Design: Follow-Up -- M.I.T. Sues Gehry Over Dysfunctional Form

Drunken mold covered leaky robot party

For the tens of you who enjoyed my form over function piece today brings a follow-up. Starchitect Frank Gehry who designed M.I.T.'s Stata Center the poster child for John Silber's book Architecture of the Absurd, is being sued by his client over mold, leaks, cracks and drainage problems. Predictably Gehry points the finger at the construction company and the construction company points right back at him.

Gehry described the building as being like a track off of Beck's Midnite Vultures album or -- in his actual words -- as what "...a party of drunken robots got together to celebrate.." would look like. Having been surrounded by a group of drunk robots in Tokyo, I can confirm that they also have drainage problems, and leak, though I was the one with the crack. As regards the lawsuit Gehry says simply: "I think the issues are fairly minor... M.I.T. is after our insurance.” Here's the New York Times article.

Design: Form Versus Function in Architecture

Gehry's busy Stata Center at MIT gets knocked down by Silber...

Slate has an interesting slideshow on architecture here. Writer Witold Rybczynski explores Boston University President John Silber's contention that too many starchitects focus on flashy forms over functional space in designing public buildings. Silber's book, Architecture of The Absurd comes out next month.


...While the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth by Tadao Ando is praised for its serenity...