 |
 |
----------------------------Original message---------------------------- On April 10, 1997 The Museum of Modern Art announced that Jacques Herzog & Pierre de Meuron, Yoshio Taniguchi, and Bernard Tschumi would participate in the next phase of the process to determine an architect for the Museum's expansion and renovation project. These architects were chosen from a field of ten (which included Dominique Perrault) who were invited to take part in a charrette, or problem-solving design exercise, to present design concepts for the Museum. The three finalists are currently engaged in the competition leading to preliminary architectural designs for the new Museum. The charrette submissions by all ten architects are currently on display at the Museum. Eumie Imm Stroukoff Associate Librarian, Reference The Museum of Modern Art Library ---------- From: Eric Fenster[SMTP:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Sunday, May 04, 1997 2:14 PM To: Multiple recipients of list ARLIS-L Subject: Botched French National Library ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- So, French architect Dominique Perrault is in the running to do MOMA's extension. Good luck to the administrators and future users of this prestigious establishment if the result turns out to resemble that of the French National Library (BNF) in Paris! Should that happen, employees and visitors would be well advised to show up wearing masks, helmets, thermal underwear and, in winter, cleated soles. Hip boots will be useful when it is necessary to rescue collections from floods like the one the BNF had last January, during which the detection systems failed to function. It is well known that the naming of the BNF's architect was a political choice and that Mr. Perrault was picked by the French President's chief of staff, but does MOMA face the same constraints? Despite the warnings of many professionals, the BNF's architect finished (finis inter t he staircase becomes as slippery as an ice skating rink and can only be climbed (After the library's president fell on one, the speed was slowed to a crawl.) The heating and cooling system has to be entirely redone. In order to satisfy his "esthetic" preferences, the architect chose to install pipes of inadequate caliber. Employees have to bring individual heaters not only in winter but in the summer when the outside temperature may be 28C (82F). Everywhere, the air is glacial. The public entrances are open to the outside, allowing an invasion of cold and snow. The method of creating vestibules is being discussed, and it appears necessary to go around just about everywhere constructing supplementary structures to correct Mr. Perrault's errors of youth. Mr. Perrault didn't foresee the air currents his towers would generate and which make it difficult for the three hapless elevators at the foot of each tower to close their doors. Not only that, the lifts' machinery on the roof will not function in hot weather. Three elevators would already be few for an 18-storey building, but they also cover five underground levels. Long waits provoke staff to take the staircases, but since those were expected to be employed mainly in emergencies, cheap plastic door handles were installed and many have now broken off from use. Each month there is a test of the emergency electrical generators. These run on diesel fuel, but since the ventilation system is defective the fumes arrive in the offices and the staff has to be evacuated. Mr. Perrault claims to be seeking a solution! His first suggestion was to conduct the tests when the wind was blowing the other way. Another "flaw," and perhaps not the least was Mr. Perrault's failure to make provision for BOOKS, a small matter of course for the architect of a library. The thousands of books that arrive each day and their temporary storage in the offices of the staff who processes them encountered a total void in Perrault's functional notions. Perrault's attack on books was multi pronged. His choice of linoleum to cover the kilometers of corridors where heavy carts would pass to transport the millions of books arriving from the old library almost defeated that process. The linoleum was quickly turned into ruts over which the carts would not move and it has to be removed. Should books actually make it to the shelves, Perrault had a fail-safe mechanism. The glass towers as originally designed would be beautifully transparent. The party was spoiled by enough pressure by those concerned by what the sun would do to the books that a wall of wood was finally placed inside the glass perimeter. Poor Mr. Perrault. His other attempt at openness was to plant a fully grown forest at which users of the research reading rooms could gaze but upon which no human could set foot. Unhappily, account had not been taken of the comings and goings of people in the corridor between the desks and the picture window. A wooden barrier had to be thrown up to block the view. Dominique Perrault is certainly an ace when it comes to making models, but for MOMA it would be prudent not to rely too much on the advice of the clique. The financial abyss that the French taxpayer has accepted with resignation might not be to the taste of the Museum's administrators.