Celebrity Really Can Get You Anything
For years now I’ve heard of Brad Pitt’s interest in architecture and his friendship with Frank Gehry but I’ve always just dismissed it as a celebrity’s passing fancy. Well, I guess I was wrong. The Guardian reports that the unlikely pair will be collaborating on a restaurant and penthouse in Britain. Besides his interest in [...]
"Ah, it’s the fucking enemy."
BD has some kind words for Alsops newest – the Queen Mary Medical School Building in Whitechapel – but the architect doesn’t exactly return the favor. Alsop has found a subject that generates the sense of awe and puzzlement that many feel about his architecture. Art and science: for Alsop it could be a happy [...]
Whitney Plan B wins Approval
I actually like it better. The new entrance is more graceful and it reads as a clear part of the city fabric. I agree with Piano’s rationalization quote: “In some ways it will be even more surprising, what you see after the compression – to have a kind of expansion.” Although when you look at [...]
Chabon’s lost architect’s tale
Apparently, one of my favorite writers, Michael Chabon – author of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay – had at one point intended to write a book about an architect (among other things) From today’s Writer’s Almanac: He started working on his second novel. He had seen a picture [...]
Whitney readies plan B
Today is the Landmarks Preservation Commission hearing for the new Whitney Museum of American Art expansion. The expansion, designed by Renzo Piano, involves the controversial demolition of a two neighboring brownstones – one marked as a “contributing” building, the structure is “considered to have artistic, cultural or historic value in a designated historic district.” Fearing [...]
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