The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Reviews: 15 Penn Plaza and the Venice Architecture Biennale

Two follow-ups and reviews for the price of one post (that reminds us: why haven't you been sending us $2.50 for every post you read? Get on that). First, following all the protest against the new 15 Penn Plaza building, the inevitable happened and the city has okayed the project. If it does get built (remember, we're still in a recession), it will alter New York's skyline, blocking out a portion of the Empire State Building from certain angles. Though we can see the anti- crowd's point, our favorite quote about the debate has come from Mayor Bloomberg, who answered criticism after the plans were approved, in particular from the owner of the Empire State, by saying, "One guy owns a building. He'd like to have it be the only tall building. I'm sorry, that's not the real world. Nor should it be." In another response to 15 Penn, New York's Justin Davidson filed this piece saying the focus should be less about how the new building will be obstructive than how Pelli Clarke Pelli's design for it isn't much to look at, nor are any of the other big towers going up in Manhattan alongside it. That, he feels, is the larger issue at hand. On a more positive note, we turn to the ongoing Venice Architecture Biennale. For those of you not traipsing through the streets, using the handy iPhone app the event made available, the Guardian's Justin McGuirk has written up this great review and recap. In it, he says this year's curator, the recent Pritzker-winning architect Kazuyo Sejima, has figured out how to breathe life into a Biennale that has always suffered by not being able to show off the one thing it's about: real buildings. Instead, she's tried to make the exhibits more personal and personable, encouraging participants to use what Venice has at their disposal. While McGuirk asks at one point, "Captivating moments, but are they architecture?" the review is uniformly positive and sometimes gushing: "The beauty of this year's biennale is that it puts the human experience back at the heart of architecture. Inspiring places are full of spatial and sensory drama. And so are inspiring exhibitions."

Fishbowl

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Reviews: 15 Penn Plaza and the Venice Architecture Biennale

Steve Delahoyde

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Steve Delahoyde