20 FRONT ARCHITECT THE AIA MAGAZINE MARCH <strong>2014</strong> WWW.ARCHITECTMAGAZINE.COM Is the MoMA Sculpture Garden Doomed? LEADERS OF THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART PLAN TO MAKE THE MUSEUM’S BELOVED SCULPTURE GARDEN OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. THEY NEED TO THINK IT OVER. THE DEBATE OVER MoMA’S GARDEN RAISES BIGGER ISSUES THAT DESIGN PROFESSIONALS, STEWARDS, AND ADVOCATES MUST ADDRESS, PARTICULARLY WITH THE RENAISSANCE OF THE URBAN CORE. THERE’S PLENTY OF NEW FUEL for the perennial sport of Museum of Modern Art–bashing, as the museum pursues a controversial expansion plan. Will the architecture firm of Diller Scofidio + Renfro be able to raze the MoMA-owned and widely acclaimed former American Folk Art Museum building, designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien <strong>Architect</strong>s, to accommodate an expansion of the critically derided MoMA building designed by Yoshio Taniguchi, Hon. FAIA? Commentary is flying. Panels have been empaneled. The issue has attracted many players into a preservation debate that is still heating up: Elizabeth Diller survived one auto-dafé already. The media are hyping the feud as personal because of the potential for a Grand Guignol starring two of architecture’s first couples. Setting aside such dishy digressions, it’s encouraging to see this vigorous debate about an existential threat to recent work by celebrated practitioners. But where was the public discourse when Martha Schwartz’s award-winning design for the Jacob Javits Plaza was replaced last year by Michael Van Valkenburgh’s work? Schwartz’s design at 15 was barely older than the Folk Art Museum building being razed by MoMA. Is it different for building architecture than landscape architecture? Maybe the Javits situation needed a get-out-ofjail-free card, which is what MoMA officials hope they have in offering some form of increased public access to their famed Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden, designed by Philip Johnson in 1953. Well, not so fast. A recent article in The New York Times quoted six landscape architects, including James Corner, Ken Smith, Michael Van Valkenburgh, and Laurie Olin, Hon. AIA (which may be a record for the number of landscape architects quoted in a Times article). Opinions differ. Smith said: “It’s a good idea.” Olin is skeptical: “They’re using [a promise of increased access] to pacify people about something else that has people upset, and in the course of it, they’re watering down what was special.” If MoMA throws open its garden, what could happen? How do stewards of cultural landscapes, whether an individual site (like the garden), a larger site (like New York’s High Line), or a much, much larger site (like the city of Savannah, Ga.) manage the visitor experience, which ranges from restorative contemplation to active stimulation? Savannah, whose population is under 150,000, had more than 12 million tourists in 2012 (up from 7 million in 2006). The High Line’s 2013 visitation was 4.8 million people, 50 percent of them residents, up from 3.7 million visits in 2011 and double the 2010 figure. Balancing the needs of tourists and residents is difficult work. “Our challenge is to figure out how to sustain the park as a special place for New Yorkers, and we are actively working toward this goal,” wrote one Friends of the High Line blogger in 2012. “We are exploring ways to make it easier for → TIMOTHY HURSLEY
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