• current hEadlines
• more HEADS and LINES in recent exhibitions
• more HEADS-on-LINE   > >   a r c h i t e c t u r e   i s
• (continued from ... previous -- hEadlines)

on screens
new projects - on the drawing boards

b l i p s

• ( ? )____

n e w   A r r i v a l
new commissions  for mass media consumptions

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(*****) contested projects in general press

[]

d e p a r t u r e   L o u n g e
p r e m a t u r e   b i r t h

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d e - i c e d ------ F I R S T   P R I Z E
w i n n e r s   under construction

b a g g a g e   c l a i m -- have won & still waiting ...

n o w   s h o w i n g

• X - Cité ;

  v a c a n t  s p a c e -
   mini E-board for your latest & greatest - display your projects here.

  
  

recently opened, opening soon

t a k i n g - o f f  - p r o j e c t s
currently under construction/recently completed

(*****) in-prints a n d  being built
(propaganda machine$ at work ...)

i n a u g r a l   s p i n s
after the fact / better late than ...
opening ceremonies/company press releases

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[Getty Center, Brentwood, Los Angeles]   **** back to hEadlines

• blockbuster of choice
  "Plan Ahead -- don't come now" (Anthony Vidler, lat_98.05.03)

   
  

• collaborative discomfort
  "'He saw me as someone painting on his canvas,' Mr Irwin said. 'I understood his discomfort, which he still has. I take some pride in that I chewed him up and left him for dead. Funny, but you never think of a collaborative project in that way.'" (Mr Irwin discussing the creation of the garden, in Weber B, nyt_98.04.29)

   
  

• nice breakfast
  "There are nine sets of restrooms at the Getty Center ... The now closely observed stall count in the nine sets of restrooms at the center is 44, including urinals, for men and 44 for women. The four sets of restrooms in the museum area have a total of 21 stalls each for men and women. ...

  'They're nice bathrooms, for sure,' said Joanne Hurt, a Southern California resident who had to wait ... 'But there could be a few more,' she added, looking out over a bustling crowd. 'I mean, all these people had breakfast just a little while ago. There are four stalls in that bathroom. What were they thinking?' ..." (Sterngold J, nyt_98.04.03)

   
  

• "concert of wills"
  "For the past few months the new Getty Center has been an open-and-shut case: ... open, therefore, to criticism, most of which has ranged from high praise to outright hosannas ..." (Morgenstern J, wsj_97.12.16)

   
  

• conventional mix
  "... art professionals say much of the Trust's income and energy have gone to conventional museum work and to building the center, which has received mixed architectural reviews." (Rose F, "Mission of Getty Trust's New Chief: Shaking Things Up," wsj_97.12.08)

   
  

• hilltop budget
  "Mr Williams, the outgoing president, acknowledges some of the criticism ... Part of his answers was to give the institution architectural form: the hilltop center, whose cost more than doubled over the course of its building." (Rose F, wsj_97.12.08)
   
  
  • unofficial double
    "... (the whole complex officially cost $1 billion, but unofficial estimates almost double that amount.)" (Betsky A, arch_Dec97)

     

  • Pontormo
    "The Getty wanted a campus for all its new institutes, and a campus they got -- at the price of a palace." (Hickey D, arch_Dec97)

   
  

• limited policy
  "Critics say that the place is overbearing. That it's too detached from the city and its cultural needs. That it would have been better to build it downtown or to apportion its various units among different neighbourhoods. That the center's advance reservations policy and limited parking will restrict public access. That even the crisp abstract geometry of its architecture indicates an arrogant refusal to engage.

  These issues will not be settled anytime soon. Meanwhile, the Getty should take pride in arousing discontent. ..." (Muschamp H, nyt_97.12.01)

   
  

• severely castigated
  "Though most architects and critics who visit the building come back severely disappointed, few will voice their criticism on record. Perhaps they saw what happened to Frank Gehry, who offered mild criticism of the design, and was publicly castigated by Getty Trust Director Harold Williams for harboring 'sour grapes.'

  John Kalinski ... is one of the few who will admit that 'it's not a very good building, and they spent a lot of money on it.' ... But even Kalinski demurs ..." (Betsky A, "Faulty Towers," arch_Dec97)

• pan ops
  "The Getty Center is a feast of breathtaking photo ops and marvelous small moments, but it fails to cohere into a completely satisfying whole. This isn't a pan." (Campbell R, arec_Nov97)

   
  

• pride and prejudice
  "More cynical observers say it is a high-class Disneyland -- a place where the middle class can see Manets and Monets instead of Mickey Mouse. " (Spiegelman A, r_97.12.13)
  • in vain
    "Yet even if one were to accept the Getty's premise and enjoy its success in making a corporate-style theme park for art, the architecture is still not up to the task." (Betsky A, arch_Dec97)

   
  

• white-maned
  "Neighboring Brentwood homeowners imposed 107 restrictions on Meier -- from the height of buildings to color. They ruled that not an ounce of dirt could be removed from the site.

  When those battles were done, the white-maned Meier found himself fighting with Getty Museum director John Walsh over what the galleries should look like -- Walsh wanted the collection of mostly classic European paintings set on walls with rich colors and texture. Meier wanted white. Meier lost. " (Spiegelman A, r_97.12.12)

  • ivory metal-panels
    "Moments later, though, he launched, self-ignited, into the still painful subject of white deprivation: ... 'It's as though you tell Cezanne to do a painting, but please, no blue.' ..." (Richard Meier in Morgenstern J, wsj_97.12.16)

   
  

• roadside decorator
  "There are ridiculous moments. A society decorator, Thierry Despont, was hired to install a series of period rooms. This stuff might have been better left by the roadside somewhere east of Wichita, Kan." (Herbert Muschamp, nyt_97.12.01)
  • damask
    "The museum brought in Thierry Despont, who designed the interiors of Bill Gates's new house in Seattle, to consult on the galleries. Meier ... struggles to be diplomatic about some of them, like one for tapestries that Despont did in a bordello-red damask wall covering." (McGuigan C, nwk_97.10.13)

  • parvenu
    "Fireplaces of undefinable origin, retro tapestries, plastic moldings, dentilated cornices, materials of questionable nobility, coquettish and brutal, and much more are generously employed by Despont to bring life to an astonishing scene of the dreams -- or nighmares? -- of a pavernu." (Francesco Dal Co, in Meier R, "Building the Getty," Knopf 1997)

• elbowed out
  "As he showed visitor, he ... fretted over what was no longer in his control: ... Meier longed to reshelves books according to size ... And he won't even talk about the extravagant maze and water garden that the conceptual artist Robert Irwin is putting next to his museum." (McGuigan C, nwk_97.10.13)

   
  

• gridded plots
  "Mr Walsh has also commanded flower pots to be placed in public spaces around the museum in seemingly random arragnements, instead of on Mr Meier's beloved geometric grids...

  Like Mr Meier, Mr Walsh now seeks to put these well-publicized disputes behind him. ... Moments later, though, a woman rushed up to us. 'John, I need you for a minute,' she said, loooking distraught. 'Richard is going around rearranging the pots on a grid again!' ..." (Morgenstern J, wsj_97.12.16)

• get nick
  
  • "Getty Pharmaceuticals"
  • "Cal State Paradise"

• m o r e   on Getty Center

D u s t   J a c k e t
( G R E A T )   E x p e c t a t i o n   G a m e

g o n e ________________
s t e a l t h ____________
c o n s p i c u o u s l y   m i s s i n g

• progress report / status info ( ? )___

i.E. famous w o r k i n g d r a w i n g s

• progress report / status info ( ? )___

c o v e r t   c o n s t r u c t i o n s
s u b m e r g e d

[]

• undetected others: f l y i n g   low and (or too) s l o w ?
  high-profile low-visibility works under construction - ANY tips anyone ?

m o r e   C E L E B - A R C
feed the masses . . .

 
 
 
 
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

[Sydney Opera House, Sydney]   see also *** hEadlines,   and *** m o r e

• tragic
  "The Opera House also was one of this century's best pieces of urban design ... And it was a small wonder that the project actually got built and came out as it did despite his being fired ..." (Professor Fritz Stuber in O'Brien G, smh_98.07.06)

• missive
  "Utzon, who designed the breathtakingly beautiful building - one of only a handful this century which have managed to capture the public imagination as well as command extraordinary architectural respect - has not seen the building. ... he left our shores in 1966, never to set foot in Australia again ..." (Susskind A, smh_98.04.08)

• bestow
  "The award was timed to coincide with Utzon's 80th birthday on Thursday, but a close friend, Elias Duek-Cohen, told the council after speaking to him over the weekend that although he was 'very happy' about the honor, he is unlikely to come back to receive it." (afp/mh_98.04.08)

• letter
  "So hurt was he by his treatment that Utzon, now 80, has never been back to see the completed building." (Susskind A, blp_Dec97)

(*****) much hyped projects in general press

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