Good morning, architects. Yesterday, a friend and I got to G-chatting about the new Herzog and de Meuron design for the Parrish Art Museum, which Gallerist NY previews here. The building, which opens in the Hamptons on Nov. 10, is an absurdist over-extension of a regional typology that has, for the most part, disappeared from that part of New York: the barn. The Hamptons has no lack of extravagant buildings set in isolation on large tracts of land, so in that way, Herzog and de Meuron play to type with the design. My friend and I took the conversation to Twitter, where Paul Schmelzer, the web editor for the Walker Art Center, suggested that the design reminded him of a very different typology. The image above is the view of the Parrish Art Museum from a Google satellite, a picture taken presumably while the museum was still under construction; from this perspective, the building's obstinate isolation is its defining feature.
ROOM FOR DEBATE. No one in the audience at last night's town hall debate thought to ask President Barack Obama or Governor Mitt Romney any questions about housing or design, so the differences between the candidates' positions as they relate to architecture, engineering, and construction remain a mystery. For clarification on how the election affects architects, refer back to ARCHITECT's debate primer by The American Prospect's Jamelle Bouie and The Washington Examiner's Philip Klein. Those writers continue the debate here and here.
POWER VS. CRITICS.Chicago Magazine is bullish on the prospects of preservation for the Bertrand Goldberg–designed Prentice Women's Hospital. "Northwestern may have the power and the money in the battle over Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice Hospital, but that will buy you only so much," Whet Moser writes. "The preservationists have on their side a host of prominent architects and the support of local architecture critics..." Criticism matters more than power and money. That is an adorable view!
VIVA CUBA. Henry Grabar writes up the debate over Cuba's National Art Schools, a subject that ARCHITECT's Lindsey M. Roberts has explored at length (more here). Grabar writes up the revolutionary context: "But like so much of the Cuban revolutionary vision, it [the project] turned sour," he writes. "The designers were accused of invoking primitive forms that recalled the Capitalist past. The aesthetic of the revolution turned toward Soviet-style functionalism, and away from the inventive, experimental forms that had inspired the young architects."
...AND REMAINDERS. A book examines Japanese layering and Kengo Kuma's architecture... AZC designs a trampoline bridge for the Seine... Olin Landscape Architects is staffed with hackers, apparently... Stanton Williams's Alan Stanton talks about winning the Stirling Prize.
