroussoff, critic for MEMORIAL: The Los Angeles Times and a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist. WHAT HAPPENED Ouroussoff's selection, confirmed by TO THE AFRICAN /VVTculture editor Jonathan Landman, iser + Umemoto's proposal BURIAL GROUND? came as little surprise to observers, a highway interchange who predicted that Muschamp would be REVIEWS allowed to influence the selection of his PARTICIPANTS IN 9'" VENICE ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE ANNOUNCED PROTEST successor, a privilege said to have been CLASSIFIEDS granted to both of his predecessors. When Kurt Forster, director of the 9th and graphic design. Dedicated to explor• Ouroussoff is widely seen as "Muschamp- International Architecture Exhibition of ing "the fundamental changes underway lite," with a comparable focus on the the Venice Biennale (September 12 through in contemporary architecture, both in position of architecture within aesthetic, November 7), settled on Metamorph as theory and practice, and in the use of WAVERLY THEATER social, and political currents, rather than this year's theme, it was perhaps natural new building technologies," the exhibition REOPENS AS IFC CENTER the nuts and bolts of a building's design that he would select one of the leading addresses the profession's increasing and construction. "He's similar to Herbert proponents of the blob movement. dependence on multidisciplinary research in that there's continued on page 2 Asymptote, to guide the event's exhibition on everything from continued on page 5 COMING SOON CHICAGO HOSTS 2004 CONVENTION, SHOWS OFF NEW ARCHITECTURE AIA CONVENES, After being shuttered for three years, the 67-year-old Waverly Theater on Sixth Gehry's bandsheli and bridge GOES Avenue in Greenwich Village will reopen as the Independent Film Channel (IFC) Center at the end of this year. The art deco FOUR YEARS LATE, CHICAGO'S SUPER-SIZED PARK FINALLY OPENS GREEN theater established a cult following in its later years for showing independent This year s AIA National Convention, held last films, including midnight showings of Post-Millennium Park month, was noticeably low on star power. The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The Gold Medal presentation was given However, its programming of marginal The ambitious Millennium an addition to the 319-acre northwestern tip of Grant posthumously to Samuel Mockbee. Keynote titles, combined with the general degra• Park has brought top lakefront Grant Park in Park, into a new arts park. speakers included writers Erik Larson, author dation of the block (now crowded with designers and artists to 1998, but an ever-growing British sculptor Anish of Tile Devil in the White City, Virginia Postrel, tattoo parlors and sex shops), led to the Windy City while raising list of programming Kapoor, Spanish artist a New York Times economics reporter and the theater's closing in 2001. the perennial question of requirements, planning Jaume Plensa, Seattle- autlior of The Substance of Style, and Helmut New York-based Bogdanow Partners howto balance public and concerns, and designers based landscape architect Jahn, the closest thing to a "starchitect" at the Architects is behind the face-lift, which private financing for civic resulted in a total budget Kathryn Gustafson, and convention. "It was much more of a roU-up- re-skins the original fapade with expanded amenities. Mayor Richard of $475 million, and the Dutch planting designer your-sleeves kind of year," said Rick Bell, metal sheeting and refurbishes its old M. Daley proposed the expansion of the project Piet Oudolf are just a few executive director of AIA-New York. marquee. "The [metal] strips are evoca• $150 million, 16-acre park to transform a sunken rail of the participating artists, The real star was Chicago, the host city, tive of a film reel in its linear form," said for downtown Chicago as yard, 24.5 acres on the continued on page 7 which is seeing a major influx of signature lighting designer Leni Schwendinger, buildings, including the hotly debated Soldier who collaborated on the project. Field renovation by Wood + Zapata, new "The colors change directionality just buildings at Illinois Institute of Technology as film moves through a projector." by OMA and Murphy Jahn, and a new educa• The designers maintained the grand tional building at the University of Chicago by feeling of the original two screening Rafael Viiioly. Millennium Park was nearing rooms by retaining their high ceilings. completion and attendees could see much of A new, third screening room occupies Frank Gehry's new band shell for the Grant an adjacent building which was claimed Park Music Festival through the chain link for the theater's expansion. Ttie annex fence, as well as glimpse the monumental also houses a film editing facility and sculptures and gardens continued on page 2 a cafe/bar. PAULA LEHMAN 00 o THE ARCHITECT'S NEWSPAPER JULY 13. 2004 CO With all the work underway to reshape and improve Lower continued from front page an emphasis Diana Darling on o Manhattan, we thought it was an opportune moment to revisit an on form and aesthetics and buildings as aesthetic expressions," said Martin Cathy Lang Ho I- almost-forgotten project on Duane Street, near Broadway—^just a Pedersen, executive editor of Metropolis. William Menking cobblestone's toss from City Hall. The site is an empty fenced-in lot, M "He doesn't seem to write about the with a sign indicating it's the future home of the African Burial insides of buildings as much." Martin Perrin LU Ground (ABG) Memorial. As Deborah Grossberg reminds us in But others see a contrast between the her feature story (page 8), the project was front-page news when critics. Sylvia Lavin, chair of the architec• Jeanne Verdoux construction crews unearthed the 18th-century burial ground ture department at UCLA, says that while while doing site work for a new federal building for the U.S. General Muschamp is more of a "cultural writer Deborah Grossberg Services Administration (GSA) in 1991. Soon thereafter, as a result who has a particular interest in architec• James Way ture," Ouroussoff, who has been with of pressure from grassroots activists, the GSA signed an agreement the LATsince 1996, is more of a tradition• Jonathan Chaffin with the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and the New al critic. "Herbert tries to show how archi• York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) to construct tecture operates in the cultural sphere Paula Lehman a memorial on the site. In 1995 the GSA completed its building on and how it interacts as an equal. Nicolai a portion of the site, but it did not launch a memorial competition sees architecture as a specific case, Lori Macdonald which has a particular responsibility to, until two years later By the end of 1998, the GSA had 61 submissions and a specific bearing on, social and from which to choose but another four years would pass before it political issues." Keith James named five finalists. The finalists presented their designs for public Whatever the case, Muschamp and Ouroussoff are linked by more than criti• Paul Beatty review for the first time last month. cal affinities. Ouroussoff, who majored Since the ABG Memorial began, our expectations of the memorial- in Russian studies at Georgetown and PHILIPPE BARRIERE/ARIC CHEN/ building process have grown considerably more sophisticated. later received an M.A. in architecture MURRAY FRASER/RICHARD INGERSOLL / Unfortunately, the lessons of the Oklahoma City and World Trade from Columbia, is a personal friend JOE KERR/LIANE LEFAIVRE/JAMES PETO/ of Muschamp; the elder critic is said to LUIGI PRESTINENZA PUGLISI/KESTER RATTENBURY/ Center memorials can't be retroactively applied to this case. At this have even helped him get the LAT\ob. D.GRAHAME SHANE/PETER SLATIN / point, the most important thing is that the ABG Memorial be carried GWEN WRIGHT / ANDREW YANG / PETER 2ELLNER "He's a Herbert protege," says Pedersen. on, as smoothly and transparently as possible. The GSA has announced While his personal connections to the unlikely completion date of Fall 2005. Let's see what happens. Muschamp should have no bearing on PAOLA ANTONELLI/RAUL A. BARRENECHE/ whether Ouroussoff will succeed as the M. CHRISTINE BOYER/PETER COOK/ The LPC's role in this project has been slight, though we touch on WHITNEY COX/ODILE DECO/TOM HANRAHAN / its responsibilities in two other articles—"More than Metal" (page 3), A/VTcritic, some people are grumbling SARAH HERDA/CRAIG KONYK/JAYNE MERKEL/ about an unresolved violation in the recently landmarked that his selection represents a failure by LISA NAFTOLIN/SIGNE NIELSEN / the paper to address shortcomings in its JOAN OCKMAN / HANS ULRICH OBRIST/ Gansevoort Market Historic District, and our Protest column (page architectural coverage. In the December KYONG PARK/ANNE RIESELBACH/ TERENCE RILEY/KEN SAYLOR / MICHAEL SORKIN 14) which recounts the failed attempt to preserve the Feigen Gallery, 2002 issue of Architectural Record, the designed in 1969 by Hans Hollein. magazine's editor, Robert Ivy, called on GENERAL INFORMATION: INF09ARCHPAPIR.COM The Feigen Gallery is just over 30 years old and thus eligible for the /VVTto add a second critic to its EDITORIAL: EDITOR®ARCHPAPER.COM architectural coverage. DIARY: DIARYdiARCHPAPER.COM landmark designation, but it was brought to the LPC's attention too Ivy said he is hopeful that the A/VTwill ADVERTISING: SALESlSiARCHPAPER.COM SUBSCRIPTION: SUBSCRIBE(»ARCHPAPER.COM late to be saved.