Ada Louise Huxtable Meanders in Minneapolis

UPDATE: For Huxtable’s response, go here.
With Ada Louise Huxtable‘s astute appraisal of four major recent architectural projects, the Wall Street Journal has now triple-teamed Minneapolis: Joel Henning last year on Herzog & de Meuron‘s addition for the Walker Art Center; Lee Rosenbaum (aka CultureGrrl) last July (here and here) on Michael Graves‘ expansion of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (also touching on Jean Nouvel‘s Guthrie Theater and Cesar Pelli‘s Central Library), and now the doyenne of architecture criticism, casting her well-practiced eye and polished prose on all four.
She reserves highest praise for what I had liked least—the Nouvel. But who’s to argue? She describes it so brilliantly and lovingly that I believe (almost) that she “gets it” and I don’t. In CultureGrrl last July, I wrote:
Instead of feeling the anticipatory glow of a joyous night at the theater, you prowl the dark lobbies and corridors (with slit-like or oddly tinted windows interfering with your view) feeling like you’ve been conscripted as an extra in a film noir (emphasis on noir). Adding to this impression are the ghostly, barely perceptible images of past Guthrie performances, imprinted on the surrounding walls.
To Ada Louise, all this was just part of the fun:
The building is disco dark from go. Strategic lighting actually lights nothing; this is a netherworld of glowing color and tinted glass. Ghostly scenes of plays and actors from the theater’s history, faintly silk-screened on the walls, turn the unrelenting darkness into a magic show. The climactic view at the end of the cantilevered bridge is seen through a blue glass window that upstages nature to make the landscape an architectural accessory. A yellow glass façade gives a relentlessly jaundiced hue to a top floor lobby and the world outside. There is a very large, stygian café….
Of all the hot and cold, promising and disappointing, much praised but consistently troubling Nouvel buildings, this is by far the most skillful and successful design. And since his forte is theatricality, not subtlety, this is the place where he has really got it right.
Well, maybe. But I’m really curious to know what she thinks of Diller Scofidio + Renfro‘s new Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, for which my review will soon appear in the WSJ. I’ll let you know when it’s out.
Meanwhile, to read Huxtable, go here if you subscribe to the online WSJ. Otherwise, pick up a copy today, and go to Page D8.