Eavesdrop Issue 5
(via selma)
MUSCHAMP’S CLAIMS ON GROUND ZERO
Architects may have outsized egos but—if there was any question before—Herbert Muschamp’s may be out of control. As of press time, rumors were swirling that the NYT architecture critic has been making life difficult for the publishers of the forthcoming book Imagining Ground Zero: Official and Unofficial Schemes for the World Trade Center Competition (Rizzoli and Architectural Record). It seems the book’s author, Record editor Suzanne Stephens, wants to include schemes from the September 8, 2002, designer-palooza featured in the NYT Magazine in which Muschamp asked architects—including Charles Gwathmey, Peter Eisenman, Richard Meier, Zaha Hadid, and Rem Koolhaas—to contribute plans for Ground Zero. However, “He’s been calling the architects and telling them not to let their work be published,” says a designer familiar with the fiasco, “and several of them are complying.” Why would Muschamp want to interfere, when the NYT itself has acknowledged it doesn’t own the rights to the designs? “He was asked to write about the projects in the book,” the source continues, “so it can’t be that he just feels left out. The only answer would have to be power.” While the story is still developing, we’ve learned that Rizzoli is exploring legal options and, though they wouldn’t give an explanation, the offices of several of the architects we contacted, including Meier, confirmed they don’t intend to provide the plans in question. Both Stephens and her Rizzoli editor declined comment, and Muschamp did not return calls.
- i have to admit that Muschamp's NYT project was my favorite proposal for wtc. i wonder what changed his perspective. the wholesale failure of the "design by committee" approach ? that led to the call for elitisim and then the "oh, fuck it" rebuild the twin towers opines?
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(via selma)
MUSCHAMP’S CLAIMS ON GROUND ZERO
Architects may have outsized egos but—if there was any question before—Herbert Muschamp’s may be out of control. As of press time, rumors were swirling that the NYT architecture critic has been making life difficult for the publishers of the forthcoming book Imagining Ground Zero: Official and Unofficial Schemes for the World Trade Center Competition (Rizzoli and Architectural Record). It seems the book’s author, Record editor Suzanne Stephens, wants to include schemes from the September 8, 2002, designer-palooza featured in the NYT Magazine in which Muschamp asked architects—including Charles Gwathmey, Peter Eisenman, Richard Meier, Zaha Hadid, and Rem Koolhaas—to contribute plans for Ground Zero. However, “He’s been calling the architects and telling them not to let their work be published,” says a designer familiar with the fiasco, “and several of them are complying.” Why would Muschamp want to interfere, when the NYT itself has acknowledged it doesn’t own the rights to the designs? “He was asked to write about the projects in the book,” the source continues, “so it can’t be that he just feels left out. The only answer would have to be power.” While the story is still developing, we’ve learned that Rizzoli is exploring legal options and, though they wouldn’t give an explanation, the offices of several of the architects we contacted, including Meier, confirmed they don’t intend to provide the plans in question. Both Stephens and her Rizzoli editor declined comment, and Muschamp did not return calls.
- i have to admit that Muschamp's NYT project was my favorite proposal for wtc. i wonder what changed his perspective. the wholesale failure of the "design by committee" approach ? that led to the call for elitisim and then the "oh, fuck it" rebuild the twin towers opines?
- bill 6-09-2004 11:32 pm