Fogg Art Museum Addition | 32 Quincy Street | Cambridge

Re: Fogg Art Museum Addition

Yesterday...it juts out into Broadway so weirdly:

9526830197_00cf063024_b.jpg


9526826211_ca0096cc8b_b.jpg


O hai fingers that are blocking the sun

9529607608_6bb52db053_b.jpg


9526816115_214d09a887_b.jpg


9526809307_a7e5e0debe_b.jpg


9526805495_579dfe79fb_b.jpg


I can't be the only one who thinks this is perfect as is...

9529589280_2b01e24c74_b.jpg


Le Corbusier's concrete meets Piano's granite:

9529585688_59fe27fff1_b.jpg


9526795091_249a346131_b.jpg


9529576900_037b21e6ea_b.jpg


9529572392_cf40c21208_b.jpg


9529569676_f9d9dbf439_b.jpg
 
Re: Fogg Art Museum Addition

kz, thanks for the pics.

Why do I think that Harvard building maintenance are going to dislike this building as much as I suspect MIT building maintenance dislikes Gehry's Stata?
 
Re: Fogg Art Museum Addition

That weird Jut out onto broadway is totally so that they can put banners advertising what ever show is going on in the museum. It will basically be a billboard.
 
Re: Fogg Art Museum Addition

stellarfun said:
What appears to be stone or concrete cladding are white cedar clapboards, each individually cut by a computer-guided saw.
Click to expand...
I thought they were ceramic or metal. Knowing now they are cedar makes me see this building in entirely different light. There's also a potential for some interesting weathering effects.
 
Re: Fogg Art Museum Addition

This thing looks weird sticking up like this, from a few blocks away it's kinda reminiscent of the snow capped stratovolcanoes in the northwest looming over the landscape. Doesn't feel appropriate for Harvard, even with all the other "noteworthy" avant garde architecture they have going on around there.

10105497793_1d51d56ac1_b.jpg
 
Re: Fogg Art Museum Addition

Coleslaw - I think it looks very London Shard-esque. Not sure if I like it, but I appreciate them doing something different with the roof.
 
Re: Fogg Art Museum Addition

Czervik.Construction said:
Coleslaw - I think it looks very London Shard-esque. Not sure if I like it, but I appreciate them doing something different with the roof.
Click to expand...

I was thinking it would look at home in london, i see the similarities.
 
Re: Fogg Art Museum Addition

It's pretty on its own, but like pixelsand said it really sticks way up and above anything around it. Definitely a bit of a sore thumb.
 
Re: Fogg Art Museum Addition

What is interesting about this roof is that the building is designed to be seen from two angles.

The angle down Broadway looking into Harvard square, the roof angles are distinctly contemporary, topping the clean wood box with sympathetic forms.

When you look at the building from the yard side. The glass roof angles conform with the roof form of the existing building.

The result of these two forms coming together is shown in the picture you took. Where the two thoughts collide. This can be seen in the last picture of kz1000ps last post.

I personally love this kind of elegant problem solving, and I very much enjoy the results.

cca

Full disclosure: I am a Renzo Piano disciple and will likely never think anything he or his workshop designs is anything other that finely crafted architecture.
 
Re: Fogg Art Museum Addition

I'm encouraged to hear that the cladding is wood. I thought it was metal. The weathering effect may warm up what is a very bland looking wall. That said, I'd be surprised if that effect makes the design feel cohesive.

I will admit I haven't seen the building in person since the roof was unveiled. In the photos, however, this looks like the worst type of facadectomy...the old building looks pasted onto the modern structure.
 
Re: Fogg Art Museum Addition

coleslaw said:
Am i the only one that thinks this is beautiful?
Click to expand...

To be honest, I love it. I know it's weird and blocky and doesn't fit the area, but I love that about it.
 
Re: Fogg Art Museum Addition

I think it all fits in nicely along with the buildings on this street...all of which are singular in design and in a perfect world aren't supposed to go together. The Carpenter Center next door has always deserved a larger lot on which to be seen, yet, squeezed in alongside of the Fogg and Sackler and the neo-Georgian buildings in the opposite direction, it makes for a wonderfully confused pastiche that has developed organically, unlike the Stada.
 
Re: Fogg Art Museum Addition

Padre Mike said:
I think it all fits in nicely along with the buildings on this street...all of which are singular in design and in a perfect world aren't supposed to go together. The Carpenter Center next door has always deserved a larger lot on which to be seen, yet, squeezed in alongside of the Fogg and Sackler and the neo-Georgian buildings in the opposite direction, it makes for a wonderfully confused pastiche that has developed organically, unlike the Stada.
Click to expand...

Exactly i like when neighborhoods are a jumble of styles, it is how the world is naturally. I realized what this (at least the roof) really reminds me of is the Louvre Pyramid, similar mix of modern and classical.
Louvre-Pyramid-02.jpg
 
Re: Fogg Art Museum Addition

Hah ... nice.

cca
 
Re: Fogg Art Museum Addition

I read a recent article wherein His Excellency the Cambridge Commissar of Historic Preservation or somesuch gushed how very proud he was that they had forced Piano to arrange the roof this way so nothing of the new could be seen from the front of the Fogg. It struck me as a prissy and too precious take on trying to negate the 21st century and the roof I think looks rather odd because of this arrangement. Overall though I like the techiness of the addition.
 
Re: Fogg Art Museum Addition

cca said:
Full disclosure: I am a Renzo Piano disciple and will likely never think anything he or his workshop designs is anything other that finely crafted architecture.
Click to expand...

Without meaning to be snide in the least, what is going on with the Gardner addition? What was he aiming for? I see nothing beautiful or interesting about it, but maybe I need to be educated.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top