I would have hoped for more incisive questions from journalist/moderator C.J. Hughes for the inter-generational panel of major architects who shared tidbits last night in a conversation at the 92nd Street Y in New York. He should have elicited more interesting details about the projects (theirs in particular) “that now epitomize the city, the ever-evolving real estate market and what’s next for New York’s neighborhoods,” as the panel’s prospectus had led us to expect.
I was struck by the sky’s-the-limit attitude of the panel: Nobody seemed to believe there should be any height restraints on New York’s manic skyscraper boom. It wasn’t long ago that the City Planning Commission had insisted that Jean Nouvel reduce the height of his planned tower adjacent to the Museum of Modern Art, because his original plan would have made it equal in height to the 1,250-foot Empire State Building.
Sadly, such scruples, it seems, are gone.
In any event, below are my live tweets of some highlights from the panel:
Here’s a shot of Meier’s Model Museum in Jersey City, which I visited a year ago:
Photo by Lee Rosenbaum
And here’s part of Selldorf’s redesign of the interior of the Clark Art Institute’s original buildling (which I reviewed for the Wall Street Journal here)—its central Impressionist gallery, repainted lavender:
