New York's newest skyscraper is also Frank Gehry's first. Times critic Nicolai Ouroussoff likes it, calling it "the finest skyscraper to rise in New York since Eero Saarinen's CBS building went up 46 years ago." Slide show here.
I have no particular feelings; I like this ruffled surface better than the plain lines of international modernism, but I don't see anything about this building to love. In the category of weird things said by art critics, Ouroussoff writes that for him this building "seems to crystallize a particular moment in cultural history, in this case the turning point from the modern to the digital age."What on earth does that mean? In what way does this building represent, symbolize, encode, inscribe, or whatever verb you prefer anything about the digital age, the internet, the decline of industry, or anything else other than Frank Gehry's particular style? I can only guess that for Ouroussoff, the international style somehow symbolized the modern era, and Gehry's attempts to break out of the box represent whatever one wishes to call the times we live in now. But, really.
I suspect he is talking about how the digital age allows for complex curves and angles. Pre-digital, it was much harder to create materials that are necessary - Ghery's architecture requires individual pieces that often all distinct. Making such components in the past would be nearly imposible. Right now, it's still expensive, but the sorts of custom glass, steal, and tiles that Ghery uses get easier and easier to produce every day.
ReplyDelete(I work in a Ghery building, the Stata Center at MIT, and I love it. It's incredibly fun to work here.)