Recently, Frank O. Gehry has been sued by MIT for some serious issues regarding the design of the three year old Stata Center. This building is a great example of the difference between architecture and sculpture. Architecture is meant to be inhabited and used. Sculpture is to be looked at and admired. Architecture can be so sublime as to be sculpture. But sculpture should never become architecture.For more, read Kyle Smith’s opinion here and Adam Raymond’s here.

There has always been a debate between architecture and sculpture. Many modernist architects fell in the “architect as sculpture” camp, then created sculpture and called it architecture. Mies van der Rohe was one of the first, with his glass house, copied by Philip Johnson. Peter Eisenman has participated, but the king of them all is good old Frank O. Gehry, or FOG, as we like to affectionately refer to him.

FOG’s buildings, for the most part, are sculptural with spaces carved out, almost as an after thought “oh, yes… I now remember this is supposed to be a functioning building.” The other poster on this blog is fond of saying that FOG’s buildings lack a sense of scale. FOG could do well making paperweights in the shape of his buildings–as it they work well at any scale as sculpture.

In another article on the Boston Globe web site (available here) the contractor complains that the architect poorly detailed the building and was made aware of potential problems during construction. Gehry has countered that the client cut the budget (which went from $100 million to $300 million). We’ve worked with enough contractors to know that they follow our details or don’t. If they don’t, we can easily wash our hands of the problems “Hey! The contractor didn’t build it as designed. It’s their problem.” But if the contractor doesn’t like our detail, because they’re the first to get called when there are problems, they’ll let us know right away. They’ll also let the client know that “Hey! We built it like the architect designed it. It’s their problem.” Knowing the complexity of a Gehry building, I’m sure that there was a lot of detailing left to the contractor, and I would bet the RFI (request for information) pile on Gehry’s desk is a few feet thick.

Usually, we don’t pile on fellow architects. We love to pile on fellow architects. Especially the famous ones who design buildings of debatable merit.
(image from Reason Magazine & Mr. Raymond’s post)

Mies van Der Rohe said “less is more”.  At first, this thought seems to make sense.  But Milton Glazer has a more nuanced position that I think nails it.  He said:

Being a child of modernism I have heard this mantra all my life. Less is more. One morning upon awakening I realised that it was total nonsense, it is an absurd proposition and also fairly meaningless. But it sounds great because it contains within it a paradox that is resistant to understanding. But it simply does not obtain when you think about the visual of the history of the world. If you look at a Persian rug, you cannot say that less is more because you realise that every part of that rug, every change of colour, every shift in form is absolutely essential for its aesthetic success. You cannot prove to me that a solid blue rug is in any way superior. That also goes for the work of Gaudi, Persian miniatures, art nouveau and everything else. However, I have an alternative to the proposition that I believe is more appropriate. ‘Just enough is more.’

 I couldn’t agree more.

Subtitled: Plan Book vs. Draftsman vs. Contractor vs. Architect

There are very few of us who undertake any building project without some planning. We try and figure out what we need, how it’s going to be put together and how much it’s going to cost us. For some projects, we plan it out in our heads. For others, we take pencil to paper and draw it out. Then, there are the projects that we know we can’t do ourselves. For these, we need to hire a designer.

Designers come in many different varieties. There’s the contractor who designs it himself. There are designers who’ll draft up your plans. There’s your good friend down the street. And there are architects. What’s the difference? Does it matter? What is each one going to give you for your money? And why should you pick the Architect?

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