Letter to the Editor> Moussavi Missed in Cleveland
MOCA Cleveland. (COURTESY DEAN KAUFMAN)
[ Editor's Note: The following letter is an excerpt of a comment left on archpaper.com. It pertains to the new Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Cleveland designed by Farshid Moussavi, which Stephanie Murg critiqued for AN's Midwest edition last November. AN welcomes reader letters, which could appear in our regional print editions. To share your opinion, please email editor@archpaper.com. ]
MOCA’s form is a simple game of extruded geometry. The base form shifts from a hexagon as it rises to a square at its top. A third year architecture student would have been given a C- and asked, “Is that all you could come up with?” The exterior is clad in black stainless steel panels that are already streaking at the corners. They also present a range of colors that indicate the material selection and/or production was not up to the task of producing uniformity.
Unveiled> Farshid Moussavi Designs a Wavy Apartment Tower in Montpellier
Jardins de la Lironde, Lot 2 (Courtesy Fashid Moussavi Architecture)
London-based Farshid Moussavi Architecture has won a competition to design a residential tower in Montpellier, France. The so-called “Lot 2″ project will be the first of 12 new buildings in the Jardins de la Lironde brownfield development in the city’s Port Marianne district, with construction set to begin in 2014.
Eavesdrop> Bilbao of the Midwest?
RENDERING OF MOCA CLEVELAND NEARS COMPLETION. (COURTESY FARSHID MOUSSAVI ARCHITECTURE)
If you read this column, you know Eaves loves a party. You also know we self-deprecatingly speak of mediocre Midwestern cities (we’re from Louisville). Even with summer winding down, there’s no need to stick out that lower lip. A slew of—well, ok, three–high profile openings will tickle even the slightest art and architecture enthusiast as Cleveland, East Lansing, and Cincinnati compete for the title of Bilbao of the Midwest. First up, the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, designed by Farshid Moussavi Architecture, opens on October 6. Will the Mistake-on-the-Lake become the Rust Belt Riviera? On MOCA’s heels comes the Eli and Edythe Broad Museum on November 9. OK, we don’t know anything about East Lansing other than a school’s there, but—hey!—now they have a Zaha Hadid.
And finally, Cincinnati, home to America’s first Hadid, will welcome 21c Museum Hotel by Deborah Berke & Partners. Their website says it will open late 2012. Which project will be an urban game-changer? We could be swayed by opening night invites, but right now my money’s on Cincy.
MOCA Cleveland and the Big Blue Yonder
The exterior of MOCA Cleveland nears completion. (Courtesy Farshid Moussavi Architecture)
If Foreign Office Architects’ first project, the huge Yokohama International Port Terminal in Japan, was the vast scale of rolling dunes, the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland—begun when the firm was still known as FOA and carried to completion by Farshid Moussavi Architecture—is compact as a cube. And size has made all the difference in keeping on track through the economic downturn with the $27.2 million building poised for opening in October.
Video> Watch Moussavi’s MOCA Cleveland Take Shape
The new home of Cleveland’s Museum of Contemporary Art is rapidly taking shape. Designed by Farshid Moussavi, the faceted design is both iconic and responsive to its wedge-shaped site, packing a lot of visual and programmatic punch within a small envelope and with a small budget. The Museum has been keeping a video record of the building going up. Read More
QUICK CLICKS> Splitsville, Sprawling, Lab Lead, Bird Brains
FOA partners in more collaborative times. (Valerie Bennett/National Portrait Gallery, London, 2002)
No Joint Custody. Archinect reports that partners Farshid Moussavi and Alejandro Zaera-Polo of London-based Foreign Office Architects (FOA) have made their professional divorce official. According to a press statement, each partner will now head up his/her own office and all staff will be retained and assigned to one of the two.
Urban Fuel. University of Quebec researchers have published a study showing that higher gas prices translate into–logically–less urban sprawl: “On average, a 1% increase in gas prices has caused: i) a .32% increase in the population living in the inner city and ii) a 1.28% decrease in low-density housing units.” Read more at Infrastructurist.
Lab Experiment. The New York Times profiles the new director of MIT’s Media Lab, Joichi “Joi” Ito, a 44-year-old venture capitalist from Japan, who comes to the job with a wealth of experience but no academic credentials. But “He has credibility in an academic context,” Lawrence Lessig, Harvard Law prof and Creative Commons founder, told the Times. “We’ve been collaborators, and I’ve stolen many ideas from him and turned them into my own.”
Big Bird Brains? Are pigeons just playing dumb for crumbs and sympathy? As far as birds go, city-dwelling pigeons have proportionally bigger brains than their avian country cousins, writes Per Square Mile.
MOCA Cleveland Coming into Focus
Last night in a presentation at Hunter College, Farshid Moussavi revealed more details about her design for the new Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, including a first look at the plaza designed by Field Operations. Rows of trees will seperate the mirroed black museum from an adjacent development site, and geometrically patterned pavement will pick up on the forms of the building. Read More
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