My Article on the Boston ICA in Today’s WSJ—Part II

(Part I is here.)
It could be that the husband-wife duo of Ms. Diller and Ricardo Scofidio were chastened by being chosen: “We’re intensely interested in the museum as an institution — what it means,” Ms. Diller noted. “As artists, we intervened in that system, sometimes aggressively. All of a sudden, we’re asked to define that wall entirely. This is a time when someone like Jill [Medvedow, the ICA’s director] gets a chance to select people like us, who are normally thought of as dissidents in architecture. So times have changed.”
The question is whether famously tradition-bound Boston has changed enough for the ICA to attract its projected 200,000 annual visitors. When Bostonians encounter cutting-edge art, their “perennial” reaction, according to Ms. Medvedow, is: “I don’t get it.” Similarly, Ms. Diller noted: “It remains to be seen how a museum like this will take in Boston….I think that on both Jill’s part and our part, we feel an equal weight of raising consciousness — her about contemporary art, us about contemporary space.” She noted that although her firm eschewed Boston’s favorite building material, “we did want to use one ‘courtesy brick’ someplace. I feel very naughty saying that!”
Some of the “naughty” in the architects’ original conception got lost in construction: The planned feature I had most eagerly anticipated was a long corridor along the entire width of the cantilever, where art was to be hung on its currently bare wall and lenticular glass was to be installed along the side facing the harbor. “The glass permits vision out when viewed from a perpendicular direction, but blocks vision when viewed from an angle,” an earlier press release explained. The view of the harbor would follow beside you as you traversed the long corridor, but would be obscured if you looked ahead or behind.
The architects hope that eventually the film creating this novel optical effect will be installed. It was vetoed, Mr. Scofidio explained, by VIPs (including Mayor Thomas Menino) who visited the space during construction and favored “keeping the big panoramic view.”
The ICA’s most audacious space, and Mr. Scofidio’s favorite, is the vertiginously sloped Mediatheque, arrayed with rows of computer stations that were preloaded with educational and interpretive materials and digital artworks. Suspended from the underside of the cantilevered gallery, this room descends to the downward-tilting window framing a mesmerizing, horizonless view of the water below. Virtual surfers will need to peer around their computer monitors to monitor the real surf.
Two other areas are disorienting in unintended ways: In the soaring lobby, the mid-afternoon sun’s fierce glare, admitted through the enormous picture window and reflected off the polished wood floor, renders vision nearly impossible. This poses big problems for the clerk behind the counter of the museum shop, struggling to serve customers while blinded by direct sunlight.
Even worse, while I was seated in the café, a loud thud was heard as someone smacked full force into a glass wall beside the confusingly designed exit. While the victim iced his forehead outside, Mr. Renfro assured me that this fault would be corrected by affixing stickers.
The ICA’s strong suit, as it should be, is the intelligently interpreted display of recent art in well-proportioned, well-lit spaces. The resourceful creative team, led by Chief Curator Nicholas Baume, has a strong track record of discovering and showcasing new talent. Now they can better exercise their own talents — including the acquisition of works for the ICA’s nascent permanent collection, drawn from its own exhibitions — in a more commodious, flexible environment. The inaugural show, “Super Vision,” which explores myriad contemporary ways of seeing and being seen, highlights a timely topic, elucidated by labels and wall text with great clarity.
What’s not yet clear is whether the ICA’s finances will be able to sustain its vision. For now, it is counting on earned income and contributions to balance its expanded $11 million budget. But Deputy Director Paul Bessire acknowledges that the current endowment of only $3 million is inadequate for long-term needs: “We need $20 million for sustainability.”
Also needed: the additional buzz and attendance that the stalled development of hotels, offices, residences and stores in the scruffy area around the ICA’s isolated site would bring.
“Hopefully architects who are building around us will be a little more responsive, now that we’re here,” said Mr. Scofidio. “I think we’ve set the bar.”
Ms. Rosenbaum writes on art and museums for the Journal and blogs on culture at www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl.