Here is a great audio-visual synopsis of what has happened at 2 Columbus Circle in Manhattan.
We sat by the fountain last week and looked at the newly unveiled building. The "iridescent" tiles that the architect intended are not iridescent. They look like cardboard. The irregular cut-outs for windows are offensive and make the building appear to be inside a packing crate partially opened by movers who went to lunch before finishing the job.
There is no way to return to the original quirky lollipop facade that has been destroyed. We can only hope that this iteration will either melt or leak or prove unstable. Some critters shed old skin by molting. Maybe if we all give it a good kick when we walk by...
"Perge modo et qua te ducit via dirige gressum," said Venus to Aeneas.
4 comments:
Are we at all surprised?
I saw this a couple of days ago and told my friend it looked like a refrigerator carton. It's most unattractive, and I know it's heresy,but I loved the old building.
What a shame.
Hmmm... Well I should make a point of going up Lincoln Center way just to see this.
Having walked by tons of times, I sort of got used to the site of the old building - though I knew nothing about it and never went inside it. It never even registered with me as special the way the flatiron sort of did.
But it really was recognizable in pictures, so I guess I really did register it. I'm curious to see the change of impact it makes on the area.
As soon as I heard there were plans to put a new facade on this building, I thought "What if it's as bad, or worse, than what it is right now?"
Seems I was right. For the record, the old facade looked like a Mussolini mausoleum. The new one looks like a popsicle stick project - maybe that was an intentional nod to the original "lollipop" columns.
The strangeness of the first one was endearing, but once it was too far gone, whachagonna do?
I'd hoped for a nice restrained Miesian egg crate grid for the new facade (the navy blue blazer/little black dress of urban contextualism) perhaps in Lincoln Center travertine or a fresh trabeation of while marble reminiscent of the old cladding - something understated as a foil for the architectural vortex the circle has become.
So sad, the new shouts to be heard, then has nothing to add to the conversation.
They should have just torn it all down and started over.
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