December 19, 2005
James Freed's NYC Buildings
Recently, it was announced that architect James Ingo Freed died last week. Who? He was a partner at Pei, Cobb, Freed and Partners - the firm started by I.M. Pei; you can read his bio here. While many obituaries called out the fact that he designed the Holocaust Museum in D.C. (here's a link to the museum), Freed designed a lot of recognizable city buildings: The Kips Bay Plaza housing, University Plaza Towers on Bleecker (also known as Silver Towers), 88 Pine Street in Wall Street, and the Jacob Javits Center. In fact, as noted in the Times obituary, the MoMA's Terrence Riley says that University Plaza and 88 Pine are "two of the most refined examples of modern design in all of Manhattan."
The Art Institute of Chicago has a transcript of Freed discussing architecture - 134 pages of transcript!
Photograph of University Plaza from Jake Dobkin; image of the Javits Center from Pei, Cobb, Freed
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University Plaza was the worst thing to happen to Lower Manhattan before Jamba Juice.
seriously, University Towers suck.
Washington Square Village is a good deal uglier than the Silver Towers. But at least it's not as tall. I'm not familiar with the history behind the construction of both - what was NYU razing back in the 60s?
thank god he is dead.
the worst generation af architects to walk the earth. their mark will continue to cause boredom, apathy, despair and emptiness for years to come.
University Plaza are probably my most hated buildings in new york. Sure, there are probably some worse buildings, but if you consider what the razed to raise those towers..ech. Not glad he did, but I sure wouldn't mind if all of his buildings did.