Shocking, just shocking...

[jducoeur]

The news of the day is that MIT is suing architect Frank Gehry, because -- shock, surprise -- it turns out that Stada Center is badly designed. I could have told them that years ago.

Yes, yes -- the problem isn't that the building is ugly, it's that it is actually disfunctional. But y'know, those aren't unrelated. The rules of architecture were developed for good reason, and casting them (not to mention common sense) aside in the name of Art is always a bit dangerous...

Comments

[eclecticmagpie.livejournal.com]

I disagree that it's ugly. I like the exterior from several, though not all, angles (though I thought it looked better before it was finished!), and I like the main lobby "street" area a lot. On the other hand, I have heard nothing but complaints from the folks who have to work in it, and some of them are bizarre -- like offices 10' x 10' with no closets and a 20' ceiling, in which they are told they should build lofts for storage.

I have no idea why he (reportedly) refused to put in drainage and expansion joints in the amphitheatre. But it has little or nothing to do with the appearance.

[vairavi.livejournal.com]

I am of the extremely unpopular (at my school) opinion that architects should be architects: If they want to be artists they should take up sculpture.
Gehry makes semi-habitable sculptures. One wonders if he should just learn to work in clay.

[yakshaver.livejournal.com]

Friends who have to work in there have been pissed off at Gehry for years. I supposed one of the sideways skylights must have leaked on someone important, finally.

[dagonell.livejournal.com]

Try visiting the University of Buffalo sometime. It was designed shortly after the Berkeley riots. It is "riot-resistant". It is not only NOT "disabled accessible", it is actively "disabled hostile"! If it's possible for a door to open the wrong way, it does. The stair widths and heights were specifically designed to be awkward to prevent mobs from storming upstairs. For someone on crutches, it's a nightmare! There have been changes since, like making curb cuts, but it's like trying to put a bandage on sucking chest wound, it's just not enough.
-- Dagonell

The Emperor Has No Clothes

[jtdiii.livejournal.com]

Before there was Gehry, there was I.M. Pei. He was the talk of the architectural world, all sorts of his buildings were built because they were pretty and sweeping in scale.

No one thought to ask the future users of the buildings about how functional they would be. Triangular classrooms with no windows, wind tunnels that forced exterior doors shut, or open, leaks or simple cost overruns were all ignored by the people funding the projects.

Like Pei, Gehry has simply found a way to sell his magnificent clothes to a set of donors and administrators who are so spellbound by his visions that they never talk to the ultimate users until it is too late.

[querldox.livejournal.com]

Got a tour of Stada by a grad student back in '04 shortly after it opened. After the tour was finished, I told her I'd come to two conclusions;

1) You guys didn't get design approval did you?

2) Gehry apparently had never worked in an office in his life.

I recall it was full of ridiculous things such as grad student offices being under heavily trafficed overhead walkways, causing problems both with noise from people walking and talking and a sense of paranoia since you'd never know when someone might be looking down at you. But the kicker was a room with very high ceilings and odd strips of blue fabric, not in sync with the overall design, going from ceiling to floor.

I was told that this was "the room that makes people sick". Something about the visual cues in the room caused pretty much anyone in it for more than 10-15 minutes to get nauseous. The fabric strips were an attempt to fix it. Admittedly, it was a conference room, and there was a certain appeal to a conference room where no meeting could last more than 10 minutes, but still...

[rosinavs.livejournal.com]

The thing is, this isn't even one of his prettier buildings.

[cheshyre]

didn't the building also have problems with disabled accessibility, too, which had to be kludged around?

[corwyn-ap.livejournal.com]

Gehry might have a valid defense in "I thought that was what you wanted" Any judge looking at the rest of MIT architecture might well agree. Full disclosure: My Grandfather was an architecture professor at MIT and designed many of their buildings.

[umbran.livejournal.com]

The news of the day is that MIT is suing architect Frank Gehry, because -- shock, surprise -- it turns out that Stada Center is badly designed.

Well, first off, it is the Stata Center.

The shock and surprise is not that the thing is badly designed. I am far more shocked that the Institute didn't get such a design properly reviewed before accepting it. Rather surprised that they think they can sue over it now, when the flaws are probably quite obvious to any structural engineer who looked over the plans.

Makes me wish I knew the history there...

Masonry?

[oakleaf-mirror.livejournal.com]

I'm curious about why you tagged this post Masonry? Is that in the sense of piling stones together to build structures as it relates to architecture, or (as I believe you're generally used it) relating to Freemasonry? If the latter, what's the relevance? Is Gehry a Mason?

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

Oh, did it turn out that the Great Old Ones escaped from the basement? (I always figured that the only reason for such extreme non-Euclidean geometry was in order to imprison Lovecraftian horrors.)

[dlevey.livejournal.com]

In an amusing continuation to this story, you may or may not know that my company has had our annual meeting in some interesting locations. This year, most of the meeting will take place in Barcelona. But first, we're making a stop in Bilbao - to see Gehry's Guggenheim. I'll take pictures, if they'll let me.

Frabjous Vindication

[dryfoo.livejournal.com]

I am just frabjous over this news, in a schadenfreudey kind of way. Some of you know that I have ranted against this execrable pile since it was heaped together (I refuse to say "built"). The architecture of Sweethaven, that ramshackle burg in Altman's movie Popeye, ready to slide down the hills and tumble into the surf at any moment, is sturdier and more attractive that this hyper-pricey piece of poop. That Gehry would actually allow someone to put that design into execution, and worse to accept payment for it, shows that he has not got the moral or aesthetic kishkes to go hang himself in remorse. One can only hope that we've seen the end of any fad for buildings that look like they already begun to collapse. The emperor has neither clothes nor any place to change into them.