Results tagged “artdesign”

In a stunning, yet not all that surprising, move that speaks volumes of about dwindling city funding, the NY Times reports that the New York Public Library hopes to raise millions by selling some of its artwork. Sotheby's will be handling the sale, which is expected to bring in $50-75 million, with Asher B. Durand's Hudson River School painting, Kindred Spirits, and two Gilbert Stuart portraits of George Washington in the lot. The main goal is for the NYPL to "better compete" when acquiring books and to add to its endowment. The NYPL would like the paintings to be sold to a public institution, with "preferential payment terms" given to NY institutions interested in the artwork (calling Philippe de Montebello!). Gothamist wonders if people will complain that would be unfair and sue the NYPL for fixing the auction.

Los Angeles architect Thom Mayne has been awarded the Pritzker Prize, the highest honor in the field of architecture. Gothamist guesses that the awesome design for the Caltrans District 7 building in downtown L.A. tipped it in his favor this year (here's a profile of the building, see some work in progress photos here), but he's had a very storied career. As for Mayne's NYC projects, with his firm Morphosis, Mayne has designed the new building at Cooper Union (above) and submitted a proposal for an Olympic Village for NYC's 2012 Olympic bid (below. Here's the NY Times story about his win, the first by an American in 14 years (Robert Venturi in 1991).

The MoMA on the new MoMA. The MoMA will has an exhibition of Taniguchi's museum designs through January 2005. Taniguchi's bio from the MoMA. greg.org on what the ticket hikes mean for the MoMA and NYC. The New Yorker's Paul Goldberger writes that the renovation is elegant while John Updike walks through the museum. New York magazine on the making of the new MoMA.

Jessica Lappin, City Council Candidate

After last week's post about the Parks Commission trying to figure out what to do with the 1964 World's Expo Towers, a reader sent us some photographs of the towers and the old Tent of Tomorrow (above and below), taken by sneaking onto the grounds - anything for a photograph. Gothamist finds something really cool in how decrepit the towers and tent look, because they look like this strange thing from 40 years ago, but this past Saturday, the NY Times revealed that architect Philip Johnson who designed the towers "once said that he cringed every time he passed the crumbling pavilion on the way to the airport." The Times says architecture firm, Caples Jefferson, is working on the addition for the Queens Theatre in the Park that will supposedly recall the "va-voom architecture" of the Johnson structures and has conducted "obsessive" studies to make sure the old buildings don't topple.