DAISY AMES

paul goldberger claims that  jean nouvel’s new building on the west side highway “hits you with razzle-dazzle but also backs it up by getting you to think about architecture in a more serious way.” yet, i do not find much that is serious or profound about 1100 eleventh avenue, nor was i enlightened about an intellectual approach to design. i live in close proximity, and witnessed the construction of the classic condominium floor plan, and then the slow application of the window scheme - only proving to be merely a sparkly wrapping paper of sorts. an apparent fascination of nouvel’s was to “blur the boundary between inside and outside” through the use of facade (and texture). actually, this is much more so the case in meier’s perry and charles street (ie. transparency - both literal and phenomenal) which goldberger seems to critique as notions of the past. i suppose he is implying that the past is bad, or passé, as they say en française…

ps. “randomly assembling” windows does not mean that architecture was thought about in a more serious way. randomness, particularly in architecture, is one succumbing to mental conquest.