----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Are you making slides of those drawings available? I know
several slide libraries would love to have them.
Maryly Snow
UC Berkeley
Architecture Slide Library
[log in to unmask]
>
> ----------------------------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 (fin
> inter t
> he staircase becomes as slippery as an ice skating rink and can only be climbe
> (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.
>