I think there might be one underlying problem in the way architectural
competitions are performed:

The architects have to lay down completely all their ideas and concepts on
the new building and museum before they have talked to museum staff, to the
visitors of the museum, to the friends of the museum etc.

They compete solely via their own ideas against each other.

Once they have won the contest they know they did this because of their own
ideas and not because of the ideas of staff, visitors or friends. That might
be the reason why they do not listen to them any more.

This will also be the case - as we know in Europe - with Gae Aulenti. Her
Mozart exhibition in Vienna was a total flop with the least visitors - and
you can surely imagine what Mozart means to us in Vienna!


Maybe the responsible people of museums should think of new ways to come to
terms with architects, maybe in a more step approach:

* step one, get to know the problems,
* step two formulate them together with a "practical" architect or engineer,
* step three get to know architects and their team in person, take your time
with them, it will be worth while,
* step four select and set up a team of architects, museums expertes,
engineers, philosophers and psychiatrists,
* step five: start making the general concept and
* maybe step sic start deciding and working or go back to step three

yours, you all
Peter, the Rebernik


At 16:57 21.04.98 -0700, you wrote:
>The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco is using a Swiss woman architect,
>Gae Aulenti, to transform the Old Main Library into a museum.  According
>to the news release on their website, Aulenti is "one of the most
>sought-after museum designers in the world, best known for her conversion
>of a derelict Paris train station into the award-winning Musee d'Orsay."
>
>(Unfortunately for those of us who want to preserve the building's
>historic, site-specific and legally protected murals by Gottardo Piazzoni,
>Aulenti has obliged the museum by coming up with a design that "requires"
>their removal.  But the battle is not over yet!)
>
>Ann Harlow
>
> On Fri, 10 Apr 1998 [log in to unmask] wrote:
>
>> The Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, has commissioned Zaha Hadid
>> to design a $25 million, 65,000-square-foot new museum building on a
prominent
>> downtown Cincinnati corner.  Founded in 1939, the CAC is one of the
oldest and
>> most active museums of contemporary art in the US.
>>
>> Hadid, "architecture's new diva" (according to Joseph Giovanini), is a
>> London-based theorist and architect who serves on the faculties of
Harvard and
>> Columbia Universities. Her most famous building thus far is the Vitra Fire
>> Station in Weil am Rhein, Germany.  The new Contemporary Arts Center will be
>> her first American building.
>>
>> Other finalists in the 8-month search were Daniel Libeskind of Berlin and
>> Bernard Tschumi, Dean of Architecture at Columbia University.
>>
>> The project marks the first occasion of an American museum designed by a
>> woman.  In fact, it is also one of the first public projects of any kind
>> designed solely by a woman (though there are several important male/female
>> partnerships).  What ones can people think of?  A few YMCAs in California by
>> Julia Morgan--any commissions more significant in scale and public function?
>>
>> There's a great deal of material on the CAC search process,
>> semi-finalists (Jean Nouvel, Toyo Ito, Eric Owen Moss, Rem Koolhaas, Wolf
>> Prix, Herzog & DeMeuron, Steven Holl, Diller & Scofidio, and Anton Predock),
>> and on the CAC itself at http://www.spiral.org
>>
>> -----== Posted via Deja News, The Leader in Internet Discussion ==-----
>> http://www.dejanews.com/   Now offering spam-free web-based newsreading
>>
>
>

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