THE PLANK NOVEMBER 6, 2007
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It's bad enough that Frank Gehry seems to have gotten every major architectural commission of the past 20 years. (I mean, Bilbao is very cool, but the novelty starts to wear off after a while, especially when its tricks get repeated again and again.) But now it looks like Gehry's buildings aren't only repetitive, they're leaky! From the Boston Globe:
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has filed a negligence suit
against world-renowned architect Frank Gehry, charging that flaws in
his design of the $300 million Stata Center in Cambridge, one of the
most celebrated works of architecture unveiled in years, caused leaks
to spring, masonry to crack, mold to grow, and drainage to back up.
The suit says that MIT paid Los Angeles-based Gehry Partners $15
million to design the Stata Center, which was hailed by critics as
innovative and eye-catching with its unconventional walls and radical
angles. But soon after its completion in spring 2004, the center's
outdoor amphitheater began to crack due to drainage problems, the suit
says. Snow and ice cascaded dangerously from window boxes and other
projecting roof areas, blocking emergency exits and damaging other
parts of the building, according to the suit. Mold grew on the center's
brick exterior, the suit says, and there were persistent leaks
throughout the building.
It was going to take something extraordinary to break the strange spell Gehry seems to have cast over major institutions looking to erect notable buildings. Maybe this will do the trick.
--Jason Zengerle
10 comments
You might...uh...think that someone at, of all places, MIT might have figured this out in advance.
- drdannyu
November 6, 2007 at 4:19pm
I've always hated him. Where's the petition? Where do I sign?
- psantillana
November 6, 2007 at 4:35pm
You know, for all the disdain for Mies van der Rohe today, his buildings never had these problems.
- benjamin81
November 6, 2007 at 4:53pm
MIT could have saved a lot of money and effort simply by putting up stolid, Soviet-style boxy buildings and then giving residents and visitors tabs of LSD.
(I had a construction job twenty-odd years ago where our crew decided to get stoned after lunch. Then we had to cut a hole in the roof for a skylight. Not good.)
- williamyard
November 6, 2007 at 5:24pm
Gehry's work isn't just crappy, it's environmentally unsound. In L.A., his Walt Disney Hall's titanium walls have raised the surrounding area's temperature drastically--on some days, it gives off 120 degrees of heat. Meanwhile, any other building of his I've been in--from a home to a shopping mall (yes!) to L.A.'s science museum makes you feel like you're in a rat maze. He had one good idea; using previously disregarded materials like aluminum and plywood. He should have left it to talented architects to take it from there.
When you find that petition, PSantilliana, pass it on to me.
- MOLLYSIMON
November 6, 2007 at 5:52pm
Does one building with problems a disaster make? Are all Gehrey's buildings this leaky and problem prone? I haven't heard any other major complaints like this. It's also odd that this couldn't be resolved without a lawsuit. Gehry Partners must feel there's more to the complaint than has been said.
Finally, as for the spell being broken, as Robert Campbell, Globe architect finishes "Because he's so daring, you figure you've got to be daring, too, if you're a client," Campbell said. "You know if you hire Frank Gehry there are going to be new kinds of problems." But he said clients accept the risks because "they'll get a building like no other building."
Doesn't quite yet sound like the end of Gehry for now.
- jet
November 6, 2007 at 5:55pm
An architect is sued. In other stories, dog bites man. It was raining the day I visited his rock and roll museum in Seattle, and the public spaces were prominently dotted with large garbage pails catching drips from fifty feet overhead. I have to say, though, that Stata Center wins the grand prize for being absolutely the least efficient building on the planet. All this, and it leaks too....
- mschabb
November 6, 2007 at 6:24pm
send that petition to me, too
- teplukhin2you
November 6, 2007 at 8:23pm
His buildings are purely expressions of ego and without integrity. Plus, they look like the bowel movements of a robot.
I'll sign too.
- nancyirving
November 7, 2007 at 7:16am
"You know if you hire Frank Gehry there are going to be new kinds of problems." But he said clients accept the risks because "they'll get a building like no other building."
Like no other building, except for every other building Frank Gehry has built.
- ryanburke
November 7, 2007 at 1:58pm