An Open Letter to Frank Gehry

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“What’s wrong with the buildings Frank Gehry wants to put in my neighborhood?” asks Jonathan Lethem, a writer who lives in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.

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  • Lindsay Bacurin

    Context??
    Well I’ll overlook the fact that Gehry’s gimmicky buildings all look the same. Assuming that your neighborhood is not composed of other metal, free-form buildings, then Gehry’s building will stick out like a sore thumb. His designs leave no room for context, so this building will be the main event on the block instead of forming part of a cohesive neighborhood. If this building is part of a revitalization plan, even worse! It will draw attention, but will not respond to the unique needs of the neighborhood and will not create a true thriving community.

  • Jon Linton

    Needs versus Architecture
    Mr./Ms. Bacarun’s simplistic overreaction shows a lack of appreciation for Gehry Partners’ work on an urbanistic level. Both the Bilbao Guggenheim and the Disney Concert Hall, to cite two examples, effectively deal with complex urban conditions to create compelling places for people to engage these sites. While I’ll concede that these projects are visually distinctive, they display deeply considered responses to their respective contexts.

    If one believes that highly traditional-looking contextualism is the appropriate response in a complex contemporary condition, then it follows that one will be predisposed to disliking more visually challenging work.

    I’m not very familiar with the project proposed for Brooklyn, but issues of scale, land use, circulation, and open space will be more important than whether builings are free-form or metal-clad. When we clearly define the “unique needs of the neighborhood” we can address community vitality, etc., instead of reacting on a substantially visual level.

  • Ethan Kent

    Gehry Does Not Do Context.
    Frank Gehry has actaully been quoted saying “I don’t do context.” The two buildings mentioned in the above comment are two of the strongest examples of buildings that do not work in an urban evironment and go beyond respecting their context to effectively shun their surroundings. See my description of teh Guggenheim Bilbao: http://www.pps.org/great_public_spaces/one?public_place_id=827 It is this point that would be my greatest concern for the Atlantic Yards project and my greatest concern with an “elite” of the architecture profession that seems to glorify an antogonistic relationship with the communities and urban fabric it is meant to serve.