Mayne Takes Gold, Williams Tsien Take Firm Award
Caltrans District 7 Headquarters (Morphosis)
Add another medal to Thom Mayne‘s trophy case. Thursday the American Institute of Architects announced that it was awarding him the 2013 AIA Gold Medal. He’ll pick it up at next year’s AIA convention in Denver, becoming the 69th AIA Gold Medalist. The list of works from his firm Morphosis is way too long to include here, but it includes the diamond Ranch High School in Pomona, California; the California Department of Transportation District 7 Headquarters in Los Angeles; and 41 Cooper Square in New York City.
Meanwhile Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects have been awarded the AIA Firm Award. The architects, who opened the new Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia this year, have also designed (among other heralded work) the former American Folk Art Museum in New York; the C.V. Starr East Asian Library at the University of California, Berkeley; and the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center.
Barnes Foundation (Tod Williams Billie Tsien)
Expect to be hear a lot about Todd Williams and Billie Tsien in the weeks and months to come. First up, their much anticipated (and highly controversial) new building for the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, which opens imminently. Second, the fate of their building for the American Folk Art Museum (now owned by MoMA) hangs in the balance, with Jean Nouvel’s tower looming on the horizon. Third comes the announcement that the pair will renovate and expand the Hood Art Museum at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. The project will include new and renovated galleries for Darmouth’s art collection, which dates to 1772.
Prominent Shortlist for Park City’s Kimball Art Center
A stacked-timber design by BIG / Bjarke Ingels Group. (All images courtesy Kimball Art Center)
Five noted teams have been shortlisted from a pool of 18 to renovate and expand the Kimball Art Center (KAC) in Park City, Utah. The firms include BIG/Bjarke Ingels Group; Brooks + Scarpa Architects; Sparano + Mooney Architecture; Will Bruder + Parnets; and Todd Williams Billie Tsien Architects. The center offers exhibitions as well as art classes, workshops, and other educational programs. Plans call for renovating the interior of the existing KAC and constructing a new modern building next door. Each of the proposals will be displayed using augmented reality, photography, and video during the Sundance Film Festival from January 19 through the 29 and a jury will select a winner in February once the public has had a chance to weigh in on their favorites. Construction could begin as soon as mid-2013 with the new wing opening in 2015.
Folks Weigh In On the Future of the Folk Art Museum
American Folk Art Museum (Photo by Michael Moran)
Apparently the art world hates the American Folk Art Museum building! (Who knew?!) In the wake of the news that MoMA is buying the Todd Williams Billie Tsien-designed building, two of the art world’s more prominent voices both bashed the building and argued it hastened the Folk Art Museum’s decline. The esteemed Times critic Roberta Smith called it “unwelcoming” and argued that the museum’s fate was sealed by “lackluster, visionless leadership; the weak economy; and inappropriate architecture.” Smith’s husband happens to be Jerry Saltz, the pugnacious art critic for New York, who went much further in a piece titled, “Architecture Killed the American Folk Art Museum.” He called the building, “ugly and confining, it was also all but useless for showing art.”
Not everyone agrees!
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