Le Corbusier

BLDGBLOG's cri de coeur regarding architectural criticism pushes the theory that saying "Gee, the new Home Depot really sucks" isn't given the importance it deserves. Drop Le Corbusier from your vocabulary, and check out the new games from Electronic Arts if you want to engage ordinary Americans in the architectural game. Otherwise, you're going to have scant opposition to some truly crappy designs. -Matthew Grace  read more »

Last weekend, Sonnabend Gallery opened its doors to an exhibition of work by the architects Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret.

Organized by Galerie Patrick Seguin, the show traces their modernization project in India, which began shortly after independence.

Nehru wanted Le Corbusier to be "expressive, experimental and not to let himself be confined to tradition."

Did it work? Judge for yourself: The exhibition runs through March 18th.  read more »

- Michael Calderone

Yesterday, The Real Estate called attention to Christopher Caldwell's criticism of the architecture of Le Corbusier as being responsible for the Paris riots, in The Times magazine.

Today, Clay Risen responds to the blame-Le Corbusier-first crowd on the New Republic's website.

He concludes his defense with the following:

"The idea that architecture alone can cause--and solve--social problems is a mistake. Even Le Corbusier knew that."  read more »

-Michael Calderone

The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Austin, Nichols & Co. Warehouse at 184 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg a landmark yesterday. The building sits smack on the East River, making it a distinctive part of the Brooklyn skyline when viewed from Manhattan. The six-story building, built in 1915 and designed by Cass Gilbert, was used to process and package many types of food, from dried fruit and coffee to peanut butter for Sunbeam Foods.

According to the L.P.C. press release, buildings like this--with exposed concrete elevations sloping inward and crowned by flared cornices, it's an example of the Egyptian Revival style!--influenced Le Corbusier and his remarkable Radiant City designs (see Matthew Schuerman's article in The Observer this week for a discussion of Corbusier's influence in New York City; also, check out Michael Calderone's rundown on the Williamsburg real-estate scene).  read more »

It remains to be seen how this will influence developer Louis Kestenbaum's plan to convert the building into 240 luxe condos. The L.P.C.'s designation will wreck havoc on his plans (by architect Karl Fischer, who's all over Billyburg) to enlarge the building's windows, add four additional floors, and insert a 80-by-20-foot open-air courtyard in the center of the 500,000-square-foot building, all by 2008 (we'll see about that).

- Matthew Grace

The Phaidon Atlas of Contemporary World Architecture. Phaidon Press, 824 pages, $160.  read more »