9/11 Ground Zero: why has its rebirth turned sour?

An excellent article by The Observer's Rowan Moore describes the history, shamelessness, narcissism, and greed that has surrounded the World Trade Centre in New York since 2001. 

"In the years following 9/11, the event was honoured by a carnival of pretention and viciousness, as architects felt compelled – as there can be narcissism in healing – to put themselves at the centre of the stage cleared by the attacks. "We're going to crush his nuts," said one of another, while others preened and posed and drivelled about the fusion "of military and urban space" or new towers that would "kiss and touch and become one". They employed black propaganda, old boys' networks, emotional posturing and shameless spinning. At stake was the greatest commission in the world..."

Is it at all possible to deliver a nuanced and intact design outcome in such a tempestuous project environment, or can such a project only ever appeal to those focussed on the harnessing and exercise of power?  One thing is certain, assertiveness and self-delusion are essential character traits. I am no fan of the superlatives that litter Libeskind's architectural vocabulary. But the prize for the lamest architectural metaphor has to be Calatrava saying that the roof of his subway station: "would be like a dove released from the hands of a child".

EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

There are many astounding statistics about the Empire State Building, including that it required 57,000 tons of steel, 10 million bricks, 62,000 cubic yards of concrete and 67 elevators and at one point employed more than 3,400 workers (at the same time). But the one that stands out was that the building grew one story a day. Within 20 months of the signed contracts with the architects (Shreve, Lamb & Harmon), the Empire State Building was ready for tenants. "No comparable structure...has since matched that rate of ascent."

This extraordinary fact was attributed to the "harmonious combination...between owners, architects, and builder” by the company’s president, Paul Starrett. Something so simple and yet relatively straight-forward to achieve with the right level of consultation, competence, energy, mutual goodwill and trust.

From The New York Times: A View Inside King Kong's Perch by Edward Rothstein. 

PRECIOUS BLOOD

A story of architecture in the city; its place in the daily cycle of (sad and joyous) experience:

"Winnipeg’s pre-eminent architect Etienne Gaboury built the Provincial Remand Centre in 1994. His Precious Blood church (1969) was a high watermark in our city’s modernist design. Whenever Noam Gonick would walk by the Remand Centre on his way to the gym he’d came across girlfriends and family members of inmates standing across the street from the facility waving and gesticulating to their loved ones inside. Often the girls were underage and could not legally get inside to visit. With the structure’s glass architecture and the use of cell phones, intimate encounters were made possible. Love messages are often written in freshly fallen snow on the plaza in front of the courthouse that faces the prison’s windows. For a week Gonick and his crew staked out the site and spoke to many of these visitors, documenting their often-raucous semaphore and the silhouettes of the predominantly Native prisoners inside. "

Precious Blood from Noam Gonick on Vimeo.

OMA "Three in One" Lecture at the Berlage Institute

Rem Koolhaas talks about architectural practice, research and preservation. Tom Daniel pointed this out to me via twitter. I've been progressively watching it (in small doses) over the past week.

A few thoughts both for and against the arguments that he presents.

The ideas behind his exhibition Cronocaos on preservation I endorse (accidental preservation is the best, the kind of "un-manipulated memory" of the past as opposed to the idea of a reconstructed past becoming the future). 

But it seems childish to draw comparisons between the earning potential of stars ("star-architects earn less than pop stars and film stars...even Gehry and Foster").  Does anyone earn what these people earn? And for that matter, does anyone deserve to? 

He also suggests that the social turmoil brought on by debt in Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece places these countries in the same category as the turmoil in north Africa (what he curiously calls the "white" countries): diagrammed geographically it seems compelling but it is also naive and grotesque to suggest that the two situations are comparable. 

OMA "Three in One" - Lecture at the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam by Rem Koolhaas from OMA on Vimeo.

STEPHEN COLLIER ARCHITECTS have moved

STEPHEN COLLIER ARCHITECTS are happy to have moved to 106/ 46a Mcleay Street in Potts Point, New South Wales, after five years at the last address in Surry Hills. The phone and facsimile numbers remain the same. We look forward to welcoming you at the new office sometime soon.