ambushed -- h o s t i l e   f i r e
(*****) intensely scrutinized, in general -- and architectural -- press

o e d i p u s
(*****) f r i e n d l y   f i r e
-esque -esq

• genealogy

o f f   t h e   r a d a r
(*****) non disclosure   p r o t e c t i o n

f r o z e n   d i n n e r / NOT
(*****) shunned out -- not friends of ...
t h e   t h o u g h t   p o l i c e

dom743_92.11

["Z" Bank, Vienna] thought police " ... Toshio Nakamura (editor of a+u) spending four days in Vienna in the early 1980's and being driven anywhere except past Gunther Domenig's "Z" Bank. Toshio is too professional to be put off ... and having wormed his way over to the bank out of sight of his captors, had the wit to publish it wham bang on the cover of his magazine." (Peter Cook, "An Architecture of Optimism," dom743_92.11)

gsd_w/s99

[AT&T Headquarters, New York] gleeful malice "Commenting on Philip Johnsonıs AT&T building, Sorkin says, typically: 'Not to put too fine a point on it, the building sucks' ... This critic offers his most caustic comments ... with a weary sense of redressive dutifulness -- in fact, he gave up his regular Voice column in 1989 because he wearied of finding little to praise in New York architecture" (William S Saunders, "From Taste to Judgement," gsd_w/s99)

 
 

***	[Congrexpo, Lille] l'architecte du roi "Lille has been shot to ribbons by the French intellectuals. The entire city mafia, I'd say, who call the tune in Paris, have renounced it a hundred per cent. I think that was partly because it has had no intellectual defence. They simply saw it as a return to La Defense, and no more than that." (Rem Koolhaas, The Critical Landscape 1996 010 Rotterdam)
*** st_99.07.25	clutch " ... not to mention the entire unreal district of Euralille in Northern France: a theoretical masterplan that, rather unexpectedly, got built." (Hugh Pearman, st_99.07.25)

[Erasmus Bridge, Rotterdam]

• teen
  " ... We still think it's terrific but have to report that the appropriately named cable no.13 has started to vibrate due to combined action of wind and rain, which has caused the whole bridge to shake in a way in which major civic monuments should not. ..." - (blp135_Jan97)

 
[Hotel Il Palazzo, Fukuoka]

• devoid
  "At the beginning of the novel, the view of Florence is very important ... But at the end, what is really important is the stay at the hotel, the love, the life of the hotel." (Aldo Rossi, invoking E.M. Forester, explaining Hotel Il Palazzo which "has a facade of carved columns and lined with massive copper lintels but devoid of windows" -- Obituaries, Iovine J.V. nyt_09.05.97)

[CMU Research Institute, Pittsburgh]

• "... by 1989, the Oxford Development Company had been unable to find any clients interested in Eisenman building. ... Eisenman's design, Oxford felt, was too unconventional." (Barney K, focus_Nov/Dec90)

"Michael Graves at the time was more modern than I was. His whole ambition was white. He was Mr White Architecture. He was doing Le Corbusier-like work. Even his signature had evolved from Le Corbusier's signature." (Peter Eisenman, interviewed by Levrat F, l'Ad'A)

home URL:   http://www.bbzine.com/archeplus/BBZine.html

r e a l   e_s t a t e
i n  a l t e r e d   s t a t e s

(*****) back in the news

(*****) much-hyped, over-enthused, all-the-fuzz, in general press

aj_96.05.09

[Millennium Tower, London] mi££ionnium "Foster Holdings reported a 21 per cent jump in its pre-tax profits to £1.2million in the year ending April 1995. Foster himself received a salary of £457,294 in the year, twice as much as in the year before." (aj_96.05.09 - 10:29:10)

nyt_97.06.05

[Peter B Lewis Residence, Lyndhurst] endgame D. How did you know when something as complex as this chess game was up? How did you know when the game was over and when the house was right? G. Well the client was a part of it. He would come and look at the project and add a sprinkle of paprika by saying, "How much is it costing?" And we would say, "$50 million," and he would say, "Oh, how much does Bill Gates' house cost? We said, "Oh, about $60 million." He'd say, "Oh, okay. We're okay." So those were the little sprinkles of encouragement. The house got up to $80 million and it was flabby. There were a lot of good ideas in it, but it was flabby. (Cynthia Davidson interviewed Frank Gehry, in "Project: Frank O Gehry, The Lewis Residence," ANY 12 1996, "The Dimensions of Play.")   "A Xanadu That Didn't -- Or, How a Gehry House Come To a Naught," "an idolatrous crush ... an elaborate tango of flirtation and desire ..." (Leigh Brown); "an odd and asymmetrical love relationship ..." (unnamed critic); "a fertilized egg in a deep freeze" (Kurt Foster); "an armada floating in the mist" (Gehry). (Patricia Leigh Brown, nyt_97.05.06)   lewis' labor 40,000 sf, $82 mil. private residence on a nine acres with a stream running through, 11 [ ELEVEN ] years in design, a public scholarly seminar (Guggenheim Forum, the "Peter B Lewis Critical Issues Forum," held, of course, in the Peter B Lewis Theater), a documentary film, a book, AND unbuilt. (Leigh Brown P, nyt_97.06.05)