Eavesdrop NY 14
Gwathmey out front of the home he designed for his parents in the Hamptons. He was buried nearby. (Courtesy DansHamptons.com)
THE PLOTS THICKEN
Did The New York Times learn nothing from its error-riddled obituary of Walter Cronkite this summer? The famous newsman was 90 years old and in failing health for some time. His obituary should have been in the can for years. And yet there were seven inexcusable errors, which prompted a lengthy correction, which prompted a lame mea culpa from the public editor, which prompted an avalanche of snarky comments from readers. Back to the question, did the newspaper learn from this embarrassment? It did not. The obituary for Charles Gwathmey, who died on August 3 (according to the Times), was revised with a correction regarding the architect’s education. Turns out, that correction was incorrect and therefore had to be corrected. A correction of a correction spun the needle right off Eavesdrop’s Cringe-O-Meter. Read More
Eavesdrop NY 13
COOPER SCOOPER
Eavesdrop held a glass to the emergency-exit door of the Cooper-Hewitt and heard rumblings that a ten-member, Smithsonian-led committee was about to announce a new museum director to succeed Paul Warwick Thompson. It sounded as if the committee was down to two candidates—Paola Antonelli and Aaron Betsky. The latter volunteered to a source that he was not in the running, but we think he was merely trying to throw us off the scent. Our olfactory sense is too highly tuned to be distracted. Expect an announcement any minute. Read More
Eavesdrop NY 12
The Four Seasons celebrates its 50th. Can you spot Phyllis? (Hint: She's in Canada.) (Courtesy PaperMag.com)
No Room at the In Place?
Eavesdrop was thrilled by a friend’s “plus one” at the June 11 gala celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Four Seasons restaurant in the Seagram Building. We all know Mies and Philip’s icon, so we’ll skip the background and move on to name-dropping. The 800-person guest list was so diverse we concluded that it must have been gleaned from the reservations book. Read More
A Slat in the Face
Here's another good idea for ya'.
Metropolis contributor Jeff Speck wrote an open letter to Dwell magazine about its “wood-slat” issue. Eavesdrop laughed and laughed, then wondered aloud, “Why no diagonal slats?” You can read the letter after the jump. Read More
Bette Midler, Gardener
She's at it again: Bette Midler is adding to her good works in the city, which already include this Robert A.M. Stern boathouse on the Harlem River.
Bloomberg Networks’ architectural critic James Russell writes today about Bette Midler’s continuing commitment to beautifying some of New York’s derelict open spaces (with the unintentional side effect of reducing the number of “Law & Order” crime-scene sites). The Divine Miss M is in New York “to open a community garden next to an abandoned tenement, the 33rd oasis her New York Restoration Project has transformed from garbage-strewn wasteland.” You remember the Peter Jay Sharp Boathouse by Robert A. M. Stern with Armand LeGardeur on the Harlem River in Swindler Cove Park, one of the Restoration Project’s most lauded transformations.
Eavesdrop NY 11
Meier In A Box
Pin-Up: Magazine for Architectural Entertainment features Richard Meier in
its Summer 2009 issue. Turns out “architectural entertainment” is not an oxymoron after all, at least not at Pin-Up. Meier poses on the cover with the box containing his $1,800 limited-edition lifetime opus from Taschen. Box placement and the architect’s sheepish grin remind us of that infamous Justin Timberlake/ Andy Samberg SNL video skit. You know the one. It’s that musical DIY about how to create an extremely personal boxed gift. Coincidence, or is Pin-Up just living up to its tagline? Buy the issue and tell us what you think. Buy it now. Read More
Eavesdrop: Bueller? Bueller!
(All photos courtesy Sotheby's)
Part of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) renown as a classic truancy film and Chicago landmark travelogue is the über-modernist glass and steel house with the disaster-inviting garage from which Ferris launches the priceless 1961 Ferrari belonging to friend Cameron’s father. The house (and garage), of course, is a metaphor for Cameron’s sad and lonely home life. As Ferris, the budding architectural critic, explains to his vaguely suicidal foil, “The place is like a museum. It’s very beautiful and very cold, and you’re not allowed to touch anything.” Read More
Eavesdrop: Conventions Go CABoom
As promised, here’s Sara’s inaugural Eavesdrop ALERT. Have at it.
CA Boom, which grandly bills itself as “North America’s Only Multi-Discipline Non-traditional Design Show,” will be exhibiting for the sixth time over the last weekend in June at a larger venue this year in Beverly Hills. That very same weekend, Dwell Magazine will return to the Los Angeles Convention Center with its own heavily branded trade show, Dwell on Design, billed less grandly as “The West Coast’s Largest Modern Design Event.” An embarrassment of riches or a conundrum for vendors who can’t be in two places at the same time? Read More
Eavesdrop NY 10
We know you love the gossip. AN aims to satisfy that itch in print, online, East Coast, West Coast, whatever, wherever, whenever. So here comes Eavesdrop to our blog so you can get it faster, feistier, anywhere you are. Plus, we will be posting Sara Hart’s online-only EAVESDROP ALERTs. But the real fun begins in the comments section, where you can lay on your own gossipy tidbits. And Sara will be sure to respond.
For Whom the Buell Tolls
There are some whispers coming from the Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture at Columbia University’s GSAPP. Our ears immediately perked up, because we never hear anything much from that stone corner of the academic groves. Founded in 1982, the center’s first director was Robert A.M. Stern, who was followed by Gwendolyn Wright, Richard Buford, Joan Ockman (who stepped down about a year ago), and Reinhold Martin, who currently holds the post. The whispers have it that Professor Martin is changing the center’s mild mission to a more politically left-leaning agenda. Some female members of the 12-person board of advisers are also miffed that he’s held boys-only dinners, like a recent bash with board members Peter Eisenman, Stern, and GSAPP Dean Mark Wigley. Could another Penguin Club be in the making?
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