the "new" new museum is going up on the bowery on the lower east side of downtown manhattan (it used to be on bway in soho). two things, i think it might truly be the most innovative and striking looking building that i've seen going up in awhile and also note it's by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of Japan-based SANAA --- they are the japanese firm who did the new glass pavilion addition to the toledo museum of art.  :clap:

 

a current construction pic + rendering:

 

 

 

 

more silly blog commentary stuff about the groundbreaking:

 

 

 

 

Bless this heaping pile.

 

The cubes won't leak—money back guarantee!

 

Could have just donated to MoMA.

 

Behold the Bowery's bold future. Best news? Just a few doors down from Whole Foods, natch.

 

link:

http://www.curbed.com/archives/2005/10/12/new_new_museum_groundbreaking_clap_your_hands_say_om.php

 

 

 

bonus -- the new toledo museum of art glass pavilion addition:

 

 

 

links:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.edilportale.com/Manager/Uploads/7404_2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.edilportale.com/edilnews/Npopup.asp%3FIDDOC%3D7776&h=165&w=300&sz=11&hl=en&start=4&tbnid=v4_cNmqARCxOFM:&tbnh=64&tbnw=116&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtoledo%2Bmuseum%2Bof%2Bart%2Bglass%2Bpavilion%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG

 

http://www.dotoledo.org/gtcvb/news/display.asp?id=460

 

 

 

It looks like a vertical convention center.

I MUCH prefer Boston's new contemporary art museum or SANAA's design for the museum in Kanazawa, Japan. If MOCA Cleveland ends up looking ANYTHING like this bloated Jenga tower of cargo containers, I'll be seriously disappointed:

Its stuff like that that really makes me think about architecture. I don't like it at all, but a lot of other people do. Then I start wondering if I lack an eye for this stuff. 

 

 

Believe me - I'm all for really forward-thinking and innovative work. I love the new Akron Art Museum (Coop Himmelblau), some of the work by Thom Mayne and Morphosis, Zaha, etc. As I said, I even like a museum that this group designed. A lot of people like to shop at Wal-Mart, but that doesn't make it right ;-) Just because a few people who never leave the architectural bubble say "it's FABulous" - it doesn't mean we can't have our own opinion.

 

That said - I really don't care for this project, at least based on the renderings - I want to see the finished building. If it resembles the faceless plunked-together cubes that we see in the rendering, I think it's gimmicky. If the materials that are used somehow make those cubes work, I might change my mind.

^ also, either you are a fan of modern minimalism or you aren't, there is little middle ground in stuff like this.

 

i have reservations too, but i generally like it.

 

give'm a break, there is the practical problem of showing artwork in a relatively small vertical space to be addressed ya know, that's why design like sanaa's previous art museums would never work. building up is a difficult dilemma for a museum. maybe morphosis for example would have handled it differently and i'm sure that would be interesting to see, but in their case there is a big difference between a groovy office building and whats needed for this kind of space.

 

interesting how these arguments are kind of similar to those leveled at the whitney. that one turned out to be a great place to see artwork whatever you might think of the outside of it (i dont like that, not many do).

 

i guess we'll find out soon enough. at the very least we can agree it looks like they did good in toledo!

 

here's a couple pics i took today of the "new" new museum going up on the bowery. you can begin to see the boxy sections:

 

 

I wondering what this looks like in section.  I can understand the lack of windows due to the nature of galleries, but I hope its not merely "stacking boxes".

here's an artworld/architecture update:

 

the new 'new museum' is going up on the bowery and the area around it on the lower east side is fast becoming manhatttan's new boutique art gallery district (many are tired of the chelsea crush). the goods from curbed blog:

 

 

New New Museum Getting All Mesh-y on The Bowery

 

Monday, August 27, 2007, by ROK88

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

A few weeks ago we gave a little peak of something going up on the facade of the New New Museum rising on The Bowery. And now almost the entire building is covered in what turns out to be a metallic mesh. Workmen on site at the New Museum claim that the facade all around is actually aluminum, which doesn't match up with what was promised here. From an interview with the architects at SANAA posted on the New Museum website:

 

SANAA: The exterior cladding will be galvanized zinc-plated steel, a material that is extremely strong, yet light. The character of it is a bit rough, just like the Bowery. It's textural in appearance, yet actually smooth to the touch and it is reflective in a way that abstracts its surroundings and suggests a different way of seeing them.

Doesn't look too smooth to us. Was it budget cuts or that old bugaboo "artistic differences" which lead to the mesh-y-ness? Anybody in the know, please drop us a line.

 

 

The New Museum looking west towards Prince Street.

 

 

When the afternoon sun hits the west-facing facade it seems like spotlights have been turned on full. Good thing that Prince Street runs one-way in the opposite direction.

 

 

Close-up view of the newly-installed facade.

 

 

The crew puts up another mesh-y panel above The Bowery.

 

 

The bright and shiny New Museum seen from a block north up The Bowery.

 

 

 

 

A sneak peak of the glass-enclosed street level lobby of SANAA's New Museum.

 

 

· CurbedWire: NewMuseum Opening in November [Curbed]

· A Conversation with Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa [newmuseum.org]

· New Museum website [newmuseum.org]

 

 

http://curbed.com/archives/2007/08/27/new_new_museum_getting_all_meshy_on_the_bowery.php#more

 

a little something on curbed:

 

 

LOWER EAST SIDE—A New Museum neighbor provides an update on the progress of the mesh covering the building on the Bowery: "The mesh went up and the beautiful white mate finish that made the building disappear into the background is covered by this dizzy making dirt catching texture; the drama is that on the back of our building they decided to mesh as well!" Good that it all meshes. [CurbedWire Inbox]

 

http://curbed.com/archives/2007/09/10/curbedwire_meshy_at_the_new_museum_fidi_cubed_edgy_bqe.php

I think this building would look better if it stood alone or perhaps had neighbors of lesser density; its horribly out of context with its surroundings.  It doesn't matter whether one thinks making a bold statement is good or bad.  Most people associate FINER cityscapes as ones that are a cohesive mix of new and old buildings, and generate organization and aesthetics that are pleasing to the eye.  The museum violates this.

 

The attempts to create a landmark building in modern times, by plunking a building of a drastically different form within an established urban fabric of organization was fine the first few times, but now I fear that if this continues, our urban landscapes will be a hodgepodge of random forms breaking down the harmony and aesthetics that most people tend to associate with the beauty of the city.

 

Take Chicago for example.  Along Michigan Ave facing both Millennium Park and Grant Park is this grand wall of buildings.  What is most interesting is the diminishing perspective, and the compression of the grid of columns, pilasters, window mullions, cornices, window sills, spandrels, etc.  Even modern architecture with its vertical and horizontal lines abides to this rigid grid which has made this vista so special for almost 100 years.  Then some architect decided to make a statement by constructing a building where the facade bows and bulges out over the street.  Here, the rhythm has been broken.  While indeed it is interesting seeing this rebellion against the established order of the street wall, I feel it has diminished the importance of this particular landscape that made Michigan Ave so special for many years.  (A century to be exact)

 

Sometimes, I feel architects are more concerned with making a statement than the integration of a building within its surroundings.  Is it possible to do both?  Absolutely.  The art museum in Akron, IMO is very successful at this.  Its siting on the hill, and a few low density spaced out structures surrounding it do give it a bit more freedom, but the angles at which one view it make it appear as though it is successfully locked in with its surroundings as well as the original building.

 

In New York, this is obviously more difficult.  The siting of this museum depends on what real estate is available as well as how it fits with the locale (people interested, transit, area businesses etc).  Maybe the siting wasn't appropriate here.  A row of early 20th century buildings has been sliced through with a drastically different form.  If this was the only available location, I think I would have designed it a bit differently, perhaps played off of the scale and proportioning of its neighbors.  What bothers me the most is the setbacks at such an early height.  It doesn't enhance the surroundings, but make them look ugly, almost worthless.  "I'm here, but it appears the rest of this block needs to go."  That really upsets me.

 

I have nothing against modern progressive architecture, but I think it does not mass itself correctly within its landscape.

i can agree to that. to me its a shame that after this was planned and began to be built directly on the other side of town there was land available and this kind of building would have actually fit in. maybe even had a little breathing room around it too depending where it was sat (i am referring to the newly monikered westside 'hudson square' nabe below spring st.). i dk the economics of land, but again too bad as on the bowery where it is was likely much cheaper than the hudson square area land values.

 

the good news (can gentrification be good here?) is that it is already generating so much buzz that many gallerists are opening boutique art galleries around it. the lower bowery area there is poised to become a new mini-chelsea art gallery district. also, the restaurant supply shops are getting bumped out for real restaurants/clubs and residential rehabs. so the new new museum is leading a lot of change around it already. that strip as it is will not be long for this earth.

 

Found this New Museum update in my inbox via ArchNewsNow newsletter.  Mr. Litt also references the Toledo Museum of Art's Glass Pavilion, also designed by SANAA.

 

http://blog.cleveland.com/architecture/2008/01/new_museum_of_contemporary_art.html[/size]

 

New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York is a fresh milestone in museum design

Posted by Steven Litt/Plain Dealer Architecture Critic

January 18, 2008 - 12:49PM

 

The image is incongruous and alluring. As you climb up out of the Prince Street subway station at Broadway in lower Manhattan, a gleaming apparition grabs your attention amid the grimy tenements six blocks to the east.  It's the newly finished New Museum of Contemporary Art, the city's newest museum, and the latest in a long roster of art museums around the world designed by star architects.

 

Sandwiched along the Bowery between a cheap hotel the locals call "the flophouse" and the Bowery Mission, which serves the homeless and the needy, the new museum is a glamorous newcomer in a gritty neighborhood on the cusp of change.  It's also a thrilling piece of architecture that achieves enormous impact through the elaboration of simple, strong ideas, without the overwhelming heroics of Frank Gehry's great Guggenheim Museum branch in Bilbao, Spain.

 

Clad in shiny sheets of perforated alumnium, the New Museum

of Contemporary Art gleams in New York's Bowery district

 

 

The New Museum of Contemporary Art,

designed by the Japanese firm SANAA,

resembles a shiny stack of off-kilter boxes.

 

 

The lobby of The New Museum, which features a wall of glass

facing the Bowery, includes a bookstore enclosed behind a

sinuous scrim of aluminum mesh, similar to the museum's facade.